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SpaceFest!
Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space Festival
Shoegaze, space rock and alternative festival and workshops

GDANSK – LAZNIA CCA / FABRYKA BATYCKI
WORKSHOPS: 6-8.12.2011 / CONCERTS: 9-10.12.2011

 

SpaceFest! in a music project realised by Nasiono Association and CCA Laznia. It focuses on such alternative genres as shoegaze and space-rock. The name of the festival is a reference to the album title “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” by Spiritualized, one the most popular representative of British shoegaze scene in the 90’s. Initially we’re inviting artists from Poland and Great Britain to participate in the project in order to present the British roots of shoegaze music, and at the same time, to help promote Polish bands experimenting with these kinds of music.

 The concerts played together could also make for a splendid opportunity for the musicians from both countries to begin cooperation on common projects. We want to create possibilities for Polish and foreign music artists to exchange experiences, ideas, to play concerts together. Our goal is to facilitate cooperation between musicians and helping to develop common international music and art projects.

 

Workshops

SpaceFest! will consist of three-day workshops for 15 musicians fromPoland and the UK held in Laznia CCA on 6-8 December. Raymond Dickaty, a British saxophonist improviser, in 1997-2002 a member of Spiritualized, cooperating among the others with Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Stereolab, Lush, Cornershop, Dr. John – will create the programme of the workshops together with Karol Schwarz (Prawatt, KSAS) who manages Nasiono Records. Among the musicians invited to participate in the workshop there are also: Jaime Harding (Marion), Piotr Pawlak (Kury, Łoskot), Wojciech Jachna (Conteporary Noise Sextet), Marcin “Dzidzia” Zabrocki (Pogodno, PuPuPiDu), Antoni Budziński (Klimt), Borys Kossakowski (Towary Zastępcze).

The main aim of the workshops is to create the international instrumental band Pure Phase Ensemble and to compose together the music which will be presented to the audience during the festival. The musicians will create 7 songs based on a certain key tones extracted from Pure Phase Tones for DJ’s by Spiritualized.

The workshop part of the project will be concluded by a presentation by Simon Scott (of the legendary group Slowdive). It will include the band’s personal pictures, unreleased songs and video clips. It will be followed by a panel discussion with festival artists moderated by a music journalist Przemysław Gulda.   

 

 

Concerts

The concerts will be held on 9-10 December in Gdansk in Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art and Fabryka Batycki  (http://fabrykabatycki.pl/).

Over 10 shoegaze, space-rock and alternative Polish and British bands will play gigs on 9-10 Dec, among them White Noise Sound (UK), Ścianka (PL), Jaime Harding (UK), Klimt (PL) and Simon Scott (UK). The concerts played together will make a splendid opportunity for the musicians from both countries to begin cooperation on common projects.

The performance by Pure Phase Ensemble – the collective of 15 musicians playing songs composed during the workshop at Laznia CCA will be another high point of the festival.

We also intend to promote young, promising, debuting bands during the festival. To do so, apart from making our own research, we will also announce a competition on our websites and in music press to enrol newcomers from Poland and abroad. The bands who send in the best demos will be invited to play at SpaceFest!

 

SpaceFest! plus Brit Cult

The first edition of SpaceFest! is included in a broader programme of BRIT CULT Festival organized by Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art and supported by British Council. The main idea of the festival is to present to the Polish audience elements of British culture through a selection of events realized during the period of Gilbert & George’s exhibition “Jack Freak Pictures” inGdansk. The project aims to show the most interesting phenomena of contemporary art and British culture, focus on its language, current trends, tendencies, and directions. Its goal is to present the immense potential of the young generation in confrontation with the art of established artists. 

 

Organisation: Karol Schwarz, Anna Szynwelska

Co-operation: Bartosz ‘Boro’ Borowski, Piotr Czerski, Michał Jaskólski, Joanna „Frota” Kurkowska, Jarosław Marciszewski, Natalia Taranta

 

SpaceFest! festival is realized by Nasiono Association in cooperation with LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art, the British Council and thanks to the support of the City of Gdansk and House clothing company. BRIT CULT project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland