Aaron Turner, Aidan Baker, Alvin Lucier, Apartment House, Arditti Quartet, avant-garde, children, Eliane Radigue, eroticism, H.M. Górecki, Jennifer Walshe, John Cage, Julius Eastman, Lubomyr Melnyk, minimalism, Moondog, Murcof, Oren Ambarchi, Pauline Oliveros, Petr Kotik, postinternet, Raphael Roginski, Romanian spectralism, SEPR, Stephen O'Malley, Toby Driver, Tomasz Stańko, early electronic music… All that will be on offer in Krakow from 26 September to 1 October at the Sacrum Profanum Festival. Welcome to the discomfort zone!

“This year during Sacrum Profanum, everything is important: from its dense, internally linked, aesthetically diversified programme, through a multitude of venues scattered around Nowa Huta, Kazimierz, Podgórze and Ludwinów, up to its intensified formula” – says the Festival Curator Krzysztof Pietraszewski. ”The Festival is shorter – it lasts 6 days, but it offers twice as many concerts compared to the previous year. The opening day and the weekend days abound with 4 concerts each and two concerts are planned for every other day. In total, the programme offers 20 concerts for all those who are in for intensity and the Festival celebration. If you ever lost the track reading a longer column or lost temper in the 3rd season of Twin Peaks, just take the challenge and go to a few hours long meditational gig, listen to an hour-long minimalist composition. Test your perception! Do you prefer shorter forms? Do not miss the almost singing opening and a musical tribute to Moondog”, Pietraszewski encourages the audience.

This year’s opening will be unique and spectacular. The concert Four Times Two hosts four duos. First Lubomyr Melnyk and Melvyn Poore – the fastest pianist in the world and the creator of continuous musicwith the exceptional tubist of Musikfabrik, whose tube sounds like a full-fledged solo instrument, will perform an hour-long composition The Voice of Trees for two pianos and three tubas. Later Murcof (Fernando Corona) and Vanessa Wagner – a Mexican sound artist and a French pianist, who prepared their own versions of pieces written by such composers as John Cage (In a Landscape), Arvo Pärt (Variations For The Healing of Arinushka), György Ligeti (Musica Ricercata n°2), and Morton Feldman (Piano Piece 1952). Next to the classical Wagner’s rendition we will hear Murcof’s electronic background and manipulations, boldly challenging interpreted compositions. Małgorzata Walentynowicz and Frauke Albert, in their concert Série Rose, will highlight the sexual, sensual, erotic and even pornographic aspects of new music. On the programme: Laurie Anderson, Johannes Kreidler, Jennifer Walshe and other composers. And, last but not least, Bartek Wąsik and Barbara Kinga Majewska. He is a pianist, arranger and co-founder of Kwadrofonik. She is a voice and word artist. They met as interpreters performing modern scores. Their liking for the song brought them together. As Bardo they move between various categories and genres, remaining faithful to their own art.

This year’s Sacrum Profanum is also the musical tribute to Moondog and Julius Eastman, whose stories will be resumed many times during this year’s Festival edition. Moondog –a blind artist – led the life of a street poet and a musical freak. He used to spend time on the 6th Avenue, where he often stood in the Viking attire. He was appreciated by Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Artur Rodziński, but has attracted attention of a wider audience quite recently. Would he become famous if he was not so eccentric? Was he not ”a Viking”, would his music be now heard at fine venues? Dedalus and Muzzix Ensemble, Cabaret Contemporain, Raphael Rogiński i Natalia Przybysz with Slovenian ensemble will be trying to answer this question during the Sacrum Profanum Festival.

Julius Eastman, about whom his friends -- Petr Kotik and Joseph Kubera – will talk, and whose compositions will be performed by S.E.M. Ensemble, Arditti Quartet and Apartment House – was an Afro-American, a gay, and in the last phase of his life also a drug addict. In his art, until recently largely forgotten, he advocated for the excluded, and because of that he was deprived of a privileged position, including his academic career. Would he become known today, or perhaps would still be excluded by the people who felt uncomfortable in his presence?

Can important aspects of music originate only in western culture? The members of Afrika Express, an organisation promoting African culture in the West, who brought together the greatest African musicians and world-renowned stars – Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Andi Toma, André de Ridder – probably think not. Musicians from Bamako, the capital of Mali, prepared for us In C Mali. Together with special guests from Poland, they will perform the composition as a manifesto of tolerance (Sunday, 1 October).

Outside the city centre, the audience of Sacrum Profanum will watch Romanian spectralism. It is due to that stream that music has gained the fourth dimension – depth. Hyperion Ensemble will familiarise us with the repertoire of the best of spectralism: Horațiu Rădulescu, Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram (Saturday 30 September). Can we be drown in sounds? Together with the Romanian ensemble, Stephen O’Malley and Oren Ambarchi will be floating in the sound. They will also to be heard during the concert Drone, asking completely different questions. Such as: Is it possible and is it right to change your work methods at the age of 76, just as Eliane Radigue? If so, with what result?

How patient we are? Is an excess of content harmful? Quiet Music Ensemble will be trying to find the answer performing David Toop’s, Alvin Lucier’s, Jennifer Walshe’s, Pauline Oliveros’ and Rishin Singh’s pieces. The latter will answer the question what musical meditation might be for Sacrum Profanum.

Sacrum Profanum does not only speak to the grown audience or connoisseurs. We also ask kids how they perceive music. What does attract them the most? The answers will be found at two events addressed to the youngest audience: Efter/Sóley/DMK/AsiKIDS (Saturday, 30 September) and the concert-opera Dragon-zooto Julian Skar’s music (Sunday, 1 October).

Now, what Post Indie Classical is and does it really exist? Faith Coloccia, Aaron Turner, Toby Driver, Aidan Baker, Mika Rättö, Jussi Lehtisalo and Paweł Kulczyński will answer this question especially for us at Sacrum Profanum. With this event in mind they have written pieces that will be performed by Spółdzielnia Muzyczna in Nowa Huta Cultural Centre (Saturday, 30 September).

We will also ask about the relationship between composition and improvisation. At the concert Little Music/The Solitude of Sounds Polish musicians Mikołaj Pałosz, Kamil Szuszkiewicz and Kuba Sokołowski, accompanied by Adrien Lambinet, under artistic direction of the clarinettist Evan Ziporyn, will take the challenge to perform Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s music (Sunday, 1 October). How does early Polish electronic music sound in 2017? This question will be answered by Tomasz Stańko, who, at Sacrum Profanum’s invitation, agreed to perform his piece Serial created at the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio, and improvise to electronic compositions by Eugeniusz Rudnik and Tomasz Sikorski (Sunday, 1 October).

Tickets and passes are available here!