We’re delighted to be partnering with the amazing Sineater Festival in Shropshire to present one of our Supersonic Kids Gigs. Leading the Kids Gig is Woven Skull – think “minimal psychedelic repetitions made inside of haunted woods & burning bogs.” This will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 21st June. This is recommended for children under 10 and their families.
Tickets for the festival can be purchased from HERE

Ever since Schoenberg and Kandinsky became pen pals back in 1907, avant-garde art and experimental music has been attempting to find some common ground. But, it’s not been easy. Here’s Capsule’s contribution towards a solution: Supersonic Kids Gigs ‘Big Sounds for Little People’. If you couldn’t guess from the snappy title, it’s a gig for kids and their families, which aims to introduce children to experimental music at an early age. Kids Gigs provide a fantastic opportunity to show children the beauty of live music.

Woven Skull

Previous Supersonic Kids Gig with artist Sarah Kenchington at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

We’ve had some great reviews already including The Times naming Supersonic as ‘Excellent’ with 4/5 stars and the Arts Desk giving us 5/5, The Quietus wrote ” Supersonic 2014 was a revitalising and refreshing weekend of challenging – and incredibly good fun – music in excellent company, and a pleasing air freshener against the stench of nostalgia one all too often encounters elsewhere. Here’s to 2015?” Nine Hertz claimed “there’s nothing like it in the world.”

We will start posting up our Supersonic Collective memory over the next few days, so feel free to send your comments, let us know what your highlights were, blog post links and photos to us.
 Supersonic photos should be added to our Flickr group (if you could tag them with band name & supersonic 2014)

A massive thank you to all the artists, our incredible team, especially the amazing Supersonic volunteers and of course our audience for making this years Supersonic Festival Ltd Edtn a truly remarkable event. It is always such a pleasure to welcome back old friends and make new ones. Thank you & we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

SUPERSONIC QUESTIONNAIRE

We know that people who come to SUPERSONIC are a knowledgeable and opinionated lot so we’d like to ask for your assistance to develop and improve the next festival by answering a few questions about you and your experience. This should take no more than a few minutes of your time, and your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Your answers here will aid us in keeping our work going and in making sure new and interesting artists will keep coming to the festival – so your input really does matter in making SUPERSONIC work.

Lisa Meyer, Capsule/Supersonic director was  Stuart Maconie’s guest on the BBC 6 Music’s the Freakier Zone on 7  June.

“Birmingham’s premiere experimental music festival has revealed its final selection of acts.

Anyone who’s managed to hike out to Supersonic before knows how bloody good it is, and how much its organizers have done to make sure it’s a sidestep from the competition. While the majority of other festivals fight amongst themselves trying to snatch identikit lineups of bedraggled nostalgia-core reduxes and hype dance acts that’ll be forgotten in six months, Supersonic has solidified its legacy by simply picking excellent music.”
A wonderful right up from FACT Read full preview HERE

Don’t miss out folks we have just released a limited number of extra weekend tickets but be warned they are going quickly and once they’re gone they’re GONE. Buy tickets HERE

Full line up: Agathe Max/Alien Whale/Anta/Backwards/Basic House/Chris Brokaw/Evil Blizzard/EX Easter Island Head/Felix Kubin/Jenny Hval/Kunnst/Matmos/Opium Lord/Pharmakon/Rattle/Sleaford Mods/Sly & The Family Drone/Swans/Wolf Eyes/Youth Man
+ Bill Drummond talk/If Wet Salon/ Film takover with Death Waltz Records + The Duke Mitchell Film Club – cake and much

more!

Our annual programme of big sounds for little people returns! These Supersonic Kids Gigs act as an introduction to experimental music for children and their families. Taking place on Friday May 30th in the foyer of Symphony Hall , kicking off at 10:30am. This is a free event and recommended for children under 10 and their families.

Leading this Kids Gig is artist Sarah Kenchington who makes, designs and adapts acoustic musical instruments. She performs on a semi mechanical pedal

powered orchestra, designed to be slightly beyond her control, creating a mixture of dirty noise and plaintive almost tuneful melodies.

As well as her solo performances Sarah has performed and recorded with a range of musicians from Glasgow’s vibrant experimental music scene including Daniel Padden, Mark Vernon and Luke Fowler. She also builds large scale instruments and installations, including ‘Wind Pipes’ for Edinburgh art festival, made from salvaged church organ pipes. And ‘Sound House’ for Modern Art Oxford, an instrument made from a house.

Wind Pipes for Edinburgh – Daniel Padden (full version) from Edinburgh Art Festival on Vimeo.

Back by popular demand and after a successful 10 years of existence, Supersonic Festival return and are taking the event back to its core values

by curating ‘Supersonic Festival Ltd Edtn’ an intimate two day event. On 30th and 31st May, Capsule present Supersonic Festival Ltd Edtn and shall return to the Custard Factory where it all began.

Since the inception of Supersonic Festival in 2003, Capsule have firmly established the event as a unique, inner-city festival, with an undeniably vibrant atmosphere, always presenting a variety of performers – the inaugural event featured the bewildering blend of Coil, DJ Food, LCD soundsystem, The Bug and more – and where the film programme, workshops and exhibitions are as paramount to the event’s atmosphere as the live performances. Year in, year out, Capsule unite discerning music fans, embracing eclectic tastes and have over the years adapted a creative space for music lovers, musicians, artists, filmmakers, record stalls and independent businesses to thrive.

As this is a limited event, there are only 400 weekend tickets available at just £45 and they will be going on sale on Friday morning at 10am, so grab them while you can via the www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Supersonic have already confirmed the billing for the event, which will take place at a new space within the Custard Factory, and are delighted to welcome back Swans. 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.

Baltimore duo Matmos shall bring their dizzyingly diverse assemblage to Supersonic Limited in support of their 2013 album. Their music comprises stomping techno, eerie synth

jams, musique concrete, Latin rhythms, and Ethiopian music, at once at home in the academy, the art gallery, the nightclub and the noise warehouse, perfect fit for the festival then.

Liverpool based ensemble, Ex Easter Island Head, will bring their expanded Large Electric Ensemble which includes twelve prepared electric guitars and drums to create a maximalist wash of amplified strings and droning overtones. 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. Microtonal intervals create shimmering tones akin to the struck metallophones of Balinese gamelan, whilst the thrum of electrified strings creates a dense undertow of singing harmonies. Scored in custom notation the piece places free flowing passages alongside conductor cues, allowing the players to collectively create a distinctive sonic landscape. What Supersonic event would be complete without something special such as this?

Supersonic are pleased to welcome back, the infamous blistering noise of Wolf Eyes. From touring with Sonic Youth and Andrew W.K., Wolf Eyes have crossed borders into popularity which few other such confrontational units of their ilk have been able to and kept straight and narrow on their blazing path, and are on top form. The overwhelming force of Wolf Eyes must be seen to to be believed.

Sleaford Mods will bring their aggressive verbal onslaught to the Custard Factory, a great setting to spout about all that is contrived and connected to the day-to-day hammer of low paid employment and domestic situations arising from that trap.

Also returning to the festival, is French artist Agathe Max. With an elegant command of melody and a strident use of rhythm, Max creates dynamic, fast-flowing loop pieces that encompass noise, post-classicism and krautrock with nods to the High Lonesome Raga as filtered through Henry Flynt.

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.”

Finally, provocative Norwegian singer, composer, lyricist and writer Jenny Hval shall perform at Supersonic. 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. We cannot wait!

Let’s not forget the other elements which always make Supersonic so special, the workshops and participatory events. Supersonic have selected If Wet to feature at the festival. If Wet is a monthly event of sonic exploration, usually held in a rural village hall; chaired by musical instrument designers MortonUnderwood. Part show and tell, part test bed, part salon. A place for artists to showcase their latest sonic works and research. A place 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.

Supersonic Ltd Edtn will launch Capsule’s inaugural ‘Labs’ (artist development and commissioning scheme) devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art. More information about this will be coming soon.

Bill Drummond: The 25 Paintings
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

We’re very pleased to announce that legendary punk band The Ex will perform on Friday 18th April at the Hare & Hounds. More details and tickets to come soon, but make sure you put this one in your diary cos The Ex are an incredible live experience.

“An Ex show is a shared experience, they take the audience on a musical adventure to places no one has been before“. The Quietus

The adventurous and inspiring Dutch punk/noise/jazz/whatever quartet have defied categorization ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as their starting point they have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day.

After 33 years, more than 25 albums and around 1800 performances, the band continues to work as they did in when they began, completely independent of record companies, managers or roadies. Because of this ‘do it yourself’ work ethic The Ex is still a great example for other forward-thinking bands and musicians.

www.theex.nl

Click through to hear our August playlist, with a Bring To Light focus, it features Kogumaza, Shangaan Electro, Sleaford Mods, Josephine Foster, High Wolf and more.

soundcloud.com/supersonic-festival/sets/capsule-playlist-august-2013

Full line up :

Dinos Chapman / Shangaan Electro / Josephine Foster / Clipping / Deafheaven / Masaki Batoh / Robedoor / Zomes / High Wolf / Kogumaza / Richard Dawson / Sleaford Mods / Sarah Angliss / Delia Darlings / Laurence Hunt / Hordes

Weekend tickets are limited make

sure you get them in advance from theticketsellers.co.uk

Thanks to Cathy Soreny and Emma Vickers of Tinnitus Jukebox for sharing their video of Justice Yeldham aka Lucas Abela performing live at last year’s Supersonic Festival. They’re currently making a documentary about Lucas’ Vinyl Rally installation, one of the highlights of Supersonic 2012.

As Justice Yeldham, Abela creates an other-worldy sound by pressing his face and lips against glass whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries.

Justice Yeldham – live @ Supersonic 2012 – full performance from Tinnitus Jukebox on Vimeo.

Supersonic Festival returns 25-27 April 2014. In the meantime, there’s heaps going on at the Library of Birmingham Discovery season, including a Supersonic-esque line up at Bring to Light 25-27 October, featuring Dinos Chapman, Robedoor, Josephine Foster, Masaki Batoh, High Wolf and more