T3 tram to land at Trenčín Airport

TITTINGUR

Tittingur consists of Dominik Suchý and Matúš Mordavský: a heavy-duty duo settled between Bratislava and Copenhagen, between techno and electronics. They call their music “maximal techno”, as a sound counterpart to minimal. Last year, they released their third album, or rather a soundtrack to the permanent state of emergency, called Epiphany. Michal Kaščák once said about the band: “When I entered the club to see Tittingur, I witnessed all the skyscrapers concentrating somewhere on Mars, then crushing each other and collapsing, and the apocalyptic approach captivated me and very much amused me. (...) Tittingur are unstoppable, they should be here and play in every single possible club in the country, including the still functioning exchanger stations and cranes in the port of Bratislava.” The band also won recognition at last year’s Eurosonic, when editor Koen Poolman of OOR said he “pictured them driving in an old Russian T34 tank equipped with speakers reaching far beyond the Czech borders and that someone should book them for Roadburn and Le Guess Who? right now.”

LUISA

Female rap is still a relatively unique phenomenon in Slovakia and in combination with the sound of the new school, it is even rarer, to which Luisa ironically reacts saying that she has no competitors. She complements the typically dark beats with introspective lyrics, in which, however, she keeps lightness and that in turn makes her an insider able to undermine the otherwise predominantly masculine genre. She began recording her first tracks on Soundcloud straight from her room, until Pil C took her in. Since then, she has been working under the brand Comebackgang, where she has released two EP projects and several singles and established collaborations with well-known names of the Czech hip-hop scene, such as Yzomandias and Viktor Sheen. There she was noticed by the music magazine Fullmoon, which rightly includes Luisa among the most prominent faces of the upcoming generation.

DATA KOROPTEV (CZ/SK)

Data Koroptev is a project of three prominent musicians of the Czech and Slovak improvisation scene, which was formed for the NEXT festival in 2019. In the ever-changing flow of musical interactions, even the most obscure sound seems equally likely. Improvisational guitarist Ondrej Zajac enhances the possibilities of his instrument with effects and electronics, while producer and film composer Ondřej Ježek, together with drummer Václav Šafek, enliven various objects and small table devices. You could call the result a truly free and unlimited experimental manifestation of the 21^st century, which takes on the form of a fluid electroacoustic improvisation. Evocative audio narrations are carefully combined from surprising motifs, creating a constant dialogue between different audio personalities.

SIKSA

Siksa is a Polish discomfort riot grrl''n''bass duo. The Calvert Journal says about them: “Siksa is a Polish slang word for a naive and sexually attractive young woman. It is also the name of a band made up of singer-songwriter Alex Freixeit and bassist Buri (Piatr Buratyński).” This post-punk noise feminist duo is rooted in the punk, literary and theatrical environments; during their performances, they punch hard patriarchy and interrogate Polish consciousness. Siksa is the last representative of the future choreographic revolution of punk or unsolicited rebellion upon request and clickbait controversy.

NUN

Nun will bring drone and harmonic melodies that create a sound cathedral modelled from a wide variety of electrical impulses. The Nun project includes two bandmates of the improvisation superband IQ + 1: Petr Vrba and Michal Zbořil. Petr Vrba is a key figure in the Czech improvisation scene, the number of his projects and collaborations until today is too big and impossible to explore. He handles the trumpet and electronics. Michal Zbořil is a keyboard player who has resisted the lure of the modular trend and prefers to work with analog standalone devices such as Vermona Perfourmer nad Cwejman S1. We can expect an increased amount of drone and a diverse range of electronic sounds and noises.

Herzog Herzog

Herzog Herzog is famous with his elaborate live performances; he has released two albums, inTHISposition and Sitzfleisch, both under the Exitab label. His production is often referred to, for instance, by the term IDM (intelligent dance music), about which Herzog Herzog said: “If I didn’t know this expression and someone told me, I’d imagine dancing people with the facial expression of Štefan Hríb.” If you make it to T3 at Pohoda, you can find out not just what facial expression the dancing people will have, but also experience the great live performance of Herzog Herzog. https://herzogherzog.bandcamp.com

w y m e

w y m e, a DJ and musician from Bratislava, is valued for her rare electro-hybrid sound. She has recently started Xeno club evenings, which support the experimental club scene in Bratislava and are also a safe place for diversity, a place where different communities can meet. She described her sets for a2alarm as follows: “I enjoy music with an irregular and more complex rhythm, and also music where the structures are repeated and that overlaps in genres. I also like darker reggaeton and baile-funk, contemporary and old electro. I like to use pop fragments.”

MA’AM

MA’AM (Anna Makay) is a singer, composer and producer of electronic music from Budapest, whose pieces focus on ancient languages in a digital environment. She is active in the fields of voice improvisation, sound poetry, abstract electronics, avant-garde, noise, and experiment. Anna debuted in a joint project with Márton Csernovsky called ooo & MA’AM, which became an integral part of the Hungarian experimental scene. At the end of 2018, she released album Murmur.

Music blog Keret wrote about it: “Vocals progressing from eerily dark sounds, balanced by feminine softness: the time stops for a moment when we wander around Anna’s head.". MA’AM also works on theatre and dance performances, as a composer she worked with Viktor Szeri (Hungarian contemporary dancer) on work Blackheads. She collaborates with many artists of the Hungarian experimental and improvisation scene. She has also led Ableton workshops (voice techniques and production) at LAB / ON in Cologne.

NDS

As the name suggests, it will be a long but fast ride. By night tram pulling the asphalt all the way to Trenčín. An exclamation mark after the T3 line-up will be provided by a trio formed by Alica Volf, Vlado (Onnn), and Adam (Beton). A mixture of breakcore cut twice with tekno and techno, drained through noise, basted with ambient, sprinkled with violet house and supplemented with a folk side dish. Simply something like Autechre from a flea market. Served hot.

LENHART TAPES & TIJANA STANKOVIĆ

Lenhart Tapes is a cassette and tape manipulator and is best known for his live, striking, and unforgettable live performances. Yes, walkmans are his musical instruments and, in addition to original rhythmic loops, he creates a live mix of selected material from his collection of cassettes. As music experts say, what Lenhart Tapes does is a sophisticated and wild music genre of world-noise-ethno-industrial-folk zombie. He has long been an avid collector of audio cassettes. Field recordings, rare folk music, audio propaganda, spoken word, albums of various genres. Later he started recording and using voice samples of Tijana Stanković, and so their collaboration began.

Tijana Stanković graduated as ethnomusicologist and she grew up with traditional songs from the Balkans. She developed a taste for rough, abstract improvisation, which shaped her current repertoire. Her key instruments—violin and vocals / traditional and contemporary music—are also part of every band, orchestra or free formation she participates in. Her work is characterized by the spontaneity of traditional folklore, the search for new expressive possibilities through free improvisation, and connection of the worlds of extensive vocal and violin techniques.

MRM TRIO

The MRM Trio is made up of Serbian pianist and experimental musician Marina Dzukljev, Austrian sound activist Richard Herbst, who plays modular synthesizer, and Croatian electro-acoustic and multimedia artist Miodrag Gladović, who works with light-acoustic technologies, combining various aspects of soundproofing. The sound of the trio ranges between contemporary classical music and improvisation, drone, and noise. Together with Linz »Goon Studio« and artist Miron Milić, the MRM Trio is working on their first album, which is to be released in the spring of 2021 on Interstellar Records.

SHIBUYA MOTORS

Once upon a time, somewhere between the mountains of free jazz, the sea of death metal, and the islands of live electronics, Shibuya Motors were born. Shibuya Motors, who hold RHA 2019 in the experimental music category, consist of Miroslav Tóth (saxophone, vocals), Slávo Krekovič (electronics) and two drummers, Balázs Pándi (collaborates with names such as Merzbow, Keiji Haino, Mats Gustaffson) and Didi Kern (Fuckhead, Bulbul). Portal the-aardvark.cz wrote about Shibuya Motors: “They came, destroyed and left wide smiles on people’s faces, or how you say it.”