Asymmetry Festival 4.0 @ Browar Mieszczański, Wroclaw, Poland, 03-05/05/2012

The organizers of Asymmetry Festival, have confirmed the arrival of the first two acts of the next year's edition of the festival. The post-hardcore oracle, the Belgian Amenra and an underground ensemble of masters, admired by David Tibet himself - Æthenor. These are the first announcements of the next year's festival.

However, this is not the end of surprises, as the festival will take place from the 3rd until the 5th of May, 2012, in a new localization. After three years of holding office at the Firlej Club, the Bourgeoisie Brewery [Browar Mieszczański] will become the festival's new home - erected at the end of the XIX century, it is a historic brewery complex, characterized with a unique industrial architecture. The popular Brewery is an alternative localization on the cultural map of Wroclaw.

"We need more space, more aura, more peculiar microclimate. There are more and more festival attendees arriving each year, so a move had to take place at some point. I'm sure, that the walls of the Brewery will be an ideal 'arena' for Asymmetry." - says Robert Chmielewski, the Asymmetry Festival director. Æthenor, an international super-group founded in 2006, is an improvisational project of Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), KTL) Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver) Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver, Arcturus) and Steve Noble (N.E.W., Company, Rip Rig and Panic, etc) - a key member of the British Free Jazz Improvisation scene. These dark ambient and experimental music representatives, have released 4 albums in five years, with the most recent one, "En Form For Blå", released in 2011, that documents the continued evolution of this unlikely collective, a collision of players from various avant, improv, metal, and "other" threads who together make a unique and arresting sound.

Noble, having spent a couple of decades playing drums with Derek Bailey and other well-known UK improvisers, moves the music along subtly, keeping much of the focus on the burbling sound mass. O'Malley's guitar, an instrument of extreme viscera in Sunn O))), is used with restraint, providing occasional low menace but mostly mixing it up with O'Sullivan's thematic lines and Rygg's sound treatments. The overall effect is atmospheric rather than sedate - something like a modern, small group version of Miles Davis' classic "He Loved Him Madly" or Nurse with Wound's "Spiral Insana." Other than Supersilent, it's hard to think of anyone really working this sonic vocabulary - this is a bold engagement from players who are well-known for completely different reasons from the strangeness heard here.

David Tibet says Æthenor "are alchemical, full of primitive intensity. Their music resembles a clear, star-filled sky, which all of a sudden, is crossed by a horrifying rumble of thunder". Amenra are a trademark, which needs no introduction. During the festival, they will present two live shows, exclusively - acoustic and a traditional one. Amenra originated in 1999. From its beginnings, it was almost impossible to label the band's output. Their music is, foremost, a screamy vocal, low tones and harsh riffs - and all of the aforementioned, engrossed in a post-hardcore/sludge stylistic. Besides touring on their own and with Neurosis, the band has been branching out. They have released an acoustic record, compiled a book, took part in various art exhibitions and held the now legendary "23.10" concert which was later followed by a live DVD. In the last months Amenra's eyes have been directed straight at the future. Having found a home in the NeurotRecords, both ambitions and expectations for their upcoming release, "Mass V", the band's fifth studio album are high. Fans say, that the only way of discovering the entire magic resting in their music, is seeing them live.

We would like to invite you to follow the Asymmetry Festival web site which will soon be presented with a wholly new layout. You can find all the vital information about the festival on the web page.

ana // 07/11/2011