6-10 DECEMBER 2011

Shoegaze, space rock and alternative festival and workshops

SpaceFest! in a music project focusing on such alternative genres as shoegaze and space-rock. The name of the festival is a reference to the album title “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” by Spiritualized, the most popular representative of British shoegaze scene in the 90’s.

SpaceFest! will consist of three-day workshops for musicians from Poland and the UK held in Łaźnia CCA. Raymond Dickaty, a British saxophonist improviser, in 1997-2002 a member of Spiritualized, cooperating among the others with Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Stereolab, Lush, Cornershop, Dr. John – will create the programme of the workshops together with Karol Schwarz (Prawatt, KSAS) who manages Nasiono Records. The main aim of the workshops is to create the international instrumental band Pure Phase Ensemble and to compose together the music which will be presented to the audience during the festival and to integrate British and Polish artists, to serve as a platform for future collaborations. 

White Noise Sound, promotional materials

The workshop part of the project will be concluded by a presentation by Simon Scott (of the legendary group Slowdive) and a panel discussion with festival artists moderated by Przemysław Gulda which will also officially commence the concert part of the project, during which over 10 British and Polish bands and singers will perform, e.g. White Noise Sound, Ścianka and Jaime Harding (Marion). 

Ścianka, materiały prasowe

The idea of incorporating alternative music event in the programme of Brit Cult came from the phenomena characteristic for the UK and not so often seen in the other countries – strong collaborations of recognized visual artists with contemporary alternative musicians, for example: Damien Hirst with Blur, Jake Chapman with Spiritualized or PJ Harvey, Tracy Emin with Harper Simon, Douglas Gordon and Rufus Wainwright. The idea of inviting musicians to create music inspired by art or within gallery spaces is also somehow reflecting the project “Tate Tracks” realized by Tate Modern where Graham Coxon, Klaxons, The Long Blondes and several other musicians recorded songs inspired by works of art presented in the gallery.

Detailed programme of the festival events and more info on the project: www.spacefest.pl

Project Curators: Anna Szynwelska i Karol Schwarz

SpaceFest! festival is realized by Nasiono Association in cooperation with Łaźnia CCA, the British Council and the City ofGdansk .