Marek Gluziński: You could say that. Together with Łukasz Głośny we decided to give the festival a new life, modify the approach to creating the programme. From this year we won’t limit ourselves to the local music scene only. We decided to reduce the key feature of the WROsound – Wrocław itself – to the figure of a curator, a person who lives in this city, creates here and is of great importance for the local music scene. During the upcoming edition, it’s going to be Marcin Cichy, known from the Skalpel band, Kamfora club or beginnings of Blend Records.
Marcin Cichy: I feel like a rookie as it’s the first time I have ever been given such an invitation. It made me very happy and I thought it’s a great opportunity to organise a festival… of my dreams. To invite the artists who I like and who had an influence on me. To create something, I would gladly see myself.
Łukasz Głośny: We could organise a festival based on the musicians from Wrocław every year, however, as Marek said, we want to present not only what Wrocław gives but also what it takes. Including what it takes from abroad. We have been introducing changes since the 3rd edition, this year we are refreshing the way we choose the guests.
All three of you have been very important figures of Wrocław music scene for a long time – each of you used to own a music club and somehow you inspire each other. Electro-Acoustic Beat Sessions started their career in Puzzle, a club owned by Marek, Łukasz invited them later to WROsound and now they published a greatly received album with compositions of Krzysztof Komeda.
MG: If you live in one city for many years and operate in a specific environment just like me, Marcin and Łukasz, then you care about its development. It’s natural that our paths crossed now thanks to WROsound, because they had crossed before: thanks to the EABS mentioned before, Blend Records or when we used to borrow equipment from each other while running our clubs. We are aware that we’re building something together. And by “together” I don’t mean just three of us, but all the people of Wrocław that go to the concerts, buy tickets, listen to the albums, support the artists. Because this is how we build a culture and this is how we influence each other to grow.
WROsound is also a kind of reflection on the sound of our city. How does its music scene look like?
ŁG: If we’re talking about musicians from Wrocław who developed their careers outside of our city, we need to name mostly electronic and maybe hip-hop projects. Just like Tricity has a strong Yass scene, there will be no exaggeration in saying that Wrocław has a strong electronic scene.
MC: If you’re thinking about a career outside of Wrocław or the country, it is very important to get to know the foreign artists: meet them in a dressing room, give them your album. If you create music and have no place to present it, you still do it only in Wrocław. And this year’s WROsound might be an opportunity to show yourself to the world. It is very important for me to show while confronting the foreign music scene with Wrocław music scene, that what we have is also very good.
A few projects will have their premiere on the Impart stage. Can you tell what are some of the new things you have prepared for WROsound?
MC: I will present my solo project Meeting by Chance for the first time, it might be known already by a few people in Wrocław, however, it’s going to be a first concert ever performed by this “artist” and it’s going to be a premiere concert promoting the album as well as an EP published by Apollo (R&S Records) record company from London. Besides that, an album of a new band called Coals will have its premiere. The band is releasing their first album and, actually, I was responsible for mixing and mastering.
ŁG: Another premiere at WROsound are the foreign guests: Yeah But No duet, Lone and Alex Smoke. Polish bands that will visit Wrocław for the first time are: Normal Bias and JANKA – project by music producers of U Know Me Records (it will be their first live show). And the local music scene will be represented by Kroki, Club Alpino, Żółć. And all that will be completed by Long Arm – a solo project from St. Petersburg. We invited 12 projects, so there is a possibility we will surprise you till December.
WROsound has always presented different genres of alternative music, however, I have an impression that this year’s programme is really focused on electronic music. That’s a different way of playing live, after all, the music can be generated in an artificial way, by a computer. What kind of experience can we expect at such a concert at Impart?
MC: Music is an illusion. When you go to a magic show, you don’t really plan to look into the magician’s sleeves, do you? You take what they give. And I think the artworks in a similar way.
ŁG: We invited those artists, so you don’t have any doubts whether to listen to them at home or see them live. We are talking about the artists who have something new to present, just like Lone whose mix can be found on the newly released album Dj-Kicks. Alex Smoke was a star of Audioriver not such a long time ago.
We can’t complain about the lack of music events in Wrocław. We need to decide what we want to see the most rather than wait impatiently for the next festival. Why is WROsound worth going to?
MG: Well, if this is how you feel, then check how many of those events present new music trends, recent discoveries that are all around the Internet and professional magazines. It’s obvious that the commercial organisers will make rather conservative choices, according to the will of the masses, so beautifully expressed by the engineer Mamoń: I like the melodies I already know. (…) How on earth can I like a song I’ve never heard before? In contrary then – a characteristic feature of a good music festival such as WROsound – is a possibility to create some musical words, comparing fresh, experimental music genres with headliners who will guarantee a high attendance.
ŁG: I also disagree with your statement. Wrocław has a very active scene, full of very interesting events but we think there is still place for a big music festival. There is the line-up we are very excited about, a change in the Impart space: we are playing on three stages, we are setting up a dancing stage in the middle of the dance floor (remember to wear comfortable shoes and be ready for a lot of dancing), we are organising a visualisation show. A big chillout room with lawn chairs and a screen transmitting the event is being set up in the gallery.
MG: WROsound wins because it meets the most sophisticated expectations, thanks to its diversity, and most of all, its atmosphere created the audience moving between the stages, important social meetings and living the music, not only consuming it.
Interview: Jacek Sterczewski
This article is from the November issue of the Wroclaw Cultural Guide.
More: www.wrosound.com
