We are delighted to reveal ten more artists have been added to the special 15th year anniversary line up. The latest additions include; Anna Von Hausswolff, Mono, Yob, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Faten Kanaan, Dalek,, CZN, Big Joanie, Prison Religion and AJA.
Already announced are headliners Neurosis supported by Godflesh who are opening the festivities with a very special concert at Town Hall Birmingham. Elsewhere across the weekend, and over at the main festival site in the cultural hub of Digbeth are; The Bug Feat. Moor Mother, The Body, Hen Ogledd and Jerusalem In My Heart.
Anna von Hausswolff returns to the Supersonic stage once more after stunning the crowd in Birmingham’s Town Hall in 2017. Since then, Anna has gone on to release her fourth album Dead Magic met with much critical acclaim. Her music defies categorisation, it is not about gothic rock, pop, drone, dark music or metal, this is music of the spirit and the blood; the feast and the ritual; the baptism and the epitaph; life and its absence in all its poetics; a communion in which one dies and returns to life many times.
We welcome back to the festival Big Joanie who have described themselves as being “Similar to The Ronettes filtered through ’80s DIY, and Riot Grrrl, with a sprinkling of dashikis”, New Jersey hip hop act Dälek who have a penchant for monolithic sound arrangements as well as dream-like haze of sheer volume, they combine both the powers of sound and words with a singular and undisputable style, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, the Newcastle-based maximalists whose riffs, raw power and rancour have blazed a trail across the darker quarters of the underground in the last five years. We just couldn’t celebrate our 15th edition without these fellas helping to bring the party vibes and comedy banter.
CZN an exciting new collaborative project by percussionist and sculptor Joao Pais Filipe and Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Vanishing Twin, uuuu). The duo create rich tapestries of hypnotic rhythms, evolving the sound of drums and percussion into vivid textures: visceral timbres and telescoping rhythms that surround and beguile, and which hint at the meditative states of spiritual jazz as much as the cerebral counterpoint of Minimalist Composition.
Faten Kanaan is a NY based artist. Her performances slowly build songs by live-looping them, without the use of sequencers or arpeggiators. Inspired by cinematic forms: from sweeping landscapes and quiet character studies, to the patterned tension of horror film soundtracks; she focuses on bringing a visceral touch to electronic music.
MONO who, across 10 albums in 20 years have convincingly reflected the quietest and most chaotic parts of life through their music. Their ever-expanding instrumental palette – which began in earnest in 1999 with the traditional guitar-bass-drums rock band setup and has evolved to include as many as 30 orchestral instruments.
PRISON RELIGION is the collaborative project of Richmond-based audio/visual artists Poozy and False Prpht. They draw on slivered, staticky forms of electronic music – industrial, noise, techno, and the sort of glass-shattering bass-heavy stuff that people have come to call deconstructed club music.
During Supersonic Festival, patrons are encouraged to explore the various Home Of Metal exhibitions curated and produced by Capsule the people behind Supersonic Festival. This will include ‘Black Sabbath 50 Years’ at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, as well as related exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall, MAC (Midlands Art Centre) Eastside Projects, and Centrala. This huge season of exhibitions and events throughout 2019 pays homage to Black Sabbath – the forefathers of metal, and should at last confirm Birmingham’s place on the music map.
