Margaret Chardiet aka Pharmakon was born and raised in New York City She has been making power electronics/death industrial music under the name Pharmakon for five years. As a founding member of the Red Light District collective in Far Rockaway, NY she has been a figurehead in the underground experimental scene since the age of seventeen. She points out that the environment there amongst so many other experimental artists (amongst them Yellow Tears & Haflings) inspired her to keep making increasingly challenging work. She describes her drive to make noise music as something akin to an exorcism where she is able to express, her “deep-seated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them FEEL something in uncomfortable/confrontational ways.

Felix Kubin, messenger of exploding lungs, lives and works against gravitation. At the age of 12 he started composing electronic 4-track music. His activities comprise futurist pop, electroacoustic and chamber orchestra music, radio plays, lectures, workshops and his label Gagarin Records. He has been involved with the noise project Klangkrieg, the communist singing group Liedertafel Margot Honecker and the tetchy teenage bands Die Egozentrischen 2 and x2. Recently, he works a lot with the ensemble Integrales.

www.felixkubin.com

Supersonic Ltd Edt. will launch Capsule’s inaugural Labs, an artist development and commissioning scheme devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art.

MortonUnderwood will host an If Wet  salon event to introduce a selection of artists that create ‘extraordinary objects’.  This will be the first commissioning opportunity as part of Capsule’s Labs and provide a creative exploration. Confirmed participating artists will include:

Ryan Jordan conducts experiments in derelict electronics, possession trance, retro-death-telegraphy and hylozoistic neural computation. He builds crude instruments that replicate fundamental electronic components which are the foundation of current digital technologies. Performing these live alongside high powered stroboscopic light he attempts to induce the hallucinatory and trance like states of the (oc)cult arts.

In this presentation/performance he will demonstrate his self constructed hardware built with raw minerals and metals and then spiral sideways into theories of cybernetics, neuroscience, art, music and physiology in an attempt to piece together our fragmentary daemons and split the nine-fold reality layers of human perception; from communing with the dead to disturbing the holographic brain; from trance states to opening flicker portals in optic nerve fibres; these practitioners practice dark hypnosis in psychoactive hyperventilation clubs.

http://nnnnn.org.uk/

Sarah Kenchington

Sarah Kenchington builds her mechanical instruments from discarded materials. Bicycle spokes, typewriters, the inner tubes of tractor tyres are combined to create unique musical machines which emit a discordant array of moans, squeaks and chimes. Kenchington’s work offers a contemporary manifestation of a long history of the artist giving birth to machines (from Leonardo da Vinci, through to Heath Robinson, Tinguely and Michael Landy), yet Kenchington’s machines are anything but automata, remaining fundamentally dependent on an interaction with the human to come to life.

Kenchington relishes the unpredictable nature of her instruments, a quality which means that despite being author of both instrument and the music it emits, she is never entirely in control of what happens. Her performances evolve in conversation with or in response to the machine, a process which for Kenchington is akin to playing an improvised duet with another musician.

watch video

Some say Rock N Roll will never reach the same primitive raw vein hit of Bo Diddley at his more subhuman lurch or no unit can ever scramble the marbles left of what brain boiling suburban electronic punk outsiders did in the mid 70’s: Whatever you think, there is no denying the homemade nuclear war Wolf Eyes has left on music. Wolf Eyes was birthed in the shadows by a few likeminded individuals: Nate Young, Aaron Dilloway and John Olson in the late 90’s in Michigan. However, Wolf Eyes has become more than band, but a collective mutant ensemble, an art abstraction unit: musicians, print makers, photographers and more, all who share a primal shadowy vision of decoding the wilderness into the soul of humanoid from the deep audio arsenals.

http://www.wolfeyes.net/

Jenny Hval has in recent years made a name for herself as an artist, musician and writer both in Norway and abroad. When her third record Viscerawas released in 2011, WIRE magazine described the record as: “a stunning achievement both conceptually and musically.”

Multidisciplinary and transgressive are words often employed to describe her art, but Jenny Hval’s polyphonic artistry is in fact seamlessly interwoven between musical, literary, visual and performative modes of expression. Despite her young age, she has already infused, carved and modulated an artistic voice that is altogether present, accessible and obscurely complex at the same time.

http://jennyhval.com/

Photo by Tracey Moberley

Legendary musician and artist Bill Drummond will begin a twelve year ‘World Tour’ under Spaghetti Junction marking this momentous event with an exhibition at Eastside Projects.
The exhibition focuses on ‘The 25 Paintings’, a series of artworks that signpost actions Drummond will perform across Birmingham during his three month stay in the city including, but by no means limited to, giving away bunches of daffodils, discovering Dead Oak Rings, building rafts, hiding in cafes, making beds, sweeping the streets clean and brewing tea. Also on show will be The SIXTY Posters, The 25 Sixty Second Films, an evolving selection of photographs, a globe of the world and a large map of the city.
www.eastsideprojects.org

If Wet is a monthly event of sonic exploration, held in a rural Worcestershire village hall; chaired by musical instrument designers David Morton and Sam Underwood (Ore, Glatze) who together form MortonUnderwood. Part show and tell, part test bed, part salon. A place for artists to showcase their latest sonic works and research. A place for you to revel and discuss.

After a successful inaugural season MortonUnderwood have decided to extend the reach of If Wet beyond the village hall and it is with great pleasure that they will transport their distinctive event to Supersonic 2014.

They will host a salon event to introduce a selection of artists that create ‘extraordinary objects’.  This will be the first commissioning opportunity as part of Capsule’s Labs and provide a creative exploration. Confirmed participating artists will include:

Ryan Jordan

Ryan Jordan conducts experiments in derelict electronics, possession trance, retro-death-telegraphy and hylozoistic neural computation. He builds crude instruments that replicate fundamental electronic components which are the foundation of current digital technologies. Performing these live alongside high powered stroboscopic light he attempts to induce the hallucinatory and trance like states of the (oc)cult arts.

In this presentation/performance he will demonstrate his self constructed hardware built with raw minerals and metals and then spiral sideways into theories of cybernetics, neuroscience, art, music and physiology in an attempt to piece together our fragmentary daemons and split the nine-fold reality layers of human perception; from communing with the dead to disturbing the holographic brain; from trance states to opening flicker portals in optic nerve fibres; these practitioners practice dark hypnosis in psychoactive hyperventilation clubs.

http://nnnnn.org.uk/

Sarah Kenchington

Sarah Kenchington builds her mechanical instruments from discarded materials. Bicycle spokes, typewriters, the inner tubes of tractor tyres are combined to create unique musical machines which emit a discordant array of moans, squeaks and chimes. Kenchington’s work offers a contemporary manifestation of a long history of the artist giving birth to machines (from Leonardo da Vinci, through to Heath Robinson, Tinguely and Michael Landy), yet Kenchington’s machines are anything but automata, remaining fundamentally dependent on an interaction with the human to come to life. Kenchington relishes the unpredictable nature of her instruments, a quality which means that despite being author of both instrument and the music it emits, she is never entirely in control of what happens. Her performances evolve in conversation with or in response to the machine, a process which for Kenchington is akin to playing an improvised duet with another musician.

watch video

We warmly welcome a rising talent to this rich mix in the form of Basic House, the work of the UK’s Stephen Bishop, the man behind the ever more impressive label that is Opal Tapes and also vocalist of Drunk In Hell who played an unforgettable set at Supersonic in 2012. His textural and rhythmic explorations are fast growing in acclaim, described as “somewhere between Kassem Mosse, The New Blockaders and Zoviet*France.”

https://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/

Sleaford Mods don’t sound like anything else. Sleaford Mods are the realest band out there right now. Sleaford Mods ARE right now. And if you think “Mod” is just about dressing up like “page 7 Weller” and boring on about Small Faces all day and night on yer reissue 60s Vespa, then don’t bother mate. If you don’t “get” Sleaford Mods you are one of them, “the enemy”. Seriously the best music/act to come out of this spoilt, over-saturated musical farmyard we call the UK since the Pistols. Yep, that’s right.
“Sleaford Mods rule” – Kim Gordon

www.sleafordmods.bandcamp.com

Large Electric Ensemble is Ex-Easter Island Head’s first piece for massed prepared guitars and drums.

Utilising third bridge preparations (inserting metal rods beneath the guitar strings) and a range of alternate tunings across the ensemble, the piece combines propulsive, rhythmic minimalism with chorusing attacks of massed harmonics.
The ensemble adopt a new vocabulary of playing based around various guitar preparations, from billowing harp-like arpeggios to ‘bowing’ the strings with allen keys to produce luminous upper register drones. Scored in custom notation the piece places free flowing passages alongside conductor cues, allowing the players to collectively create a distinctive sonic landscape.

http://www.exeasterislandhead.com/

Violinist Agathe Max trained in classical music for 10 years before being exposed to improvised music and to the experimental scene. Inspired by a world both enchanting and draped in darkness, she has developed a wide range of sound textures, unique and melodious, creating unconventional and magnetic musical pieces reflecting a personality in constant search of rareness in music.

http://www.agathemaxmusic.com/

Michael Gira, Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica are no strangers to Supersonic Festival, and are thrilled to play host to their infamous, dominant and strikingly powerful live show.

Swans infamous and powerful live show was described by the New York Times as “an act of generosity”, by Time Magazine as “a force that jolts you into focus ” while Spin.com asked “Are Swans the best live band in the world right now?” and it was on this recent 2012/2013 tour, Gira explains, that “a good portion of the material for this album was developed live”.
http://younggodrecords.com/artists/10-artists/32-swans

Matmos is M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, aided and abetted by many others.

Currently based in Baltimore, the duo formed in San Francisco in the mid 1990s, and self-released their debut album in 1997. Marrying the conceptual tactics and noisy textures of object-based musique concrete to a rhythmic matrix rooted in electronic pop music, the two quickly became known for their highly unusual sound sources: amplified crayfish nerve tissue, the pages of bibles turning, water hitting copper plates, liposuction surgery etc.

Since their debut, Matmos have released over eight albums and in 2001 they were asked to collaborate with the Icelandic singer Bjork on her “Vespertine” album, and subsequently embarked on two world tours as part of her band. Most recently, they have been part of the ensemble for the Robert Wilson production “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic”, featuring Marina Abramovic, Antony and Willem Dafoe.
http://vague-terrain.com/

For the past 4 years Birmingham based filmmakers, and music lovers HTF Media have been documenting the festival, from live performances to interviews with artists such as Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, Godflesh and William Bennett. Here’s a selection of some of the Supersonic highlights captured on film. A lovely opportunity to relive previous editions of the festival and get you hyped for the rest of the weekend.

http://htf-media.blogspot.co.uk/

A collection of music shorts from the mighty Drag City label.

Among the bands that have released material on Drag City are Cave, Joanna Newsom, Pavement,[1] Royal Trux, Cynthia Dall, Faun Fables, Scott Walker, Bill Callahan, Will Oldham , Jim O’Rourke, Six Organs of Admittance, Loose Fur, Scout Niblett, David Grubbs, U.S. Maple, Alasdair Roberts, Papa M, Pearls and Brass, White Magic, The Renderers, Espers, Silver Jews, Monotonix, Nig-Heist, Michael Yonkers, The Red Krayola, Om, Sun Araw, Baby Dee and William Basinski.
http://www.dragcity.com/

Birthday thumps, bumps, pinches, etc., were said to bring luck and send away evil spirits. Party snappers, horns and other noisemakers were also intended to scare off bad-luck spirits.

Bunny Bissoux

Artist,illustrator and “obsessive fanatic”.  Recurring themes include music, teenage angst, animals and idols. Previous collaborations with Capsule include a solo exhibition at Supersonic 2009, the official t-shirt design for Supersonic 2010 and the creation of the ‘Home of Metal’ project family tree.

bunnybissouxart.com

Daniel Margetts

A Worcester based illustrator, who would like to welcome you into his world of worm-infested lands. He is inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, 80’s prosthetic horror films, lowbrow art, Alejandro Jodorowsky, J.G Thirlwell and Roky Erickson.

behance.net/margetts

Idiot’s Pasture

A “strictly lowbrow” illustrator, printmaker, drawer and youth worker from Halifax (everybody’s favourtie industrial town). Idiot is a proud conveyor of nonsense and failed his art GCSE due to missing out the letter “R” on a Jimi Hendrix poster.

idiotspasture.co.uk

Joe Stephen Taylor

Deep down in the depths of the jungle they call Birmingham, Joe Stephen Taylor AKA LumberJackJoe planted his roots into studying illustration Let Joe lure you into the dark forest of his limitless imagination. You never know what quirky creatures you will encounter.
lumberjackjoe.com

Sam Wiehl

Having co-run Burneverything art and design studio Sam continues to work as an illustrator, designer and artist. Part of the music/art collectives Behind The Wall of Sleep and The Hive Collective, Sam also regularly creates light shows for the band Mugstar.

samwiehl.co.uk

William Daw

Illustrator creating prints, gig posters, comics and zines as well as doing drawings and designing stuff and coming up with stupid jokes all day.
willdaw.com

Short film specialists KINO 10 join us at this year’s festival with a specially curated programme of short films, exploring bizarre rituals, strange traditions, mythical beasts, peculiar creatures and fantastical folk tales. Highlights include the magical Oh Willy… in which Willy, a middle-aged man grieves for his late mother, but finds protection from a big gentle hairy beast, and The Last Norwegian Troll which tells the animated story of just that, the very last Troll of Norway, voiced by everyone’s favourite Jesuit exorcist Father, Max von Sydow. There’s also some gems from the archive with a selection of shorts from as early as 1927 which look at Britain’s eccentric rural traditions and rituals, with footage of children playing with burning barrels in East Devon, Dwile Flonking in Harleston, and some amazing pictures from Stonehaven’s New Year Fireball Festival in 1965.

http://www.kino10.com/

Ahead of the release of his new ‘Trip or Squeek’ publication, Edwin Pouncey aka Savage Pencil will make a guest appearance at the festival, in conversation with Frances Morgan of The Wire and Strange Attractor.

Savage Pencil’s Trip or Squeek strips have been appearing in music magazine The Wire since 2002.

Acerbic, lysergic and razor sharp observations on music, art and life, Trip or Squeek continues a tradition of satirical illustration dating back to the 18th century, albeit one that has been dosed up via the ’60s freak scene, Japanese monster movies and the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft. Musical guest stars appearing in the book include: Steve Reich, Stockhausen, Moondog, Mark E Smith, Sonic Youth, Robert Wyatt, Suicide, Kraftwerk, Crass, Lou Reed, Jandek, Throbbing Gristle, Sleep and many more. Containing over 100 comic strips, collected together for the first time, the book features extensive notes, a discography and never-before-seen preparatory sketches by Savage Pencil, and an illustrated foreword by artist Gary Panter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Savage Pencil  has been writing and illustrating for music newspapers and magazines for almost four decades. His artwork has also appeared on album covers, posters and T shirts for bands including Sonic Youth, The Fall, Sunn 0))) and numerous others.

http://strangeattractor.co.uk/books/trip-or-squeek/

http://www.savagepencil.com/

Friday 19 October, 7–8.30pm
Featuring Arc Vel, Papa November, Them Use Them and The Plague Doctor.

First Fold records artists will perform a spectacular audio visual response to Necrospective, an exhibition exploring theories in relation to violence and acting out, the suppression of our fear of morality and how that embodies itself in technological man-made structures.

Using the exhibition as a backdrop, artists Arc Vel, Papa November, Them Use Them,  The Plague Doctor and more tbc, will create their own layer of sound and vision in this pre-Supersonic Festival event.

First Fold is an independent record label and publishing company managed and funded by the individuals involved in developing the first fold product. First Fold’s focus is to maintain a self regulating and enthusiastic approach to the creation of music and visual media and aims to encourage a dialogue that constantly challenges the people involved to generate exciting and relevant work.
www.firstfoldrecords.com

Grand Union
19 Minerva Works
Fazeley Street
Birmingham
B5 5RS

Open 22 September to 27 October, Thursday to Saturday, 12-5pm.

Featuring work by Craig Fisher, Thomas Johnson, Alexis Milne, Takeshi Murata and Motohiko Odani. Necrospective is a group exhibition exploring theories in relation to violence and acting out, the suppression of our fear of mortality and how that embodies itself in technological man-made structures.
Curator Thomas Johnson examines the relationship between Baudrillard’s notion that science and technology produce objects and experiences that embody the death drive, and Freud’s notion that the death drive leads people to re-enact and repeat traumatic experiences. This relationship can be realised by viewing technology as a form of performance or acting.
The works in the exhibition envision a sanitised invention of the world; a technologically mediated environment, in which mucky nature has been eradicated. This environment is presented as one in which the death drive is satisfied, where violence and the abject have been displaced through a technological, man-made infrastructure.

Grand Union
19 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5RS

http://www.grand-union.org.uk

Curated by Maria Lind and amended by Eastside Projects

6 October to 1 December 2012

José Léon Cerrillo, Zachary Formwalt, Goldin+Senneby, Wade Guyton, Yelena Popova, Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman

Why abstraction today? While no prominent neoabstract movement has been heralded since the 1960s, abstraction has remained present but ‘out of sight’ and could be seen as redundant as an artistic tool. Since the late 1990s there has been a palpable interest in abstraction, particularly among younger artists and other cultural producers who both reinterpret the legacy of formal abstraction and shape performative, social versions of abstraction with regard to its meaning — to withdraw.

‘Abstract Possible: The Birmingham Beat’ is the latest iteration in a research project exploring notions of abstraction, taking contemporary art as its starting point. The artworks in this exhibition involve and complicate the three strands of abstraction: formal abstraction, economic abstraction and social abstraction, with an emphasis on economic abstraction. This is the first main gallery exhibition at Eastside Projects to be curated by an external curator, Stockholm based Maria Lind, who has invited an array of international artists to exhibit.

‘Abstract Possible: The Birmingham Beat’ suggests that we pay attention to and reconsider certain crucial aspects of the phenomenon of abstraction as it pertains to its intriguing resurgence in contemporary art.

Eastside Projects
86 Heath Mill Lane
Birmingham B9 4AR

www.eastsideprojects.org

Noise Box designed by Simon Fowler

To celebrate 10 years of Supersonic Festival, musical instrument designers MortonUnderwood have created ten unique noise box synths as a gift for Capsule. Each one is hand-painted by a talented designer in the Supersonic 2012 colours. The result is a beautiful set of bespoke synthesisers which capture both the visual and sonic aesthetic of the festival.

Contributing artists:

An Endless Supply

Ben Javens

Ben Sadler

Conny Prantera

David Hand

Richard Sayer

Sarah Coleman

Simon Fowler

Stephen O’Malley

Tom Hughes

MortonUnderwood will be bringing  more boxes and merchandise along to the Supersonic stand in the Market Place. Come and try them out or just pop along to meet Sam and David.

www.mortonunderwood.co.uk

Friday 19 October

Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Fine Art Building, Birmingham, B3 3BX

1.30pm – 6.00pm As part of the Art Of Listening extended panel

Hosted by Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
This event is supported by Birmingham City University.

New Music Plus… – making the case for cross artform collaboration

Check out the programme for most galleries, museums, film or art festivals, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a musical vein running across their programmes. As Supersonic celebrates its 10th anniversary, we’ve joined forces with New Music Plus… to put together a panel featuring: Jo Beggs, Head of Development for the Manchester Partnership Museums, Will Dutta, Chimera Productions, Andrew Ellis of Samizdat and Lisa Meyer, Co-director of Capsule/Supersonic Festival and chaired by Julia Payne. As the people behind some of the most exciting music-led inter-disciplinary work in the country, our panellists will talk about why this work is important to them, and about how they make it work – artistically and financially.

Will Dutta is a producer, composer and pianist, and director of Chimera Productions, whose work connects the dots between modern dance music and contemporary and experimental art music. Will has worked as a producer with a range of organisations, including Tate Britain, the British Film Institute, De La Warr Pavilion and the National Portrait Gallery.

Jo Beggs is Head of Development for the Manchester Partnership Museums (Manchester Arts Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum and the Gallery of Costume). Jo led on the Whitworth Art Gallery’s involvement as a production partner in new Music Plus… North West, and will be talking about the Partnership’s commitment to including music in its programmes.

Andrew Ellis, a.k.a. Samizdat, has acted as a conduit for new and interesting music in Liverpool for the past five years. Andrews most recent project was working in collaboration with Liverpool Biennial to produce A Crimson Grail for 100 guitars and 8 basses at Liverpool Cathedral

Lisa Meyer is the creative director of Capsule, crafting extraordinary events for adventurous audiences, identifying some of the otherwise indescribable connections between contemporary music, performance and art. Capsule has gained a reputation as a dynamic arts producer with a unique vision and strong track record for delivering highly ambitious projects, which include Supersonic Festival, this year celebrating it’s 10^th birthday. Home of Metal, a groundbreaking heritage project, which celebrates Birmingham and the Black Country as the birthplace of Heavy Metal through a series of large-scale exhibitions, events and archive. Capsule has just been appointed as the festival producer for the new Library of Birmingham, due to open in September 2013, it will be the biggest public library in Europe.

 Julia Payne is director of the hub, a music development organisation that produces its own work and also provides consultancy, research and training services (www.thehubuk.com). She produced her first music events in 1993, and has project managed New Music Plus… since 2009.

New Music Plus…is a creative and professional development programme created by PRS for Music Foundation and run in partnership with the hub to enable non-music and cross-art form organisations to co-produce dynamic live music events with hand-picked music events producers.

Tickets are FREE to weekend ticket holders (places are limited and booking in advance is essential via [email protected] with ‘LISTENING’ in the title) or £10 https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Denise O’Sullivan ceramics will be bringing a fun selection of vintage pottery at £5 per item, to the festival for you to dip into and create your own personal piece that you can take away and use at home.
Denise will also be exhibiting and selling a selection of her finest ceramic works and adorning the teahouse with her skull creations.
www.deniseosullivanceramics.com