22^nd Sacrum Profanum 8^th–11^th November 2024

After last year's Multiversum, the Sacrum Profanum festival continues to move towards popular culture in 2024. This time without a keynote, focusing on the meaning and different interpretations of the festival name itself. Sacrum Profanum will again combine alternative and classical music, tradition and contemporary music, improvisation and composition. At the centre of the programme will be the voice – the most versatile (sometimes the most impressive) of all instruments, requiring no additional tools, a carrier of emotion and, above all, of history. We recognise the primacy of song in music (not just popular music), and it is time for its temporary dominance at Sacrum Profanum. Our visual and symbolic patron will be an unnamed pop culture icon, whose figure you will see on the poster. Don't worry – there is also enough room for abstract ‘minimal drone’ in the programme!

The festival will be opened by sung stories and concluded by songs inspired by online content. The artists we have invited refer very often to different traditions and sources when writing their own songs. Arthur Chambry uses a bardic-minstrel form of melorecitation to tell the story of the inhabitants of Rocronde – a fantastic land of deaf giants. In addition, he will play wind instruments of his own design. Harry Górski-Brown will sing old Gaelic songs about all the things we do for the love of someone. He will play the bagpipes and use electronic sounds to infuse them with a thoroughly contemporary avant-pop aesthetic. Piotr Kurek has written a piece for Apartment House in which Hawaiian legends are combined with the tradition of medieval chansons de geste (songs of heroic deeds). Interesting stories will also be told by Paweł Malinowski in a poignant lament over white winters and by Jacek Sotomski with Weronika Murek in Hypercanzonas inspired by the Internet and everyday life (with topics such as the lack of buns for hot dogs in Żabka) – it will be funny, but not always something to laugh at.

There will also be a plenty of musical and philosophical questions from the perspective of artists and performers. Barbara Kinga Majewska – this year's Sacrum Profanum artist-in-residence, whom you will hear with Apartment House, Spółdzielnia Muzyczna [Music Cooperative] and solo – wonders what songs are actually for. Particularly in the context of her own material, in which she emancipates herself from the role of a singer presenting other people's songs and becomes an artist and a performer in one. Sinfonietta Cracovia's concert will feature the piece Transinstrumentalism. Its author Jacek Sotomski asks questions about the relevance and “necessity” of new instrumental music in a world dominated by institutions, technology and off-the-shelf culture. Similar reflections will also recur in a concert by distinguished students of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow. Young artists reflect on what it means to perform music 'live'. Does the composer have control over the performance? What is more important: precision or improvisation? Their music is ready to be presented to a wide audience, and Sacrum Profanum supports not only debut artists but also the less recognisable ones who deserve your attention.

During the last concert, we will hear a piece by Oskar Tomala, presented at Spółdzielnia Muzyczna’sPlayground open call, after which our team decided that we want this kind of music at Sacrum Profanum. His piece is a ‘just intonation’ minimalism where we will seek a balance between the pulse of the city and the static audiosphere of nature. In turn, Apartment House will perform Jędrzej Siwek's first instrumental score (his debut as a non-performing composer). You may remember last year's Requiem – after this material, to our delight, Jędrzej took up composing for instruments, and Sacrum Profanum seems to be the ideal place to present the results of this activity. We are looking forward to working with the local contemporary music community – not only the Academy of Music but also Sinfonietta Cracovia and Spółdzielnia Muzyczna ensembles. Look out for our presence at Wesoła – apart from concerts, you can also expect additional events, including Jędrzej Siwek’s musical workshop Experiment!

We are also experimenting with the form of concerts – this time some of them will take place in unusual circumstances. Jennifer Walshe's Passenger will be performed in the dark, with Sinfonietta Cracovia's musicians placed around and among the audience to enhance the sense of immersion in the wandering sound. In Rafał Zapała’s quasi-utilitarian piece Scrolling to Zero for meditation practice, we will focus on the end of the world as we know it with Apartment House, meditating on the word 'End’ together. We would also like to invite you to an unusual piano recital – with no set programme or ending, no division between the audience and the artist – creating a shared meeting space. Marino Formenti will play pieces requested by the participants. A peculiar request concert! We are also launching a new Physical Culture series combining recreational and sporting activities with music. The first event is this year's Cardio by Peter Peszat. Whether it is a cardio workout session with a professional trainer, a contemporary music concert with a flutist improvising with extended techniques, or an electronic music set with rhythm and intervals tailored to an effective workout? See for yourself (be sure to wear sportswear and footwear). See you there!

Krzysztof Pietraszewski

artistic director of the festival