Sacrum Profanum 2010: Nordic Pantheon

Although this year’s Sacrum Profanum will transport us to Europe’s cooler regions, there will be no shortage of hot moments as well. The stars of this Nordic version of the festival (12-18 September) will be Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson and the Icelandic band múm.

Freak, Modern Classic, Made in Poland, Melodic Line... what’s hidden behind the messages announcing the 8th Sacrum Profanum Festival?

Northern Stars

The Freak concerts are aimed at a broad range of viewers. The festival will be headlined by Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson – guitarist and vocalist from the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. Iceland has only 300 thousand inhabitants, the majority of whom work in the fishing industry. It’s hard to believe that the harsh climate of this remote island produces so much talent. One of the local legends claims that elves, exhausted by their work for Santa Claus, abandoned Lapland and took refuge in Iceland, where they sprinkle stardust on people of their choosing. Jónsi, born in 1975, is certainly a chosen one. Magical atmospheres, oneiric sound constructions and complex arrangements transport us to a different reality. Jónsi’s trademarks are falsetto vocals and a guitar he plays with a cello bow. The guitar was in fact custom-made for him in 2006, with the artwork earning it the nickname The Bird. Jónsi also plays the piano and the banjo, and together with Alex Somers – his life partner – they form an art collaboration called Jónsi & Alex; one of their projects is creating artwork for Sigur Rós. He will play two dates during Sacrum Profanum – 17 and 18 September (8pm) – in the hall of the ArcelorMittal electrolytic tinning plant in Nowa Huta. The concerts form part of Jónsi’s Go Tour 2010 promoting his new album. “Jónsi’s solo album and the accompanying world tour are one of this year’s most highly anticipated events. The extraordinary combination of the worlds of music, theatre and multimedia means that Jónsi is writing a new chapter in the history of the most spectacular contemporary performances,” recommends Filip Berkowicz, the festival’s artistic director.

Icelanders will also dominate the opening of the 8th Sacrum Profanum. The festival will be inaugurated on 12 September (8pm) by the experimental group múm, performing in the same Nowa Huta tinning hall. The project múm & friends, created especially for the occasion, will see the band joined by the Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra, the Polish Radio Choir and Iceland’s leading artists, including Jóhan Jóhannsson, already known to Kraków’s audiences. Formed in 1997, múm reach for electronic glitch as well as for traditional instruments; the unique atmosphere of their music is completed by the vocals. Although the group uses means typical of pop music, their projects simply cannot be classified that way. Kraków’s two hour long symphonic extravaganza of newly arranged compositions and unique instrumentation by the most colourful representatives of the Icelandic scene will be presented in the unique setting of the Nowa Huta plant. It’s worth noting that this will be múm’s last concert before a planned long break from live performances.

Modern Classic, or Scandinavian distinction

The festival’s main trend will be presented in the Modern Classic scene (13-16 September). Some appreciate Scandinavian music for its colourful subtlety, others for its emotional restraint, others still sense the space between sounds. Works by composers from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will be presented by eight of the finest European groups specialising in performing contemporary music. The Łaźnia Nowa Theatre and the Museum of Municipal Engineering will resound with 34 pieces. The majority will be performed for the first time in Poland, and 5 will be world premieres.

13 September will introduce us to music by the Finn Magnus Lindberg (Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, 7pm) and the Swede Klas Torstensson (Museum of Municipal Engineering, 10pm). The 52-year-old Lindberg went through periods of fascination with all possible avant-garde trends. In his youth he challenged traditional compositional techniques, although his prejudices against historicism of sound eased with age. More recently his works have been almost impressionist, without the previous aggression, at times gentle in style. Torstensson, 7 years older, is fascinated with electronic and computer music. He refers to the immense expanses of his native Sweden in his works. As he said himself, he has also used a recording of radio waves distorted by the aurora borealis: “I processed that recording in the studio until I got a beautiful, multilayer sound. If the aurora made a sound, that would be it!” Lindberg’s music will be performed by artists from the Parisian Ensemble intercontemporain, while Torstensson’s by the excellent Dutch fusion Asko | Schönberg. It’s worth adding that Torstensson has been living in the Netherlands since 1973 where he collaborates with local musicians.

Odin and Thor will continue their reign over the audiences on Tuesday 14 September. To start with, Ensemble Modern will perform in Łaźnia Nowa (7pm). The Frankfurt special task group will perform music by Anders Hillborg, one of Sweden’s most outstanding contemporary composers and... rock musician and composer of film music. It’s hard to label the Swede’s music in any way: he takes regular trips into the world of microtonality, which he can achieve with one simple action. In one of his pieces, each of the 17 string instruments is tuned individually with a precisely designed deviation from the norm. Hillborg enjoys musical contrasts: “I owe a lot to Tarkowski’s films. I’m interested in his sense of timing, his ability to change the tempo of actual film narration. He tells a story, then suddenly stops... I like the unexplained: all of a sudden, a silence. An apparent lack of succession, with no effect on the order of things,” says the composer. The world premiere of his Vaporised Tivoli for a chamber orchestra will certainly be the evening’s highlight. But not its culmination – Cikada Ensemble will stage their Kraków debut at the Museum of Municipal Engineering at 10pm. The Oslo group will perform music by Eivind Buene. The 37-years-young Norwegian doesn’t shy away from musical tradition and old styles. On the other hand he likes to improvise. His inspirations come equally from Norway’s endless landscapes and cityscapes.

The protagonists of Wednesday 15 September will be the Dane Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, 7pm) and the Finn Kaija Saariaho (Museum of Municipal Engineering, 10pm). The former describes himself as an outsider, although in fact he is one of Denmark’s most important musical characters today. This 78-year-old composer’s music is refined, at times provocative and pessimistic, while emanating a subtle sense of humour. His father was a famous Danish sculptor, giving the composer an innate sense of form and an exceptional sensitivity to the presence of music in space. For Saariaho, now a Paris resident, the priority is sound, its internal structure, energy and sonoric variability. Has her music retained the cool beauty of the northern skies? We’ll soon find out. The Danish senior’s music will be performed by the London Sinfonietta and Theatre of Voices, while Finland’s musical first lady’s by the musikFabrik group.

We will return to the land of fjords through the works of Rolf Wallin. The Norwegian’s works will be performed by Klangforum Wien, a group that has been working together for 25 years, on Thursday 16 September in Łaźnia Nowa (7pm). Wallin (b. 1957) is a composer, trumpeter and avant-garde performer. He writes intuitive music, composes using computer programmes, collaborates with a dance theatre, and creates art installations. His works combine instrumental and electro-acoustic music. The artist is famous for crossing the boundaries between musical genres and styles, moving freely between classic baroque, progressive rock and experimental jazz. We will also hear music by Hans Abrahamsen at the Museum of Municipal Engineering (10pm). Born in 1952, the Dane is a former pupil of Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, so it’s no surprise that he is guided by similar principles. Abrahamsen’s artistic universe is filled with the faith in formal clarity and technical transparency, but – above all – in music’s emotional power. His works will be performed by the experienced musicians from Ensemble Recherche.

Made in Poland, or 3x7

All concerts from the Modern Classic cycle will open with a performance of a Polish composition. That’s a new thing for the festival, and clearly an idea worth repeating: 7 outstanding Polish composers, 7 carefully selected works, 7 leading groups specialising in the interpretation of contemporary music. During the Made in Poland – Polish Music Collection stream between 13-16 September we will hear the following works: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Kleines Requiem für eine Polka Op. 66 (Asko | Schönberg), Witold Lutosławski’s Łańcuch 1 (Ensemble intercontemporain), Paweł Mykietyn’s 3 for 13 (Ensemble Modern), Krzysztof Penderecki’s Quartetto per archi (musikFabrik), Paweł Szymański’s Appendix (London Sinfonietta), Kazimierz Serocki’s Fantasmagoria (Ensemble Recherche), and Agata Zubel’s Cascando (Klangforum Wien). The Polish works will be recorded using the HD technology (5 pieces) and 3D technology (2 pieces) and issued after the festival by one of Europe’s leading contemporary music labels.

Melodic Line, or a book series on new music

The innovative Melodic Line project running alongside the festival is prepared in collaboration with the Kraków publisher Ha!art. The publishing series on contemporary music has a truly international scale. It is edited by the musicologist and music critic Daniel Cichy in collaboration with the Sacrum Profanum festival, and opens with three positions in which extensive essays will come together into a comprehensive characterisation of contemporary music in Germany, the US and the UK. Melodic Line will continue in the coming years. The next position in the series will be the New Nordic Music volume. The comprehensive essays by outstanding Scandinavian critics and journalists will complete this year’s edition of the Sacrum Profanum Festival, focused around music from Northern Europe.



8th Sacrum Profanum Festival
12-18 September
Artistic Director: Filip Berkowicz
Organiser: Krakow Festival Office
www.sacrumprofanum.com