There is a festival in Krakow that can only be described as alchemy. The symbol of impossible knowledge in the physical world, in the world of thoughts – decomposition and synthesis, an endless number of combinations leading to a mystical transformation. The new Sacrum Profanum is a multi-threaded composition of 20th century academic music, mad avant-garde and indie classical. The aesthetic and intellectual adventure of the highest sort will last from the 1st to the 8th of October.

“Sacrum Profanum never ceases to amaze. The combination of seemingly diverse musical threads combines here in one, cohesive substance”, said Izabela Helbin, director of the Krakow Festival Office. “The festival is constantly evolving, and its 14th edition is not only a cycle of intriguing concerts, but also a series of accompanying events – discussion panels, exhibitions and meetings with artists. All of this will take place under one name – Sacrum Profanum 2016 – which will transform Krakow for 8 long days”– Helbin added.

Eight days, nine concerts, including two operas, and an immeasurable diversity of contemporary music – this is the new face of Sacrum Profanum. Let us begin with something the festival would not exist without – 20th century music. First and second, Karlheinz Stockausen and Luciano Berio. The former created pieces that moved the borders of cognition, such as the Für kommende Zeiten from 1970, created in the course of meetings and preparations of both musicians. Meanwhile, we will have the opportunity to hear Berio twice: apart from the performance with Stockhausen, the festival finale (8.10) will feature Laborintus II, the synthesis of arts enclosed in music. The Ictus Ensemble will perform the instrumental parts, whereas Mike Patton will take care of vocals. This is the outstanding resumé of this year’s multi-directional Sacrum Profanum.

We will see another face of Berio on the 2nd of October. Two of his pieces, performed by the musikFabrik ensemble – a subtle instrumentation, pierced with a raw voice (Naturale) and an abstract, harmonic graphic painted with sound (Points on the Curve to Find) will be juxtaposed with compositions by Marcin Stańczyk, a renowned composer of the young generation – with the piece commissioned for the festival and the Blind Walk, which the audience will listen to while wearing blindfolds.

Third will be the man without whom the 20th century would not be whole, the late Pierre Boulez, to whom a tribute will be paid on the 3rd of October by the Ensemble InterContemporain with the piece composed by the master himself, titled Sur incises. This intense composition is about the nature of music – sounds, harmonies and space.

Sacrum Profanum will also have an element reaching far into the past, an opera in two instalments – the onomatopoeic Korall Koral, for children under the age of three (with three plays on Saturday, 8th of October) and then Folie à Deux by Emily Hall with libretto written by Sjón, featuring the famous Mira Calix, well-known to the local audience (6.10.)

Another aspect of Sacrum Profanum will be the avant-garde, toying with the traditional understanding of music. This stream will start with the first part of the concert on October 3rd, before Sur incises, the Ensemble InterContemporain will perform a piece by two outstanding artists – Mai Ratkje and Agata Zubel. Concerto for Voice (moods IIIb) combines the voice of the Norwegian vocalist –stripped of any clear articulation – with a noisy instrumental part. In the fully instrumental Double Battery, composed by Agata Zubel for Boulez’s ensemble, a constant struggle between the persistent scraping of the orchestra and the wild bass clarinets can be heard.

The concert on the 4th of October will turn into a ritual, led by the zeitkratzer from Berlin, based on the compositions of the masters and their apprentices – Witold Szalonek, Reinhold Friedl, Zbigniew Karkowski and Kasper T. Toeplitz. Moreover, Toeplitz will write a piece specially for the festival.

There will be also something outside of the music sensu stricto – Rondo means circle, an exhibition prepared together with the Bunker of Art Gallery, presenting the creations by Anna Zaradny, a composer and visual artist. The circle means perfection, an absolute, repetition, cycle and closure. The many meanings of this term and its omnipresence, also in the composition of music will open the new chapter of artistic interdisciplinarity in the Bunker of Art between the 17th of September and the 10th of December 2016.

And thus we get to indie classical, a musical movement combining academic approach with alternative. The opening concert of this year’s Sacrum Profanum festival on the 1st of October will be a tribute to independence and inspiration. Bedroom Community vs. Bedroom Community. The greatest musicians of the Iceland collective will perform the greatest works by the composers, connected with the group. Of course, there will also be a Polish accent – apart from Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota, Daníel Bjarnason and Valgeir Sigurðsson we are also going to see Spółdzielnia Muzyczna and Barbara Kinga Majewska.

The talented experimentalist soprano is also going to perform on the 5th of October, during the concert devoted to John Zorn – monumental in the concept and performed by a modest amount of musicians. Certainly, it is going to be one of the brightest points of the festival – the pieces, composed by Zorn in 1991–2013 will be performed by the renowned Arditti Quartet and Stephen Drury, an outstanding pianist. It is the first event featuring the art that became the spiritus movens of the New York avant-garde.

On the 7th of October we are going to see the great Mike Patton for the first time. Before the final concert, he will present us with the greatest quality sample of his vocal abilities. Together with Eyvind Kang, a violinist and a composer, as well as the Sinfonietta Cracovia Ensemble they will present pieces from the Virginal Co-Ordinates album – the fusion of improvised music, captured in the organised framework of classical music.

Of course, those are not all of the events comprising the substance of this year’s Sacrum Profanum. More information will be released soon.