We have partnered with Staying Cool at the Rotunda to run a very special competition for two lucky people who will win 2 x Supersonic Festival Weekend Tickets and accommodation for the weekend at Staying Cool Rotunda.

To enter this free competition, head over to our facebook or instagram and tag the person you will bring with you if you’re our lucky winner, tell us why you love Supersonic Festival and what you’re looking forward to the most. Not sure who you’re most excited for? Find the full line up here!

Competition closes midday Friday 10 June 2022 – the winning entry will be drawn randomly and announced ahead of the festival.

Staying Cool is a design-led boutique serviced apartment operator in Birmingham.

Staying Cool opened atop the Rotunda (a Grade II listed building) in Birmingham in 2008. The 35 apartments are stylishly designed and range from studios to 2-bed penthouses. The collections larger apartments represent the only 5* (Visit England assessed) accommodation in the city a decade after opening.

Since launch Staying Cool’s mission has been to offer guests chic serviced apartments that combine all the style of a boutique hotel with the space

The business has a strong ethical streak with a focus on working with other local independent companies.

Our studio apartment is named after the famous British car built at Longbridge in its sixties heyday. The Mini gives you 370 square feet of city-centre living to enjoy. Floor-to-ceiling windows that open to deliver the perfect city vista while bespoke interiors bring the wow factor inside. All of our studio apartments are on levels 16-19 so great views are guaranteed. If you have a preferred view then let us know when you check-in and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

Each apartment has a fully-equipped kitchen, dining area and lounge area as well as the bedroom which is separated from the living areas by a low divider. The bathroom has a rainfall shower. Fluffy towels and bathrobes come as standard. You’ll find complimentary oranges for the juicer and Fairtrade teas as well as locally ground coffee.

We have a special code “SS22” giving 10% off for bookings from Thursday 7th to Monday 11th July, so you can guarantee a luxury experience for Supersonic 2022! 

Poster design by David Hand

Print Matters Exhibition
Centrala, 1 – 22 July

Print Matters is a showcase of the political and social power of DIY publishing.  

Since the mid twentieth century, radical printshops have been seizing the means of production to spread ideas to the masses. While some of this material would previously have been a challenge to get past censors and editors, the photocopier + print press has made it nearly impossible to destroy all copies of a “dangerous” idea; affordable, accessible printing allowed every reader to become author and publisher.

For Print Matters we’ve selected a group of artists who share essential political ideas using the accessibility of print media. We’re delighted to showcase work by… 

BLACK LODGE PRESS

Black Lodge Press is an ongoing print project inspired by queer anti-fascist culture and anarchy. Created by CJ, it comprises posters, graphics and zines espousing radical, direct action. There’s no gentle subtlety here.

“The DIY nature of this art makes it accessible, which is what art should be. “ CJ firmly believes that art shouldn’t just be for the rich: “If it’s not cheap it’s not punk mate!

FOKA WOLF 

Birmingham-based artist Foka Wolf hates adverts, so they make their own. The anonymous artist’s work began as a serious of handwritten stickers serving as classified ads for organisations like “ILLUMINATI DEATH CULT”, “ROAD MAN CHAT” and “VOODOO FOR BEGINNERS”, and when they discovered that you could get enough large format prints made to cover a billboard for £25, they moved into full on subvertising. Occupying ad space with huge works that force conversation and poke fun at a host of brands, political parties, and individuals, Foka Wolf makes their prints at home in the post-truth apocalypse.

“People will believe anything if it’s packaged and polished in a certain way. That really worries me.”

GEE VAUCHER

Gee Vaucher is an internationally renowned political artist living outside Epping, Essex. She is best known for her radical creativity, montages, and iconic artwork for the infamous anarcho-pacifist band Crass. Employing an eclectic range of styles and techniques, coupled with an essentially DIY aesthetic, she creates powerful images exploring political, cultural, and personal issues. She sees her work as a tool for social change.

DOG SECTION PRESS

Dog Section Press is a not-for-profit publisher and distributor of seditious literature, and a worker-owned cooperative. They aim to keep their own publications affordable and distribute books and pamphlets that are inexpensive. Their books and pamphlets are printed with Calverts, a worker-owned co-operative based in east London.  They produce DOPE Magazine, a quarterly newspaper which is distributed to anyone who could use a little solidarity, to sell on the street. Working with a network of radical bookshops, social centres, homeless organisations, and independent volunteers, they currently distribute 30,000 copies each issue. This is worth around £90,000 to their street-vendors – or almost £400,000 annually. DOPE is also free to prisoners, who can request copies via Haven Distribution.

LA LINTERNA

La Linterna (The Lantern) is a letterpress printing workshop based in Cali, Colombia, which was established in 1934. It is dedicated to artisan printing of posters using linoleum engraving and the use of movable types. Each poster is an authentic work of art that represents the craft of printing and handcrafter engraving. La Linterna printed the works on display in collaboration with Dog Section Press. They are produced in the tradition of radical street propaganda, to be displayed in public spaces; their messages are as important today as ever.

LUCY MCLAUCHLAN

Lucy McLauchlan paints walls, water towers, lighthouses, car parks, multi-stories, abandoned subway stations…

She will be launching her book of prints created while doing a residency in 2019 at  Dial House, a space run by Gee Vaucher and Penny Rimbaud that will be published by Exitstencil Press.

“I was invited to spend couple weeks at Dial House – to look over the edge.
But I couldn’t step close, I was transfixed with where I was right then. Right there. This cottage holds a strength and voice, powered by its guardians. A fortitude solidified by the relations and creations built there and set out into the world.
Time & space is a rare gift. To simply be. Sheltered under the trees, a heavy duvet and tin pan. Only chores to hose yourself down once in a while, remember to eat, turn in when the light starts to fade. A chance to take a step closer.”

Holy Tongue, the newest project from percussion powerhouse Valentina Magaletti, fuses dub rhythms with an avante-garde attitude.

Supersonic audiences will recognise Magaletti from her work with Tomaga, Vanishing Twin, uuuu, her collaboration with percussionist and sculptor Joao Pais Filipe to create CZN, or her “Avante-Sabbath” piece with Pierpaolo Martino for Sofasonic in 2020. Holy Tongue are poised to take those listeners by the hand and lead them into new sonic territory.

“I have no idea whether Holy Tongue, the inspired new collaboration between London drummer Valentina Magaletti and Al Wootton (FKA Deadboy) plan to play live, but god, I hope they do.” – Resident Advisor

Holy Tongue’s self-titled first EP is a product of an improvised session in East London. Heavily influenced by dub reggae, the two bring a mutual appreciation for the experimental dub of On-U-Sound, Muslimgauze, and post-punk bands such as Liquid Liquid and 23 Skidoo to the forefront of the sound. The result is a record of psychedelic, free-form, high energy, spiritual dub-dance music.

It’s mind-warping, hypnotic and punctuated with Magaletti’s trademark rhythms. Wootton’s spacious textures and grooving basslines make for pieces that are both wandering and danceable.

Holy Tongue play the Friday of Supersonic Festival 2022 – get your tickets here.

Birmingham may be the birthplace of metal, but here at Supersonic we love our heavy brethren from further afield too. Enter Buñuel, Thou, and Old Man Gloom.

Oxbow’s Eugene S. Robinson fronts Buñuel, alongside the Italian trio of guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours), the bass of Andrea Lombardini (The Framers), and the drums of Francesco Valente (Snare Drum Exorcism). Buñuel’s newest release Killers Like Us is out now via Profound Lore. The third part of a trilogy that started with A Resting Place for Strangers, and then The Easy Way Out, it’s an amalgam of angular rhythms, drum salvos, blitzkrieging guitars and vocals that sound more like threats than promises. Named after the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, the first filmmaker to make good on what happens when straight razors meet eyeballs.

“The easiest categorizations, noise rock and post-punk, fail to capture the full experience. Instead, Killers Like Us is a blitz of untamed, unchecked testosterone.”

– Boolin Tunes

Winging in from Baton Rouge, Lousiana are Thou. Though oftentimes misread as “post rock” or “hipster doom”, they share a more spiritual kinship with 90s proto grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, or Soundgarden. Collaborations with Emma Ruth Rundel and The Body have bolstered their extensive release catalogue, which comprises five full length albums, seven EPs and enough material spread out over splits to make up another four or five full lengths.

“Thou are a very good metal band…the weight and heft of powerful sludge, the atmospheres of post-metal and the scratchy, atonal undercurrent of noise rock”

– The Quietus

Old Man Gloom are also joining the party from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The experimental super-group of Aaron Turner (Sumac/Isis), Nate Newton (Converge), drummer Santos Montano are now joined by Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Converge) taking the place of late former bandmate Caleb Scofield. Through monolithic sonic tapestries sewn throughout, both of the latest releases Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning and Seminar IX: Darkness of Being (both out now on Profound Lore) serve as a moving tribute to Scofield. Old Man Gloom have incorporated material that Scofield had laid down previously to their earth crumbling riffs, post-hardcore brutality, sprawling noise transmissions, experimental ambient sonic-subdivisions and epic impenetrable melancholy. 

Buñuel, Thou and Old Man Gloom play the Saturday of Supersonic 2022. Get your tickets for our 16th edition here.

Shovel Dance Collective are a nine-piece exploring the folk music of the British Isles through a lens of proto-feminism, queer narrative and working class history. They rework tunes drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in drone, free improvisation, and metal to create arrangements that The Times has called, “invigorating folk revival”. We caught up with Nick Granata, Jacken Elswyth and Mataio Austin Dean…

“We often work in medleys so how tunes speak to each other is a big factor,” explains Granata.
“Sometimes tunes have traditionally been paired, sometimes they sound very similar but a slight variation adds something rich, or they contrast enough that one tune lifts the other. A tune can also have a great story (like the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance), or just a great name (like A Fisherman’s Song for Attracting Seals).

Great words can come with not so great melodies, or great melodies can come with not so great words. But since it’s all up for grabs variations can be made, words changed and tunes amended. It’s great to find a gem that’s not been sung much, and we have a couple of those, but it’s also great taking on a much loved song that some of the audience will know immediately.”

“I think folk music lends itself to a consideration of place. One of the things that makes the music powerful is its passage through an unknown number of anonymous hands, transformed and re-created as it moves from place to place. There’s a simultaneously particular and universal quality to it. Since the 20th century folk revival it’s been the done thing to cite the person and place from whom any particular version of a song was ‘collected’ – by now that has a whole lot of baggage attached, and is often a claim to authority and authenticity on the part of the performer as much as a genuine recognition of debt. But it also serves to gesture towards the longer history of the music, so we’re always keen to include those kinds of details in the interpretations we include with recordings and provide at performances.

In that context we’ve also tended to note the location of recordings we’ve made as well – for example, ‘Fidelma’s living room’ – almost without considering where that impulse comes from. But it feels right to underline that this is one instance in the longer life of a song or tune, specific to one particular time and place but connected to all the others.”

Shovel Dance Collective aren’t long back from a trip to SXSW to perform at the British Underground Happening.

“We spent the first part of the week going to see weird bands in near empty venues and saw loads of amazing stuff, then it got to be our turn and we were the weird band in a near empty venue. It was an unusual thing for us to do, and we’re very thankful to British Underground for supporting our trip there. We learnt a lot and met some great people.”

With everyone from Robert Eggers to Taylor Swift turning their hand to the folk aesthetic of late, Granata is reflective on the genre’s perennial resurgence.

“It could perhaps be related to a growing shared sense that systems long accepted as stable and unending are actually absurd, illogical, and fragile. This dawning understanding of our present suggests that our past isn’t quite as clean cut as we may have been taught, and folk (contrary to history) offers itself as a method of reimagining that past. It opens an opportunity to grasp a fluid past – contradictions and all – and provides an archive of realities long obscured or forgotten. Folk offers a form of communal historiography, authored collectively by different generations across time. Maybe it also has something to do with a mistrust of or betrayal by the idea of progress (what with disaster constantly looming in a few likely forms). Instead folklore offers insights into ways of being, previously dismissed, that might be worth revisiting, renewing, or reinventing.

In terms of folk music and the response we tend to get, people seem to connect to the music quite readily and with real gusto. I think this is because we reassure them that this is their music to cry to, laugh to, sing along with, learn and take ownership of. Having permission to share in the performance can be contrasted starkly with watching a performer who is perceived to be the individual genius. Maybe it’s refreshing to listen to music that says ‘listen to what we made together’ rather than ‘listen to what I made’.

We come from a long line of leftwing folk musicians from Britain and Ireland. People like A L Lloyd, Luke Kelly, Shirley Collins were all unashamedly socialists and we would like to be as brazen as they were with our politics. There’s a real precedent for it. Though we’re not under any illusions that folk music, especially in England, retains its political importance among most people. It’s fair to say that the few people you’re finding in the folk clubs and folk bands generally aren’t the working class radicals they might have been when folk clubs all over the place were packed out every week. Folk music has become pretty middle class, seldom enjoyed by most, and in some cases been de-politicised completely to be softer and more palatable. I think possibly our engagement with queer history and black and brown histories as well as radical working class history separates us a bit from other folk acts and their politics. I think the challenge in playing good folk music today is rejoining that link between people and this amazing music, whilst keeping it real, political and fiery where it needs to be. Musicians like Lankum do this really well at the moment. The main thing is that we think there’s still a strong place for folk among other politically motivated forms of music and we hope the people that would benefit from hearing it get to.”

For Supersonic 2022 Shovel Dance Collective are excited to share their practice with a new, curious audience.
“I think we’ll try and lean into the doom and gloom. We always do a bit, but we’re often careful to temper it with some hope and joy. For Supersonic it might be nice for us to let our hair down. So you can expect some epic drone-y trad folk: exposed and unaccompanied solo voices through to slow-build reworkings of old folk tunes and full-band group singing.

We’re incredibly keen to see Divide and Dissolve, a band whose music and politics we really respect. We’re also all big Richard Dawson fans, so would love to catch his set. And we want to get our fill of slow, heavy, fun things: Bismuth, Thou, Bloody Head.”

Shovel Dance Collective are performing on the Sunday of Supersonic 2022. Tickets are on sale here, and in the meantime you can whet your appetite with their 2020 release Offcuts and Oddities.

Two artists we insist will absolutely floor you with their massive bass-heavy music are The Bug (feat. Flowdan) and Grove. Both performing on Friday night we expect high energy sets laced with Dancehall productions, full of Grime, Hip-Hop & Dub.

 

A whole decade after they last shared the Supersonic stage in 2012, The Bug (shape-shifting producer Kevin Martin) joins with Flowdan (East London MC) to deliver crushing music in response to our world on fire.

With divisions ever cementing, The Bug’s detonation of barriers between genres, scenes and cultures, could not be better timed and could not be more needed. His signature apocalyptic dancehall production style remains a force to be reckoned with, whether calling on an arsenal of MCs or with his increasingly deep instrumental club sets. 

Mutating sound through collaboration, Kevin explores his obsession with the MC cultures of Jamaican dancehall, acid-ragga, grime and hip hop through revolutionary methods. We expect a punishing live show from him to be paired with the booming voice of Flowdan, whose career has spanned the entire lifetime of the Grime genre.

 

“For me a live show should be unforgettable, should alter your DNA, or scar you for life in a good way – that’s always been my goal, to set up shows that are unforgettable” – Kevin Martin, The Bug

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p-3fzdBHaQ

Meddling together elements of punk-infused dancehall, jungle, bass and pop, Grove is an autodidactic Bristol-based producer and vocalist with a constantly morphing sound.

Grove’s noise concoctions come from the ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ energies that reside within, filtering them through a sensuous & rave-a-licious lens, with lyrics inspired by political angst, queer euphoria, & the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in the city of Bristol. Delving deeper into mutated forms of dancehall, dub and hip-hop, electronics and dense, distorted bass, Grove provides a perfectly frazzled marriage of future-facing dancehall and ragged noise experimentation.

“Going hard with the drum and bass beats and the blunt aggression of the icy end of hyperpop, Grove’s music is unforgiving and confrontational”– Gal-Dem 

Supersonic audiences are no stranger to the heavier side of experimental music, but even the most seasoned doom-heads should be sure to bring ear protection to the Saturday night of our 2022 festival.

Self-described “dreamsludge” duo Nadja are joining us from their home in Berlin. Formed in 2005, multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff are nearing one hundred releases of their crushingly heavy sound, across labels such as Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydra Head Records, Gizeh Records, Important Records, and their own imprint, Broken Spine Productions.    

“You don’t so much throw on a Nadja album as dunk your head in one.”

– Pitchfork

Coming from a little closer to home are Nottingham two-piece Bismuth. The pair met when bassist, vocalist and synth player Tanya Byrne posted an advert in her local rehearsal space which read “looking for a drummer who plays really slowly”. Joe Rawlings responded, and when they both showed up to their first meeting wearing the same Om shirt, they new they were coming from the same place.

Bismuth’s 2018 release “The slow dying of the Great Barrier Reef” sold out its first pressing within three weeks. The funereal title track, clocking in at 32 minutes long, reflects volcanologist Byrne’s fears about ongoing ecological decline. “Playing so slowly helps me feel connected to the deep time of the geological record,” she explains.   

“They’ve been described in the past as “like Stonehenge, but music”, which should tell you all you need to know…expect something enormous, vaguely mystical, largely inexplicable, and inconceivably heavy.”

– Terrorizer Magazine

With Bismuth and Nadja on the bill for Saturday, it’s shaping up to be a heavy night. Get your tickets for Supersonic 2022 edition here.

This Thursday night, local fuzz-mongers Total Luck open for Gnod at Centrala. Ahead of the show, our festival assistant Emily caught up with Conor and Erin for a quick Q&A…

You seem to get louder and fuzzier every time I see you play – how’re you making so much noise up there?

Conor’s pedalboard is forever growing. We enjoy making a racket.

Long time listeners will remember you as The Cosmics – what inspired the name change?

During lockdown we had time to reflect on the direction of our music, and it felt right to change the name of our project. We became inspired by other things and wanted a name that would reflect the music we were making.

What’s been your favourite show as Total Luck?

Tough question, nothing beats the hometown gigs. Our favourite show as Total Luck will probably be when we played at the Crossing for Future Days. It was cold but so much fun!

I loved the Buzz Lightyear costumes last Halloween…

Fuzz lightyear was a fairly last minute decision, we had more costumes in mind  but we thought it would be a laugh if we all went as Buzz Lightyear.

What’s on the horizon for Total Luck this summer?

We’ll be releasing the first wave of Total Luck music hopefully this summer digitally and on wax!

Total Luck support Gnod this Thursday at Centrala – the last few tickets are available here.

Jerusalem In My Heart return to Supersonic as part of their 2022 UK tour with Belgium’s Farida Amadou. The immersive audio-visual performance project fuses modern experimental Arabic music and analog film using hand-made processes and live projection techniques. The resulting multi-media works showcase JIMH’s intensive cross-cultural and socio-political artistry.

Since their performance at Supersonic 2019 the project have garnered broad acclaim with their collaborative album ‘Qalaq’, a whirl of electronics and folk instrumentation performed by a “dismantled orchestra, across dissociated/isolated space-time”.

“An album that’s as defiant and visceral as it is vulnerable.”

– The Guardian

Qalaq is an Arabic word with a meaning that Lebanese-Canadian producer/musician Radwan Ghazi Moumneh particularly intends as “deep worry”.

“The Side 2 tracks are all named ‘Qalaq’ and then numbered, representing the degree to which the layered and complex violence Lebanon and the Levant has reached in the last couple of years,” explains Moumneh, “from the complete and utter failure of the Lebanese sectarian state that drove the economy to a grinding halt, to its disastrous handling of the migrant influx from neighbouring failed states, to the endemic corruption that led to the August 2020 port explosion, to the latest chapter of Palestinian erasure and yet another brutally asymmetrical and disproportionate bombing campaign on Gaza.”

While ‘Qalaq’ saw Jerusalem In My Heart draw on a wide pool of avant-garde collaborators – including Supersonic alumni Moor Mother alongside Tim Hecker, Lucrecia Dalt, Greg Fox, Rabih Beaini, Alanis Obomsawin and Oiseaux-Tempête. – Moumneh and Montréal-based filmmaker Erin Weisgerber still make up its core. Moumneh uses buzuk, modular electronics, and voice to reimagine contemporary Arabic music, while Weisgerber performs 16mm film and audio loops live on multiple projectors to produce imagery that melds her external vision and internal landscape.

‘Qalaq’ was released on 08 October 2021 via Constellation Records. Jerusalem In My Heart are playing a string of UK dates beginning from 7th July, including a performance on the Sunday of Supersonic 2022. Get your tickets for Supersonic 2022 here.

J. Zunz teases upcoming record with new single ‘Ráfaga’.

This week Lorella Quintanilla, known as one half of Guadalajaran psych duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, announced her third solo release under the moniker of J Zunz. Rocket Recordings released her new single ‘Ráfaga’ this Tuesday with a hypnotic video. Like most good things, it’s best enjoyed at full volume in a dark room. 

“Nuanced, confident, and throbbing with paranoia.”

– Echoes And Dust

Quintanilla first embarked on J. Zunz as a means of stripping her music back to basics, inspired by the work of John Cage and influenced by ideas of Buddhism, futurism and modern art. The project has gone on to become an exercise in catharsis via cyclical synths, both for the artist and the listener.

J. Zunz spent a strict lockdown in the coastal city of Enseneda, Mexico recording ‘Del Aire’, buffeted by the strong winds of Baja California. She describes the process as a “continuity and discontinuity” from her 2020 release ‘Hibiscus’, and that it extracted a similar, yet fresh strain of emotional complexity. Wide, droning expanses nestle against claustrophic beats in a record that Uncut Magazine have described as, “a focussed collection of icy textures.”

“I write in a very personal way. I try to make this bridge between personal and political.”

– Lorena Quintanilla a.k.a. J. Zunz, speaking to Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley for Supersonic Festival

‘Del Aire’ is out on 24th June via Rocket Recordings, and available to preorder here. We can’t wait to have J. Zunz grace our stage just a few weeks later on the Sunday of this year’s festival. Get your tickets for Supersonic 2022 here.

Our internationally renowned Supersonic Festival makes it’s big comeback 8 – 10 July 2022 and we need a dedicated team of volunteers to help deliver it!  

Supersonic has secured its experimental reputation with consistently innovative and explosive concoctions of visual installations, films, exhibitions and music. Guaranteed to open eyes and ears to music and art outside the predictable genre labels and familiar performance spaces.

You will be part of an ever growing, friendly community of music and art lovers helping to maintain the values of bringing the extraordinary to curious audiences in an all inclusive way. This is will be an invaluable experience into how our festival runs but not only that, you’ll be contributing to something truly Superspecial whilst making friends along the way!

The festival is small enough for every volunteer to give real input and value in the following areas:

• Artist Liason
• Box Office
• Hospitality
• Site Set up
• Merch
• Promotion

If you would like to get involved, please complete the application form HERE.

Volunteers must be over 18 years old.

We’re delighted to be supporting Sound and Music and the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) with two new collaborative opportunities. The project will match two composers based in the UK with two in Mexico, supporting them to explore a new international collaboration and create two sonic works to be premiered and hosted digitally.

Digital-Bridge, is open to applications from women and minority gender* composers, music-creators and artists working in electronic music and/or those who use digital technology within their creative practice. The two sonic works created as part of this project will be co-hosted by all partners and will be premiered as part of a unique digital event.

There will also be the opportunity to participate in panel discussions at the festivals Supersonic (UK) and Visiones Sonoras (Mexico). These discussions will focus on issues affecting women and gender minority composers and creators working in electronic music today.

The brief for the project is intentionally open and isn’t tied to any specific themes. Our aim is to support women and minority gender composers to explore a new international collaboration and to create the work you feel needs to be heard. The project aims to address these communities’ lack of representation in both countries and forms part of our joint work to make our online spaces a safer, more diverse and relevant place to discover new music.

You will receive:

• A bursary which for UK-based composers will be £1000 (British Pounds). For Mexico-based composers the bursary will be $20000 (Mexican Pesos)
• Creative project support, signposting, networks and advice from teams at Sound and Music and CMMAS.
• Mentoring by experts relevant to the needs of your project.
• A production budget of up to £3,500 is available per project not including additional budget for access needs if required. Production budget to be agreed with teams at Sound and Music and CMMAS in advance of project start.

Applications must be received by the end of Sunday 1st May. Please find the applications details here.

[Image courtesy of The Mill]

| Last remaining weekend tickets on sale here |

| Day tickets on sale here |

[Image courtesy of The Mill]

With these new venue partners we will ensure the spaces where we work are safe and inclusive for everyone. Our Code of Conduct clearly outlines the behaviours that we are opposed to and will not tolerate. Furthermore we will continue to work with our staff, volunteers and artists to ensure our work is as environmentally conscious as it can be – and we know our audience is on board with this too.

After two years of being apart, going virtual for Sofasonic in 2020, and everything that’s happened since the fifteenth anniversary edition in 2019, the team behind Supersonic Festival are more ready than ever to make a comeback. We cannot wait to once again host our cherished audience, wider festival team and incredible volunteers. We have one hell of a line up on its way, featuring live performances from the best experimental practitioners out there – expect new commissions, collaborations, workshops, talks and much more!

DRUM ROLL! Here is our full line-up*, including day splits…

FRIDAY

ABRONIA | BLUE RUTH | FÖLLAKZOID | GROVE | HOLY TONGUE | MATTERS | ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS | THE BUG FEAT. FLOWDAN

SATURDAY

BISMUTH | BLOODY HEAD | BUÑUEL | DJ AWKWARD BLACK GIRL | NADJA | NEKRA | NO HOME | OLD MAN GLOOM | PHARAOH OVERLORD WITH AARON TURNER | PRNCSS | RACHEL AGGS | THOU

SUNDAY 

AA WILLIAMS | BIG|BRAVE | BINT7ALAL | DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE | FARIDA AMADOU | J.ZUNZ | JERUSALEM IN MY HEART | JESIKA KHAZRIK + NURAH FARAHAT | JUNE OF 44 | RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE | SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE

In celebration of their recent signing to Thrill Jockey records (a fave of ours!) we thought we’d do our latest Supersonic blog feature on the mighty Canadian trio BIG | BRAVE. To say we’re excited to host them at Supersonic in July would me a massive understatement!

So to get you acquainted, the Montreal trio BIG | BRAVE create heavy, vast post-rock. Minimalism, structural freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound. The band formed in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession. Band members Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. After an incident where an acoustic guitar broke, the electric guitar became the permanent replacement, bringing with it larger amps and mass of amplitude. Third member Tasy Hudson joined the ranks in 2018. 

It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something of a signature sound for them. 

“Even at their heaviest though, there’s a brightness and optimism radiating at the core of the trio’s sound. Their folky roots really shine through”

– The Quietus

Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.

In 2015, the band entered the studio and recorded “Au De La”. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, BIG | BRAVE have had a home with Southern Lord Records – they’ve released the band’s latest outputs; Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021. Following these several epic releases, they put out an immensely heavy album with The Body which we wholly recommend you check out here.

In June 2021 we had the pleasure of hosting Robin & Tasy In Conversation, hosted by journalist Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley. We used the talk to explore ideas of great force, intensity and turbulence within music. Through the notion of ‘Heaviness’ in creative practice, the pair gave us some truly candid answers on their experiences in the alternative music scene.

So if you really want to dive into the inner workings of BIG | BRAVE, check the talk out…

And to polish off, here is the band’s latest music video ‘Half Breed’ – it consists of a single shot of a single performative action that can be read as the representation of the damage an external force can have on someone or something without ever having to bear any responsibility and consequence.  BIG | BRAVE adds “The action of shovelling dirt onto the person, also acts a way to discredit, shame and discriminate the individual. With the victim (on screen), being painfully covered with dirt by the perpetrator (off screen), all we have to witness is the damage done and left behind. We are aware of what is happening, what has happened, but the source is kept anonymous and can easily be missed and overlooked.”

“The first and only time we played in Birmingham was in 2015 to 5 people. Finally returning to play one of the best festivals! Thanks for having us Supersonic Fest”

– BIG | BRAVE

Well, we’re sure to guarantee this mind-blowing band a packed-out room at Supersonic 2022 with you lovely folks!! BIG | BRAVE play the Sunday. Get your tickets for our sweet 16th edition here.

We are on the lookout for some wonderfully creative minds to bring us unusual, imaginative and engaging new workshops that will take place as part of the festival weekend.  

Supersonic Festival 2022 is returning on the weekend of July 8 – 10, celebrating our 16th edition with an ambitious programme of mind bending music, sense shifting art and life altering experiences. From in-depth sessions to indulgent fun, we want you to craft something extraordinary for our curious audiences. Whether you’re flying solo, a group or an organisation, we want to hear ideas that embrace our passion for collaboration between both artists and audience alike, forging lasting and meaningful connections across art forms. 

We are a festival which celebrates expressive, challenging and generally out-there music and art. We remain inclusive, accessible and engaging to varied audiences; new and returning. Workshop proposals should present a singular, innovative idea that encapsulates a clear understanding of what Supersonic is about. 

To apply, please complete the online form (link below) the deadline is 5pm, 25 April, 2022.  

There is a fee of up to £150 available for the workshop (also to include materials), as well as 1 weekend ticket to the festival. 

What are you waiting for… send us your proposals! 

GOOGLE FORM: https://forms.gle/L1Jp3ecAtegbPCHk9 

We are thrilled to announce the remaining acts that complete our Supersonic Festival 2022 line-up; Divide & Dissolve, Grove, Pharaoh Overlord with Aaron Turner, Big | Brave and more. Our brilliant guest curators, Radwan Moumneh (of Jerusalem In My Heart) and Decolonise Fest also reveal their invited artists.

DRUM ROLL! Here is our full line-up*, including day splits…

FRIDAY

ABRONIA | BLUE RUTH | FÖLLAKZOID | GROVE | HOLY TONGUE | MATTERS | ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS | THE BUG FEAT. FLOWDAN

SATURDAY

BISMUTH | BLOODY HEAD | BUÑUEL | DJ AWKWARD BLACK GIRL | NADJA | NEKRA | NO HOME | OLD MAN GLOOM | PHARAOH OVERLORD WITH AARON TURNER | PRNCSS | RACHEL AGGS | THOU

SUNDAY 

AA WILLIAMS | BIG|BRAVE | BINT7ALAL | DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE | FARIDA AMADOU | J.ZUNZ | JERUSALEM IN MY HEART | JESIKA KHAZRIK + NURAH FARAHAT | JUNE OF 44 | RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE | SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE

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We can’t wait to bring our global community together once again to challenge the mainstream and champion the weird. Weekend Tickets, plus a limited number of one day & two day tickets are now on sale.

*line-up subject to change

[Divide and Dissolve – photo credit: Billy Eyers]

Following our spectacular sell-out 2019 edition, the “mother of all British underground festivals“ [The Quietus] will return on 8-10th July 2022 at a new location on the outskirts of Digbeth in Birmingham.

Since 2003, we have hosted our superior weekends for adventurous and curious audiences, bringing together live performances by some of the world’s most extraordinary artists and audience participation to create a one-of-a-kind festival. Whilst the music takes the forefront of these announcements, you can expect to see a coming together of artists and audiences from all over the globe as we celebrate the best in creativity that the underground has to offer. We balance the familiar with the new, delivering you the most inspiring weekend.

[Pharaoh Overlord + Aaron Turner]

New to the line-up, we are extremely proud to present Divide And Dissolve, who use a compelling blend of guitar, drums, saxophone and live effects to create galvanising music designed to decentralise and destroy white supremacy (#1 on Mary Anne Hobbs’ album of the year list). About their appearance at Supersonic Divide and Dissolve comments…

“Supersonic is an awesome festival we are deeply honoured to be a part of. Supersonic Festival continues to curate inspirational mind bending events. Our music aims to decolonise and dismantle systems of oppression and Supersonic Festival is a congruent part of those goals” – Divide & Dissolve

We’re also proud to present a new project from powerhouse percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Vanishing Twin) and her ever in-demand sticks as Holy Tongue. Pharaoh Overlord with Aaron Turner present their glorious and surprising collaboration of motorik soundscapes, Italo-pop, EBM and corrosive vocals.

Grove’s ingenious noise concoctions come from the ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ energies that reside within, filtering them through a sensuous; rave-a-licious lens, with lyrics inspired by political angst, queer euphoria, and the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in the city of Bristol.

[Big | Brave – photo credit: Mathieu Ball]

BIG|BRAVE join the line up on Sunday evening to immerse audiences in their heavy waves of sound, in which minimalism, structural freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound. Swedish collective Orchestra of Constant Distress, comprising members of The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions, Brainbombs and No Balls have prepared something special and unique especially for the festival – all we know is to expect the unexpected!

[Shovel Dance Collective]

Abronia‘s mixture of free-jazz, Morricone-soundtrack twangs via German kosmische, 60s Folk, and ritualistic drone envelopment will bring a taste of unbridled psychedelia to the proceedings. Eerie industrial synths come from Birmingham’s very own gloomy duo Matters. Last but not least, Shovel Dance Collective are aiming to uncover proto-feminist narratives and queer histories, and will explore the folk traditions of England through a melding of drone, improvisation and metal.

Additionally, sound artist and musician Paul Purgas shall reveal a new work as a special commission for the festival, which will combine the trailblazing reel-to-reel tape experiments of the Radiophonic Workshop and the exploratory spirit of Musique Concrète.

[Farida Amadou – photo credit: Laurent Orseau]

Our guest curators, Jerusalem in My Heart have invited Bint7alal, a Palestinian producer/rapper who specialises in smooth flows and energy-filled sounds from the depths of the Arab underground. Farida Amadou, one of the up-and-coming Belgian artists on the international free and improv scene, will bring her unique approach to electric bass – making use of pedals to create fuzzed out noises and textures – to the stage. Jessika Khazrik scavenges sounds from the debris of online media and militarised ads & technologies, and will be performing alongside 3D/real-time visual artist Nurah Farahat. In addition there will be a screening of a selection of films by Erin Weisgerber, a Tiohtia:ke/Montreal-based artist working with photo-chemical film to produce installations, performances, and short films. She manipulates the photographic, chemical, and material properties of film to transform the world framed through her camera, rendering moving images that exist between figuration and abstraction, external vision and internal landscape.

[NEKRA]

Decolonise Fest have invited Rachel Aggs who, having found acclaim with Shopping, Sacred Paws and Trash Kit, will deliver her distinctive guitar and vocal style, mixed with a lo-fi pop sensibility. Hardcore punks Nekra, will raise the tempo as they serve up blistering mosh-inducing tunes with themes ranging from Bell Hooks’ theories to the trauma of immigration. PRNCSS‘ will no doubt be an enigmatic presence, hitting on an expansive formula that mixes voodoo vibes with trap, grime and outré electronics. Additionally, DJ Awkward Black Girl, an avid vinyl collector of over 20 years, who spins a mixture of rock, R&B, soul, funk, garage, disco and more to get you on your feet.

Talks, films and workshops will also be included in the program, and will be announced in the near future.

Ahead of the weekend, please find useful information about accommodation (including local hotel deals) and the festival here.

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We’re chuffed to be back with a new episode of the Supersonic Podcast as part our celebrations for International Women’s Day 2022!

Featuring music from a whole host of amazing women artists; including those performing at our upcoming IWD bash on Sat 5th March in Birmingham. We also revisit the The Oram Awards (which we had the honour of hosting) and spin sounds from their six brilliant winners.

It’s an absolute stonker of a programme with music from Alpha Maid, Lia Mice, un.procedure, Grove, Emma Ruth Rundle, Blue Ruth, Venus Ex Machina and more. Tune on in!

LISTEN HERE

And don’t forget on Saturday 5^th March we are hosting a big bash at Centrala for International Women’s Day 2022. ALL are welcome to join us for our first live event in two years, as we rejoice and celebrate the incredible women artists we champion in our Supersonic line-ups all year round!

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Alpha Maid (aka Leisha Thomas) is a guitarist and producer from South East London who crafts compositions heavily drawing from lo-fi punk, grunge, and glitch electronics.

Lia Mice is a multidisciplinary artist whose works include experimental electronic music production, large-scale digital musical instrument design, live A/V performance, composition for film and interactive sculpture making.

un.procedure are an experimental-jazz-rock outfit, with members hailing from both Birmingham (synth player Piera Onacko and drummer/electronic artist Nathan Jones) and London (alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi).

PLUS DJ SETS from Blue Ruth, Old Bort & McSaima.

If you’re in a position to support the artists in this podcast too, we’ve put all their Bandcamp links below for your convenience…

Tracklist

un.procedure are an experimental-jazz-rock outfit, with members hailing from both Birmingham (synth player Piera Onacko and drummer/electronic artist Nathan Jones) and London (alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi).

The trio deliver a frantic collision of free improvisation with spiralling, 70’s rock influenced grooves and heady, sci–fi tinged soundscapes. A project born initially as a commissioned work, the band has since sprouted legs of its own. Having played shows nationally and internationally in 2021, un.procedure have sights set for a debut EP release this year. Multi-faceted artist David Stanley (GURIBOSH) provides a live, reactive visual spectacle to accompany their pummelling performances.  

Ahead of their performance at our International Women’s Day bash we ask band instigator & synth whizz, Piera Onacko a few questions…

Hey Piera. We’re really looking forward to having your trio un.procedure perform at Centrala on Sat 5 March, it’ll be our first live show in two years! So we’ll definitely be having a good old knees up! What can our Supersonic audience expect from your live performance?

Loud…! Lots of electronics, lots of pedals. There’s some improvisation, but plenty to groove to. We’re very much looking forward to playing! Being relatively new on the scene, having the opportunity to perform live is still in the honeymoon phase for us.

How did un.procedure come to be? You’re all very skilled musicians in your own right…

Thank you! un.procedure grew from a B:Music commission. Cassie and I (Piera), began working together on a set of music, and Nathan was recruited too. We gelled really well as a unit, and decided to continue the project as a band. 

We love the live video of you performing on the Symphony Hall stage. There’s so much energy there! How did you come together to forge this material as a trio?

It was by and large getting together and recording everything as one long jam. We’d then go through and pick bits out that seemed to have legs as musical ideas. We came up with a lot of material recording in the studio too.

Any plans to release this music in the big wide world?!

Absolutely. We have a five track EP ready to go, with a release date for sometime in spring of this year.  Watch this space.

Do we detect some Krautrock, Faust and CAN-like influences in there amongst the jazz and electronics…? 

I am a huge Krautrock fan, and have always fancied the idea of incorporating some of those influences. There is something really special about the raw edges of early electronics, and I tried to bring a bit of that to the parts I’m playing. 

We’re big fans of immersive live experiences, and we hear you’re bringing along some live visuals for the show created by multi-media artist Guri Bosh. How did that all come together?

Guri Bosh has been following our creative process from the get-go, and we’ve talked at length on the subject of visuals reacting with music. It all started with some family video footage I had of rural Ukraine, and kind of kept building from there.  

Thanks for chatting to us. It’s great to get to know our Supersonic artists a little better and introduce our audience to your work! and in the Supersonic spirit of sharing great unclassifiable music – what’s going to be your International Women’s Day anthem of 2022?!

My anthem of IWD 2022 is Yang Yang by Anika – fuzzy, noisy, catchy!

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE SHOW

FOLLOW UN.PROCEDURE ON INSTAGRAM 

OPEN CALL
Join Decolonise Fest & Supersonic Festival for a round table discussion on Race and Diversity in the Alternative Music Scene 

Saturday 5th March, 5.30-7.00pm  

Grand Union, Birmingham, B5 5RS 

Free to attend, please book here.

This event is for people of colour only. Please respect this space.  

Supersonic Festival and Decolonise Fest have come together to host a space for a community discussion on race and diversity in the alternative/punk scene, ahead of Decolonise guest curating part of the Supersonic Festival 2022 line-up. 

We invite you to this informal event to discuss the ways to improve attitudes around race in the alternative music scene . Meet other people of colour that are into alternative music in your local area and help us improve the way we organise future events while chatting over drinks and nibbles.  

We want to know:

• How did you first get into alternative music
• Your experiences as people of colour going to gigs
• Do you feel represented in the music scene?
• Your thoughts on race and racism in the music industry
• Do you go out to gigs in the Midlands?
• What would make you feel safer / more likely to go to gigs in the scene?

Make sure you stick around as later in the evening for Supersonic Festival’s International Women’s Day Event featuring performances from Alpha Maid, un.procedure and Lia Mice. If you attend our roundtable discussion you can also get into the gig for free. More details on that show here.

Decolonise Fest is an annual London punk festival run by and for *people of colour in the punk scene. Our collective is made up of activists, militant community organisers, musicians, and artists. We are the global majority. We will celebrate all the brilliant punx descended (through one or both parents) from the original inhabitants of Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Australasia, North America, and the islands of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, and of Romany Gypsy or Traveller heritage.

For more details, visit the event page here.

Chile’s Föllakzoid began 10 years ago as a trance experience between childhood friends Domingae & Diego. Heavily informed by the heritage of the ancient music of the Andes, the band has learned to integrate their origins with contemporary sounds and technologies of our times, creating a rich yet minimal electronic-organic atmosphere.  

Föllakzoid create extended tracks that fill longer spaces of time with fewer and fewer elements. The creative perspective of the band has always been about unlearning the narrative that shape physical and digital formats of music, instead they make a time-space continuum of trance-inducing sound.

With a number of records out on Sacred Bones, Föllakzoid make long, slow, hypnotic pieces that shimmer and throb, evolving until they’ve infected your mind and body, not a million miles from the traditions of German bands like Can, Kraftwerk and Neu! 

“an all-enveloping experience both sinister and slightly disconcerting”

– LOUDER THAN WAR

With each release they reduce the components of their music more and more, resulting in the most sublime minimalism. They call the process “depuration”  – literally freeing their music from impurities. ‘I’ their fourth full-length release is the perfect example of this.

From Domingae, vocalist and guitarist… “We invite you to join us in sharing the experience of being led by this non-rational, sonic artform and its energy. It is also an invitation to connect once again with your inner master and his intuition, erasing the systematic rationalization that usually follows creative forces when perceived, to guide you on this holographic simultaneous simulation where reality is rooted in” 

Föllakzoid perform live at Supersonic Festival 8-10 July 2022. Weekend Tickets are now on sale here.

The New Music Biennial 2022 will celebrate its ten-year anniversary with previous works performed at the festival alongside brand-new commissions – including one from us! We’re delighted to announce we have commissioned sound artist and musician Paul Purgas to create a new work with tape.

The New Music Biennial as a festival is free (ticketed) and will take place across two weekends; the 22 – 24 April in Coventry and 1 – 3 July at the Southbank Centre. The festivals will comprise 20 new pieces of music: ten brand new works selected from an open call and ten pre-existing New Music Biennial works from across the last 10 years to mark its launch back in 2012. With pieces from across all genres: from classical and chamber opera to jazz, folk and electronic, each work is no longer than 15 minutes in duration to create a pop-up, interactive way for audiences to discover new music by some of the most exciting composers and music creators in the UK today.

The project we’ve commissioned with Paul is a celebration and exploration of Tape. In the footsteps of the trailblazing reel-to-reel experiments of the Radiophonic Workshop and the exploratory spirit of Musique Concrète, Paul Purgas delves into the medium with a contemporary lens, utilising new technologies. For the New Music Biennial 2022 we present the next generation of tape music.

Paul Purgas is an artist and musician working with sound, performance and installation. Originally trained as an architect he has presented projects with Tramway, Tate Modern, Camden Art Centre and Spike Island and is currently a resident at Somerset House Studios. He is also one half of electronic duo Emptyset.

Thanks to support from PRS Foundation and the Southbank Centre these new works are presented in partnership with Coventry UK City of Culture, BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings with support from Arts Council of England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. 

Programme for New Music Biennial 2022 announced!

We’ve buddied up with B:Music to bring you not one, but TWO new Supersonic Kids Gig workshops for girls aged 8 – 13! These workshops are designed for families to introduce the joy of experimental music to children. BIG sounds for little people!

Both workshops will be led by Sam Topley, a sound artist and educator from Leicester (England, UK). She works with textiles to create handmade electronic musical instruments and interactive sound art work, including giant pompom musical instruments, knitted or ‘yarnbombed’ loudspeakers, and ‘craftivist’ musical instruments with e-textile interfaces.

Supersonic Kids Gigs, are designed for families as a way of introducing young people to experimental music. Created for girls to nourish future creators. No prior knowledge or skills are required.

Have a gander below for the details…

Supersonic Kids Gigs: STITCH-A-SYNTH WORKSHOP  

Sunday 20 February 2022, 11-1pm at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

For girls aged 8-13 // limited places available 

£5.00 per child, must be accompanied by a guardian 

BOOK HERE via B:Music

In this 2-hour workshop, we will craft with electronic textiles to make an electronic musical instrument, played from DIY canvas banners – so you’ll learn how to stitch your own synth! For more info, read on here.

Supersonic Kids Gigs: NOISY POMPOM WORKSHOP  

Saturday 23 April 2022, 11-1pm at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

For girls aged 8-13 // limited places available

£5.00 per child, must be accompanied by a guardian.

BOOK HERE via B:Music

Back by popular demand, we are excited to host another Noisy PomPom workshop led by Sam Topley. We will craft with electronic textiles to make an electronic musical instrument, played by squeezing pompoms! For more info read on here.

The Market Place has been a vibrant part of Supersonic Festival for many years now. It’s a space for independent distributors, record labels, poster artists and pedlars of all kinds of curiosities to sell their wares, network and meet audiences & likeminded folks face to face.  

This year, the Market Place will be situated in a new home as part of our 16th edition festival, taking place on the weekend of 8 – 10 July 2022. We’re bringing our global community back together with an ambitious programme of mind bending music, sense shifting art and life altering experiences.  

We’ve invited old friends and new to join us including… A.A. Williams, Bismuth, Bloody Head, Blue Ruth, Buñuel, Föllakzoid, Jerusalem In My Heart, J. Zunz, June of 44, Nadja, No Home, Old Man Gloom, Thou, Richard Dawson & Circle, The Bug feat. Flowdan and invited guest curators Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Decolonise Fest to add to our line-up in the new year. 

Want to join us?! A weekend Market Place stall booking costs £130 which will include 2 x Supersonic Festival weekend tickets.  

To apply for a stall booking please complete the form below by Monday 25th April 2022.  

For enquiries please contact: [email protected] 

APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/SDbbJnCz3pBCuRwZ8 

Newcastle folk singer and dark-humoured bard Richard Dawson and Finnish experimental rock veterans Circle have joined together for a joyous new collaboration.

The result is ‘Henki’, an album of metal music unlike any you’ve heard before. Released via Weird World records, their material deals with special plants throughout history, making it the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you’ll hear this year. Dawson’s singular voice and shambolic guitar-driven arrangements weave in and out of Circle’s Krautrock beats, heavy riffs, arty noise & dark psychedelia. Highly acclaimed, the album recently earned its spot at no.1 of the Official Folk Album Charts alongside 5* from MOJO. Congrats lads!

Here at Supersonic we’ve had the pleasure of knowing these friends apart (both having performed on a number of our line-ups) but together, live on the Supersonic stage, we know we’re in for an extra special treat.

“a tour de force of botanical rock” – The Guardian

Formed in 1991, Circle is the most visible and prolific name in the Finnish avant-rock underground. Having survived innumerable lineup changes, the band and its founder, bassist/vocalist/guitarist Jussi Lehtisalo, have constantly reinvented themselves. They rarely stick to the same genre from one album to the next, but their chilling hypnotic mantras have served as the lone unifying theme throughout three decades of spandex-clad experiments.

Circle first performed at Supersonic all the way back in 2006, we even have a video to prove it!

From the seed of a twitter conversation, the collaboration was planted. Circle invited Richard to join them for a festival show that later sprouted demos shared remotely, in-person recording sessions on the Finnish coast, with the album finally completed remotely as Europe entered lockdown in spring 2020. Wild, protean hard rock songs rooted in psychedelic folk and delivered with gusto – this suite of stories will take us on a journey of ancient history and deep time.

When asked about coming together with these Finnish rock legends, Richard Dawson described “It was like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden, that’s how important this band [Circle] are to me.”

A singular voice, part savant-genius, part court jester, Richard Dawson’s music echoes with the voices of the past, present and future. Following memorable performances on our 2012, 2015 (where we invited him to guest curate part of our programme) & 2017 line-ups and awould-have-been headline slot at our 2020 festival, it’s safe to say we’re eternally cemented as fans of his dexterous work.

“When I appeared at Supersonic 2012 it was the largest event I had performed at and was very significant in raising awareness of my work and in my artistic development. I am grateful to Capsule for their support of me and my music and the benefits this has brought.” – Richard Dawson

Whether solo with guitar, alongside cosmic pop quartet Hen Ogledd or in wonky lockdown duo Bulbils, Dawson tells stories that pin a crowd like no other. Louder Than War penned this glowing review of Richard’s performance at Supersonic Festival 2015… “With a set so stunning that it reduces a packed room to silence Richard Dawson is like nothing else out there. One man and his occasional guitar, a disrupted, distorted amp, and an intense range of impassioned vocals he taps deep into the heart of British folk music.”

Richard Dawson & Circle perform live at Supersonic Festival 8-10 July 2022. Weekend Tickets are now on sale here.