サバ カ ル チ ャ Unruly Music Magazine. May 2014
The Japan Issue
THE CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR TIE-DYE SNEAKER
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At Subbacultcha! we organise uncompromising concerts, exhibitions and film screenings. We also publish this monthly magazine. Become a Subbacultcha! member and support our initiative. For â‚Ź8 a month, we will send you the membership card which gives you access to all our events, the latest issue of our magazine and, when you sign up, a Subbacultcha! tote bag. See page 59 for a full list of events.
Subbacultcha! Magazine May 2014
The Japan Issue
That’s right, you’re still reading a Subbacultcha! magazine. That alien but graceful script on the cover is Japanese katakana. It reads sa-ba-ca-ru-cha. With two Japanese acts on the May roster, we jumped at the opportunity to make the Japan Issue as we’ve had our eyes on the place for a while. Enthralled by sights and sounds that are at once familiar and yet so delightfully foreign, we thought we’d scratch beneath the surface. We present to you a film programme tailored to the country, a pair of featured artists whose works, like the one above, capture a certain Japanese elegance, Xiu Xiu’s take on Tokyo cuisine, and Japanese aesthetics in the eyes of Amen Dunes.
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Colophon Subbacultcha! magazine: Da Costakade 150, 1053 XC Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.subbacultcha.nl. magazine@subbacultcha.nl Editors in chief: Leon Caren and Bas Morsch
Distribution: Patrick van der Klugt (distro@subbacultcha.nl)
Editors: Brenda Bosma and Phil van der Krogt
Interns: Marianne Eerenstein and Callum McLean
Copy editor: Megan Roberts Design: Marina Henao and Bas Morsch
Good Guys: Keimpe Koldijk, Bram Nigten and Fedor Oduber
Master of affairs: Loes Verputten Art department: Floor Kortman
Good Girls: Carly Blair, Andreea Breazu, Milou Hautus and Rose Nederlof
Printing: Drukkerij Gewa, Arendonk, Belgium Sales: Agata Bar (agata@subbacultcha.nl)
Contributors: Carly Blair, Anna Berkhof, Basje Boer, Brenda Bosma, Andreea Breazu, Zofia Ciechowska, Simone Dedola, Steve Freeman, Marc van der Holst, Mariska Kerpel, Floor Kortman, Shoko Matsuki, Callum McLean, Cait Oppermann, Lonneke van der Palen, Carlijn Potma, Mandy Sharabani, Haruka Spring, Gert Verbeek, Isolde Woudstra, Charlotte van Zanten. Distribution: Amsterdam: Charlotte van Zanten, Denis Wouters, Matthijs Looijenga, Ida Blom, Joao Silva, June ten Have, Sandrine Mary, Sören Schmidt, Stefan Stasko, Eliza Shaw, Asha Eade-Green, Marta Soltys, Robbert Stokmans, Boris Grohin Utrecht: Erik Armbrust, Ilias Karakasidis, Timo Militz, Maria Alves Rebelo, Bashar Dawoody Groningen: Hedwig Plomp Den Haag: Dineke Cornelissen Rotterdam: Luuk van Son, Jacopo Manelli, Else Kappenberg, Anouschka Scholten, Marijn Verbiesen, Marlotte Nugteren, Kiki Holle Leeuwarden: Jan Pier Brands Leiden: Sean Rowlands Haarlem: Marijn Westerlaken, Merinde Verbeek Breda: Vera Siemons Den Bosch: Bas Heijmans Delft: Daniel Enciso Eindhoven: Pernilla Ellens Nijmegen: Jessie West
Pick up Subbacultcha! magazine here (and over 500 other places) Amsterdam: Kriterion, EYE, American Apparel, Episode, CREA, De Balie, Melkweg, OT301, De Nieuwe Anita, Restored, Zipper, SPRMRKT, Concerto, Roest, Trouw, Studio/K, Atheneum, 16cc, OCCII, Time Machine, Lloyd Hotel, NASA Utrecht: Ekko, ‘t Hoogt, Tivoli, The Village, Revenge, Plato, dB’s, Cafe het Hart, Kapitaal Rotterdam: Worm, TENT, Rotown, LantarenVenster, De Witte Aap, Willem de Kooning Academie, Bar, Roodkapje And: De Effenaar, Eindhoven – Het Paard van Troje, PIP, Den Haag – Patronaat, Haarlem – Merleyn, Nijmegen – Vera, Groningen
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May Highlights May 2nd OPENING EXPO
Crisis of History
EDDIE THE EAGLE PRESENTS
Timedocument
May 5th FO OD FOR FREED OM
Vrijheidsmaaltijd aan het IJ
May 7th-8th PAR ADISO PRESENTS
London Calling
May 16th PAR ADISO PRESENTS
Ticket to the Tropics
May 24th PAR ADISO PRESENTS
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Content
ZZZ’s ジージージーズゥ page 20
Amen Dunes アーメンデューンズ page 24
Nisennenmondai にせんねんもんだい page 30 Recommendations 11 We Saw You 18 The Morning After 36 Featured Artists 38 Books 44 Fashion 46 Food 48
Music Reviews 51 New Films 54 Subbacultcha! shows 59 Agenda 71 Free Stuff 76 After Midnight 77
Cover image by Heleen Peeters
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May recommendations
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May recommendations Each month our staff provides you with a selection of the finer things in life. Enjoy!
Music: Flau Records
Music: Millie & Andrea
Thrilling things are happening at the Tokyo headquarters of Japan’s coolest label out there right now, Flau Records. Started by Yasuhiko Fukuzono in 2006, the label has been applauded for taking an astonishing amount of talent under its wings from both Japan and abroad. Sweet dream pop will move to ambient electronic drone before you even know it; it’s clear that Flau are keen to experiment. Look up these artists and be delighted: Cuushe, Noah, IKEBANA, cokiyu and Dale Berning.
The friendship between UK techno producers Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker (one half of Demdike Stare) has culminated with the release of their debut LP on Modern Love, Drop The Vowels. A rough, gritty quality runs throughout this collection of dancefloor destroyers which are beautifully messy, like that pretty boy’s scraggly hair you stroked at last night’s party. Perhaps a more visceral version of these guys’ individual projects and a promising direction to be headed.
www.flau.jp
www.modern-love.co.uk
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May recommendations Music: The Ukiah Drag
Art: Eddie The Eagle Museum Time Capsule Event Party Launch
From the DIY swamps of Florida hails this sluggish, backwoods garage band that is so legit it hurts. They grew up on grilled gator and were born out of guitarist ZZ Ramirez’s previous highly regarded redneck freak band, American Snakeskin. They just released a seven-inch on Wharf Cat Records and it’s scary good, or as they put it: ‘Writing rock’n’roll songs for us is just cake. We’re fucking great at it. We’re probably one of the best rock bands going on. It’s that easy.’ You heard the man: go get it. soundcloud.com/theukiahdrag
This is it, the main event. On 2 May Eddie the Eagle Museum are capturing the Zeitgeist in one night, and they’ve invited pretty much everyone to join them. And we mean everyone. There will be art, music, fashion, sports, nature, architecture, poetry, food, people, dogs, cats and you and us and everyone we know. The whole event will be captured on video and film but won’t be released to the public. Everything produced and presented tonight at the Tolhuistuin will be buried in a container that won’t be opened again until 2029. Can’t wait!
Art: OCCII Print Edition On 2 May, Amsterdam venue OCCII will release its first collection of original prints in a limited edtion of 75. Contributors are artists/musicians who have graced the venue with their presence over the past year. It includes outrageous artworks by Brian Chippendale, US Girls’ Meghan Remy and Wolf Eyes’ Nate Young. occii.org
02 May – Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam
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May recommendations Magazine: TOO MUCH Magazine
Misc.: Silence You can never have complete silence. Or at least that’s what John Cage realised when he went searching for it in an anechoic chamber, only to discover that his gushing blood is bloody loud. He wrote 4'33'', a three-movement composition about you: breathing, coughing and fidgeting at a concert. Today, it mostly speaks about your phone, monstrously vibrating on SILENT mode in your pocket. And yes, granted, you can’t always help it. But what you can do is shut the fuck up when you’re at a show.
Magazine: Ponytale
TOO MUCH is a magazine of romantic geography. It gathers thoughts about cities and the people who live in them. Inspired by biologist John Cairn’s discovery that the environment can alter the DNA of bacteria, the infamous Nakagin Capsule tower and the last Olympics when stopwatches were controlled by hand (Tokyo 1964), the new issue is about the body in space and time. Expect a detailed study of sitting and electronic self-hacking of the body, and prepare yourself for cosmic space that can be worn like a cloak.
Ponytale is a colourful publication that explores femininity through art, music and fashion. It’s fresh and audacious and dedicated to girls who are on the quest of finding themselves, and also ponies. This magazine is sexier than your girlfriend, and that is okay.
Issue #5 will be available soon at Athenaeum, Amsterdam
www.ponytale-stories.com
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surtitled March recommendations on thursdays in amsterdam
15 – 31 may stadsschouwburg amsterdam tour until 20 june | tga.nl 14
May recommendations Food: Nabe
Food: Inside the bento box
Do as the Japanese do and make nabe. Invite your friends to bring leftover veggies and have a healthy, hearty meal together. All you need is a broth, some cabbage and mushrooms. Eat some nabe; add onions, cilantro and sweet potato, and eat some more. If you still have a few bucks left, throw in some udon and tofu or meat. Itadakimasu. www.thekitchn.com/cooking-japanesenabemono-106649
Food: Cooking with dog
As with everything in Japan, lunch is just as outstanding as Harajuku fashion and themed karaoke parties. No old brown paper bag with smudgy cheese sandwiches, but colourful boxes with an even more colourful meals inside – think anime figures, cute animals or even Ozzy Osbourne. Bento, the Japanese word for lunch packed in a box, turns food into art – with rice, seaweed, fruit & veg and proteins like egg as the main ingredients. Makes even picky eaters hungry for more.
Because this dog makes better sushi than you do. He also has better hair days. www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog
Check out eatzybitzy.com for some intriguing lunch creations by food blogger and bento artist Samantha Lee.
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May recommendations
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May recommendations Music: Sapphire Slows Recommended by Big Love Every month we ask someone who inspires us to share something they are passionate about. This month we give the floor to Big Love, a Tokyo-based independent record store, label and promoter. They’ve been stocking our mags for years, so we were pretty sure they would know exactly what we were looking for, like fellow Tokyo local Kinuko Hiramatsu, who moonlights as Casio nightingale Sapphire Slows.
After being confronted by the 311 Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, one girl quit her job search in the last year of university and instead decided to start making music. Three months later, Kinuko Hiramatsu sent her fresh Sapphire Slows demos to two labels – the first, Tokyo’s Big Love, and the second, Los Angeles imprint Not Not Fun. Both labels quickly snapped her up and offered her a home in each country. Sapphire Slows’ debut full-length album, Allegoria, is an amalgam of sound, absorbing the varied influences of alternative, dance, acid and darkness, which float around a firm foundation of pop. It’s not just her records that have got us gushing: she’s an avid record collector herself and drops by every week to sample the latest arrivals. She doesn’t just spin the oldies, but has a keen eye for new records too. It’s a lot easier to talk about the classics, but this neo-Tokyo girl is only obsessed with the future. Well, almost: she’s more obsessed with records (and sometimes tapes) too. www.bigloverecords.jp
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We Saw You: Spotted at Subbacultcha! Photo by Mariska Kerpel
and we’re playing ‘Stwo – Lovin u’, a song by a French DJ we’ve booked for an upcoming party. What’s the first record you bought? Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Yes, I had a huge crush on Alex Turner. Your first ever music-related memory? ‘Smurfenhouse’ and going mental to it as a four-year-old. What’s your favourite pastime? Dancing. I tried to become a professional dancer for a while, but it was too hard to keep it up next to academics. What does an ideal lazy Sunday look like for you? I’m thinking of the Rhye video for ‘Open’. Any guilty pleasures? I still really like stuffed animals and children’s movies. But I don’t really feel all that guilty about it actually. Have you experienced any regrets recently? Today? Not waking up on time. What kind of music makes you cry? Old romantic songs with poetic lyrics, but also more recent beauties like ‘Song for Zula’ by Phosphorescent. Which future Subbacultcha! show are you looking forward to? Muziekgebouw at Trouw: Ben Frost + Nisennenmondai.
Name: Lianda Meijer Age: 23 Spotted at: Forest Swords and Lemon Trip at OT301 on 03 April Home: Amsterdam Keywords: literature, PR/marketing Studio/K, United Kingdom lover, dancer, NME magazine, mint tea, salmon, Oscar Wilde, historical books on 19th and early 20th century, impressionism Zodiac sign: Pisces Have you ever been to Japan? No… But if I had the chance to go I definitely would. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis on Kafka on the Shore by Japanese author Haruki Murakami and have been interested in Japanese culture ever since. What would you do, if you could go there tomorrow? In the morning I’d go shopping for a harajuki girl outfit (just to be able to blend in as a 5'8'' blond). I would have some sushi for breakfast and then go to a karaoke bar. After that I would go see a Japanese band, and in the evening, clubbing at the strangest venue I could find. What kind of music are you listening to at the moment? I’m sitting at the office of Studio/K
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ZZZ’s
Skype interview by Charlotte van Zanten Photos shot by Simone Dedola and Steve Freeman in Osaka, Japan
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The Japan Issue. Interview Plucked from obscurity following a chance encounter with Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore at a Miami noise show, Japanese trio ZZZ’s cut their razor-edged post-punk on two long US tours well before they made a dent back home. We caught up with bassist Yukari during a brief touring respite to figure out just how three childhood friends from a small town on the outskirts of Osaka could end up making such a finely-tuned racket We hear about bands from Tokyo all the time, but there’s rarely word from Osaka. What is the underground scene like there? It’s very different from Tokyo. While Tokyo is comparable to metropolitan cities like New York, filled with international people, Osaka doesn’t have that atmosphere. Instead it has a very strong authentic identity, a city full of friendly but weird individuals. There is a big underground music scene in Osaka with lots of punk rock bands. How do you spend your time when you’re not playing? I serve sake and shõchõ a few times a week. The other two work in a call centre and a pharmacy. This is how we save money to go on tour. It’s been hard for us to keep our jobs, because there’s always that moment in which we have to explain to our bosses that we’re leaving for a few weeks. It’s easier now that, we’ve all been working at the same place for a long time and our bosses have come to understand.
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ZZZ’s. Continued Do you work late? Not too late. I take the last train home. Supposedly the only reason the public transport in Japan quits around midnight is so that people can finally get away from the office. If not, bosses would keep their employees all night. Sometimes we too work like the salaryman, but it’s because we have a dream. If we want to tour the world, we need money. The problem in Japan is that everybody seems to be completely overworked. Japanese people take their jobs seriously and they feel obligated. How do your families respond to their daughters’ rock’n’roll lives? Luckily our families understand our lifestyle. My father is also a musician, he encourages me to walk my own path. The same goes for the others; we’ve been playing for ten years and they’re all supportive. The love doesn’t really seem to come through in your lyrics. You sing about dystopia and suicide; why is that? We have a first rule when we write lyrics: we only sing about reality and never about love or about personal discomforts. With our music, we try to touch on current social conditions. Everybody has his or her own reality, but we think it’s important to talk about the problems we see. We show people our reality. The songs are often about the dark side of people and they usually have a theme. ‘Dystopia’, for example, came from a movie. It was inspired by Blade Runner. Today the guitarist and me came up with a new song about ‘Karma’, inspired by the film Enter The Void. Is it about doing drugs? No, it’s not about drugs, it’s about a near death experience. We loved that scene in the toilet. ZZZ’s play on 16 May at De Nieuwe Anita in Amsterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
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The Japan Issue. Interview ‘we only sing about reality and never about love or about personal discomforts’
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The Japan Issue. Interview Love may be Damon McMahon’s fourth release as Amen Dunes, but it marks the first time he’s turned the page on his improvisational, solo affairs. Steeped in traditional song and recorded with
Amen Dunes Interview by Anna Berkhof Photos shot by Cait Oppermann in New York, USA
Colin Stetson and members of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, it’s an album crafted with precision and purpose. We talked to Damon about the ultimate devotional love, punk mentality and Japanese aesthetics 25
Amen Dunes. Continued You put the lyrics of the first song of your new album on Facebook so that people can read along while listening. Why is that important to you? Every little part of Amen Dunes to me is important. Even if the music sounds simple, the only reason it works is because I’m so careful with all the details. Lyrics for me tell you what the song means, and it’s a chance for people to get their own meaning out of it as well. So I wanted to make sure people read the lyrics. The word in the title of your new album is used in so many different ways, it’s both kitschy and very serious. Despite being so boundless, the word hasn’t lost its meaning. What do you mean by it here? Well, I picked it for a real reason and then I picked it for a cheeky reason. The cheeky reason is that I’m on this label with all these kind of dark bands; everybody is trying to show that they’re more dark and more weird. I love the punk mentality, so I thought, What is the most punk thing I can do? The most punk thing I can do is to call it Love. It’s the least dark thing you can possibly say. So fuck all these people, I’m just gonna call it Love and see how it makes them uncomfortable. That’s why I chose it at first. And the real reason? I think the real reason is the music – and like you said, it’s a very serious word. This is a very serious album for me. So for me love is not about having a crush on a blonde girl; for me it’s the kind of love that happens when you extinguish yourself. That’s what I’m interested in. I think there’s a certain kind of love that is ultimate. A love of selflessness, devotion and self-sacrifice, like an empty cold force. What are some of the things you love most? I love to eat. And I love going somewhere else. I love to travel. When I’m travelling a lot I feel like I’m free of a lot of my old ways of thinking. I’m free of my normal self.
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The Japan Issue
‘I think there’s a certain kind of love that is ultimate. A love of selflessness, devotion and self-sacrifice, like an empty cold force’
Speaking of travelling, have you ever been to Japan? I’ve been several times. I used to live in China, and every time I went there I had to stop off in Japan, and I would take a few days to hang out there. I’m a big admirer of Japanese music and literature. Japanese people express that same idea of love I’m talking about. They have this devotional and selfless power in their art.
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Amen Dunes. Continued
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The Japan Issue
‘If I lived in Japan I would make really, really quiet music. Because everywhere around me there would be simplicity and elegance’ What kind of Japanese music and literature are you into? In general I’m just really fond of the Japanese aesthetic sense. There’s this book that I love called In Praise of Shadows [by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki red]. You should check it out. It’s about the idea of negation or limitation of beauty to reveal true depth. The golden Buddha is placed in the corner of the monastery, where there’s no sunlight. Things like that. I take that same approach in my music. Also there’s one Japanese band in particular that I really like: Les Rallizes Dénudés. They make the most incredibly free and vicious music – cold, devotional and spiritual. Also they’re really loud. Do you think living in Japan would change the kind of music you make? What would it sound like? If I lived in Japan I would make really, really quiet music. Because everywhere around me there would be simplicity and elegance. In Japan there’s aesthetic elegance and there’s emotional elegance. There’s just grace to people. I think if I were in that environment I would learn to compose myself.
Amen Dunes plays on 23 May at Dokzaal in Amsterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
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The Japan Issue
Nisennen
by Shoko
Like the Y2K bug that inspired their name, Tokyo-based, all-female instrumental trio Nisennenmondai are the stuff of legends. Upon seeing them perform, Battles once remarked, ‘they made us look like idiots’. Which is to say, these girls know how to make some noise. Drummer Hime (ひめ) sets the tone with a pulsating beat, while Masako’s (まさこ) angular guitars swirl
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e. Photo Essay
nmondai
o Matsuki
around and bass player Zai (㠖㠄) locks everything into a tight groove. The three met at university some 15 years ago and haven’t stopped making music since. We asked their friend Shoko Matsuki to follow the girls on a routine day in their hometown of Tokyo, passing by their favourite shrine, dropping in on their favourite bar and catching a few snapshots amidst the cherry blossoms
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Nisennenmondai. Continued
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The Japan Issue
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Nisennenmondai. Continued
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The Japan Issue
Nisennenmondai play alongside Ben Frost on 20 May at Trouw in Amsterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
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The Morning After: Bird on the Wire Photos shot by Annegien van Doorn on Thursday, 03 April at 11.11 am
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The Morning After is a monthly photo series depicting the scene of a band’s post-slumber lodgings the day after their Subbacultcha! show. Here’s how Bird on the Wire left their home in the wake of Bright Lights Big City.
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Featured Artist
Heleen Peeters & Masayo Matsuda Heleen Peeters (Belgium, 1988) and Masayo Matsuda (Japan, 1980) present their collaborative series The Atlas of Peter Schlemihl. It’s based on an 1814 story about a man who strikes a deal with the devil, selling his shadow for a bottomless wallet. Guided by memory, the series travels from real to imaginary spaces, an intricate narrative in which fact and fiction overlap effortlessly. In this, photography is not just a technical apparatus that produces fixed images, but a method to imprint light onto an unstable support, giving way to a brief manifestation of ephemeral phenomena www.heleenpeeters.com www.masayomatsuda.com 38
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Featured Artist: Peeters & Matsuda Interview by Floor Kortman
Who are you? This is possibly the most difficult question one could ask. We thought about it for a long time yet still don’t know the answer. Perhaps that’s why we decided to make a series about Peter Schlemihl, a man who was undergoing an identity crisis... What’s your story? We met in 2006 while studying photography at the University of the Arts in London. From the start, both of us were intrigued by questions such as: What is photography? What makes a photograph a photograph? It was a little bit later, during the Shadow Catchers exhibition at the V&A museum in London, that we became inspired to make a project together. Seeing how some of these artists challenged the notion of photography triggered us to create something of our own. What about the story of Peter Schlemihl attracted you? Albert von Chamisso wrote the story of Peter Schlemihl based on his own biography. Chamisso was a traveller, he had no fixed home as he was forced to continuously move during the French Revolution. When we were foreign students in London we learned a lot about our
own origins and culture. Being far away from home for such a long time made us question where we belonged. Was home the place we grew up or the place we live now? We thought the story of Peter Schlemihl would therefore be a good starting point for a collaborative piece. What is your interest in photography? We are interested in photography that addresses global topics and simultaneously questions the function of the image and the construction of subjectivity in contemporary culture. The camera is a tool that stands in relationship to the eye. The eye stands in connection with the viewer’s intellectual experience. The result is that every perceived optical phenomenon by means of intellectual association transforms into a personal conceptual image. Essentially this describes ‘vision’ in the broadest sense of the word. We like the kind of photography that takes this stand into consideration when making a body of work. That is why in our own practice we address photography from a more abstract angle; we hope to expand the medium’s dynamic.
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Books: Self-Help Shelf No 2 By Marc van der Holst. Image by Lonneke van der Palen
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
Every month we offer a literary helping hand with the bigger questions in life Earlier this year we saw the release of a new collection of short stories by Lorrie Moore, called Bark. It had been a while: more than 15 years since the best-selling Birds of America – and 30 years since she finished most of the stories that would make up her début, the perfect and, for this column, perfectly titled, Self-Help. Self-Help is full of helpful stuff. ‘How to Be an Other Woman’, for example: ‘What are you going to do?’ / ‘I don't know.’ Or ‘How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)’, which starts at the end, in 1982 – ‘Without her, for years now, murmur […], “What?” “Huh?” “Shush now”’ – and goes back, via 1972 – ‘No Mom, it’s me, Virginia’ – to the beginning 1939: ‘[…] she knows it when you try to talk to her’. There’s ‘The Kid’s Guide to Divorce’, ‘A
Guide to the Tenor of Love’ and the broader strokes of help in ‘What Is Seized’, ‘How’, and ‘Go Like This’. To quote a quote, ‘Everybody has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay,’ with which Moore seems to agree in the opening line of the penultimate story, ‘How To Be a Writer’: ‘First, try to be something, anything else.’ First, be a reader and help yourself to a copy of Self-Help.
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Self-Help Shelf: N o1: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, by Philip K. Dick | N o2: Self-Help, by Lorrie Moore
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Fashion By Mandy Sharabani. Photos shot by Isolde Woudstra
€15 Outfit Every month we give €15 to someone to compose a complete outfit for a good night out. Yes, quite the challenge Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Soft Metals make danceable synthetic pop that draws from fellow Portlandians Glass Candy and flirts with the darker edges of the club. The Captured Tracks duo formed this month's fashion inspiration for Heta Salkolahti, violinist in Utrechtbased indie-folk act Town of Saints
combined it with a black lace body, which I thought had an ’80s feel. Layers of time, I see. And what about the eccentric jacket? I found a simple brown jacket at MamaMini in Groningen, but I felt it needed some decoration. I had this woollen sweater which shrank in the wash but I loved the embroidered shoulder patches and so I took them off and applied them to the jacket. I’m a fan of ‘knutseling’! What would the granddad version of your analogue outfit be? I imagine a springy, happy, pastel ’80s glitter suit with house slippers as a finishing touch.
How did Soft Metals inspire your elegant outfit? At first when I thought about their analogue sound, ’80s old-school came to my mind. However, what inspired me more was granny fashion. Granny fashion? You’ve got me curious. The 1920s dress that I’m wearing belongs to my dear friend’s very stylish grandmother from Finland, which has emotional value for me. I
Wanna go shopping for a €15 outfit? Email us at fashion@subbacultcha.nl. Soft Metals play on 22 May at OT301, Amsterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
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Heta's total budget spent: €10.50 Dress: €0 - belongs to my friend’s grandmother / lace body: €0 - from a friend / customised jacket: €4 - MamaMini, Groningen / shoes: €4.50 - MamaMini, Groningen / tights (not used): €2 - Flying tiger, Rotterdam / nail polish: €0 - Own
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Food: Cooking With... By Zofia Ciechowska. Image by Carlijn Potma
Xiu Xiu Every month we ask an artist to share a recipe for their favourite dish How to make Shayna’s Hiyashi Chuka
Xiu Xiu’s Shayna Dunkelman was raised in Tokyo on her Jewish American dad’s chopped liver and her Chinese Indonesian mother’s nasi goreng. Glancing forlornly at her classmates’ beautiful bento boxes, Shayna took matters into her own hands, bought some Japanese cookbooks and showed everyone how it’s done. ‘Hiyashi Chuka is something quick I like to make for lunch, it translates as “chilled Chinese”. It’s a super easy cold ramen noodle dish, and you can decorate it with whatever you have in your fridge. The sauce is the only thing that is pretty consistent. Restaurants around Tokyo always have signs advertising it for lunch in the spring. Whenever I make it I pick some fresh tomatoes off my sunny fire escape in New York and I add them in.’
• Mix water, vinegar and sugar in a bowl, heat it up in the microwave so the sugar dissolves. Next, add the soy sauce, lemon, sesame oil and a bit of black pepper and stir well. Set aside. • Get your sharpest knife and slice up your cucumber, tomato, crabsticks, chicken, omelette, avocado, seaweed and lettuce into fine strips. • Cook your noodles according to the instructions on the pack; fresh ones are best, but dry ones are also fine. Once drained, rinse in cold water. • Arrange the noodles in a serving bowl and neatly arrange your salad ingredients in a sunny ring on top. Add your sauce and decorate with pickled ginger. Xiu Xiu play on 18 May at WORM in Rotterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
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For the salad: egg noodles cucumber tomato crabsticks shredded omelette
pickled ginger chicken ham avocado seaweed (wakame) lettuce
For the sauce: 4 tbsp water 2.5 tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp vinegar 2 tbsp lemon 4-6 tsp sugar
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1 tsp sesame oil black pepper
New Releases
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Music Reviews By Carly Blair
Protomartyr Under Color of Official Right
Chad Vangaalen Shrink Dust Sub Pop
Hardly Art The cover of this Detroit post-punk four-piece’s temperamental and rough hewn first album featured a pensive-looking old man and the title No Passion All Technique. A snarling German Shepherd adorns the cover of their new album. Given their penchant for irony, it is unsurprisingly more dispassionate-sounding and dexterous than their debut. It’s also unique and pretty fucking terrific.
Given his fascination with dreams and his reclusive existence, it makes sense that Chad VanGaalen doesn’t really make giant sonic leaps between albums, but rather floats fascinatedly along as he explores his own inner world. Shrink Dust represents another noteworthy episode in VanGaalen’s musical dream diary: occasionally puzzling, occasionally profound, but always rife with mystery and awful beauty.
Amen Dunes Love
Pure X Angel
Sacred Bones
Fat Possum
Damon McMahon has made some stunning music as Amen Dunes, but his early work could be overshadowed by its lo-fi production and a bit unfocused. Maybe he was just being shy, maybe he just wasn’t that into it. On his new album Love, he sounds like someone who finally feels confident and moved enough to shout from the rooftops, and it’s certainly got me swooning.
While Pure X vented a lot of pent-up frustration on 2013’s Crawling Up the Stairs, their latest is an amorous affair best heard in flagrante delicto. Though Angel is heavenly indeed, I find myself missing the misery. Sounds like a personal problem, you might be thinking to yourself, and you’re probably right, but we can all take comfort in the fact that Pure X make great albums whether they’re happy or miserable.
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Music Reviews Continued
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Music Reviews Woods With Light and With Love
Young Magic Breathing Statues Carpark
Woodsist Psych-pop mainstays Woods’ new album is their most thought-out and first recorded in a proper studio. As such, it lacks a bit of the spontaneous, ecstatic je ne sais quoi that made 2012’s Bend Beyond so extraordinary. Nonetheless, they fill these songs with enough delightfully intricate guitar solos and uplifting vocals to make With Light and With Love plenty luminous and loveable.
On their new album, this Brooklyn duo reigns in the psych rock tendencies of their earlier work. While there’s no shortage of acts pairing sultry female vocals with dystopian beats these days, Young Magic avoid many of what some would consider the pitfalls of their synth pop peers, and at its best, Breathing Statues succeeds at breathing life into what can often be a cold and somewhat lifeless genre.
tUnE-yArDs Nikki Nack
TEEN The Way and Color
4AD
Carpark
The success of Merrill Garbus’ first two albums as tUnE-yArDs was built upon unbridled exuberance, unrelenting creativity and unrefined natural talent. Stymied by success-induced self-doubt, for her new album Garbus decided to go back to square one, taking singing, drum and dance lessons. She even read a book entitled How to Write a Hit Song. All that hard work pays off, for Nikki Nack represents another huge leap forward.
Much like their eponym, TEEN seem determined to experiment and reinvent themselves in their ongoing quest to become a grown-up band. On their new album, they have a sort of inverted ugly duckling makeover moment, in that they shed all traces of obvious accessibility and derivativeness in favour of an inspired eclecticism that will totally win over the nerdy guy they should have liked all along.
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New Films By Basje Boer
The Wind Rises Hayao Miyazaki
It was a sad day for anime in particular and film culture in general when Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement. As the face of Studio Ghibli and the brain behind such animation classics as Oscar winner Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki has become the poster boy for anime – hell, he’s become the poster boy for Japanese cinema. His swan song, The Wind Rises, is appropriately melancholic; a melodrama about war, true love, life, death – not to mention, aviation. It’s a pity that the film lacks some of the more fantastical elements of Miyazaki’s previous works, but true fans will enjoy the ride nonetheless. Bring your tissues to the theatre! Release date 01 May. When you’ve finished this one, start watching... • Hungry for some more unconventional animation? It’s not just Japan that delivers those crazy ’toons. The first Betty Boop shorts prove that pre-Hays Code Hollywood knew its way around weirdness as well. Well worth exploring on online video channels. • Japanese cinema has one hell of a rep, but how many Japanese movies have you actually seen? Of course Akira Kurosawa is a shoe-in when it comes to checking off must-see directors, but do dig into Seijun Suzuki’s films as well. The likes of Branded to Kill and Pistol Opera combine gangster cool, a stunning aesthetic and psychedelic surrealism.
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New Films
Enemy
Blue Ruin
Enemy
venge flick in a way that reminds us of Spielberg’s bold Duel and the Coen brothers' Blood Simple. Protagonist Dwight tries his hand at revenge, but lacking the cool of your usual movie hero, his saga is mostly messy. Highly suspenseful, at times funny and most of all very original. Release date 22 May
Denis Villeneuve - 2013 Denis Villeneuve (Incendie, Prisoners) breathes new life into the doppelgänger motif with this genuinely puzzling turn. Jake Gyllenhaal excels as both a teacher who seems saddened by life itself and a B-movie actor who’s pretty full of it. When they meet they’re equally weirded out and intrigued by their identical appearance – but then things get really strange. This is one you’re going to want to discuss afterwards. Release date 29 May
And for couch potatoes... by Gert Verbeek
Blind Woman’s Curse
Blue Ruin
Teruo Ishii - 1970 This recently re-released Japanese cult classic is a saga about a feisty girl with a dragon tattoo who is caught in the middle of feuding yakuza clans. Expect ballets of bloody sword fights interlaced with silly interludes and sideshow horror.
Jeremy Saulnier - 2014 Jeremy Saulnier may be an indie filmmaker but he's Steven Spielberg at heart. His Blue Ruin, which was selected for Cannes’ Director's Fortnight, gives a unique twist to the re-
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tickets: melkweg.nl
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19 mei cloUD notHings
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king kHAn AnD tHe sHRines
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FligHt FAcilities
Those Foreign Kids: 01 September
Di 13 mei
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Those Foreign Kids: 01 September
tHomAs AzieR
New Music: mAc DemARco Solar Year
Film: Lydia Ainsworth
soundcloud.com/solaryear
www.lydiaainsworth.com
wHite Denim
vr 16 Solar mei Year (Ben Borden and David Er-
Brooklyn music lady Lydia Ainsworth is simply thrilling. Lydia, if you’re reading this, come and have pizza with me! Come and have pizza with the world! This former student of Joan La Barbara has composed for filmmakers, visual artists, poets and contemporary dance groups, putting her at the epicentre of artistic expression, making her the coolest lady everrr. Lydia’s otherworldly vocals are accompanied by a string quartet, drummers, keyboards and this brilliant self-devouring fast-food collage animation. Listen and be happy.
tel) have become part of the eponymously ma 19 cool Montreal music family with a mei bunch of new-age electro-pop tracks under their belt, not to mention some zo 24vocals from the Grimes goddess guest mei The duo have been heard to herself. call their music ‘psalmgaze’, something Di 27 said tongue-in-cheek but improbably mei mediately pounced on by rabid music journalists wo 28 like myself – all because of a Gregorian chant sample, ha! Check out mei their Brotherhood EP, available for free download za 31 on the Arbutus Records webmeiand be on the lookout for their fullsite length, Waverly, which is due to appear apr end of June on Splendour. at30the
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De beste Japanse anime films
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Subbacultcha! events. Free for members
Things to do this month Sign up for €8 per month at subbacultcha.nl
Music, art and film in May 2014 Those Foreign Kids: 01 September
Those Foreign Kids: 01 September
New Music: Solar Year
Film: Lydia Ainsworth
soundcloud.com/solaryear
www.lydiaainsworth.com
Including all Subbacultcha! events 57
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Solar Year (Ben Borden and David ErBrooklyn music lady Lydia Ainsworth tel) have become part of the eponyis simply thrilling. Lydia, if you’re readmously cool Montreal music family with ing this, come and have pizza with me! a bunch of new-age electro-pop tracks Come and have pizza with the world! under their belt, not to mention some This former student of Joan La Barbaguest vocals from the Grimes goddess ra has composed for filmmakers, visual herself. The duo have been heard to artists, poets and contemporary dance call their music ‘psalmgaze’, something groups, putting her at the epicentre probably said tongue-in-cheek but imof artistic expression, making her the mediately pounced on by rabid music coolest lady everrr. Lydia’s otherworldjournalists like myself – all because of a ly vocals are accompanied by a string Gregorian chant sample, ha! Check out quartet, drummers, keyboards and this their Brotherhood EP, available for free brilliant self-devouring fast-food collage download on the Arbutus Records webanimation. Listen and be happy. self-desite and be on the lookout for their fullvouring fast-food collage animation. length, Waverly, which is due to appear Jerry Paper: 09 May - Poortgebouw, Rotterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members at the end of June on Splendour.
LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA & EFFENAAR PRESENT -----------
6 + 7 JUNE 2014
WOODEN SHJIPS -------SUUNS -------- SPECTRUM --------
HOOKWORMS -------- DISAPPEARS -------- THE GROWLERS PINK MOUNTAINTOPS -------- FÖLLAKZOID -------- TERAKAFT --------
NIGHT BEATS -------- ELEPHANT STONE -------- THE OSCILLATION -------- MUGSTAR -------NISENNENMONDAI -------- COSMONAUTS -------- GREAT YTENE -------- CROWS -------PETER J TAYLOR BIG BAND -------- WEIRD OWL -------- DANS DANS -------THE COUNTERBLAST EXPERIMENT PRESENTED BY ROCKET RECORDINGS:
TEETH OF THE SEA -------- GNOD -------- ANTHROPROPHH --------TERMINAL CHEESECAKE-------- LAY LLAMAS -------FUZZ CLUB PRESENTS:
SONIC JESUS -------- COSMIC DEAD --------WALL OF DEATH -------RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON -------- THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH -------THE WANDS -------- THE WOKEN TREES -------FITZ -------- AL LOVER -------- B.O.B -------- LIVERPOOL PZYK PZOUNDSYSTEM -------- BERNIE CONNOR'S SOUND OF MUSIC -------- POMPONETTE -------- CHRIS ROCKET -------- WALTER ROADBURN -------- WIEKES --------------- A THROBBING LABORATORY OF BANDS, DJS, VISUAL HAPPENINGS AND KALEIDOSCOPIC EXPERIMENTS --------
2 days / 30+ bands / 2 indoor stages and a garden /location: Effenaar, Eindhoven Facebook.com/EindhovenPsychLab / Twitter.com/EhovenPsychLab Tickets, Hotel Packages + more info:
eindhovenpsychlab.com
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On the following pages you’ll find all of this month’s Subbacultcha! events. You can buy a ticket at the door or become a Subbacultcha! member and enter for free. Join at subbacultcha.nl
Woolen Men
alogue is not short on alt-pop oddities. Their debut album, Daughter of Everything, has earned high praise from the blogosphere and looks to propel both onward to greater things. Baby-voiced Antwerp four-piece Bed Rugs share a palatable indie-pop aesthetic, together with a penchant for micro-songs.
01 May - dB’s, Utrecht 20.30 | €7 | Free for members The Woolen Men are DIY to a tee – selfreleasing a slew of EPs in between what seems like incessant touring and garage jams. The result – recorded on tape, of course – is in some ways predictably lo-fi. But it is undeniable how often the Portland trio hits the mark with their finely honed pop nuggets. We can only imagine how the holy trinity that combines to create these gloriously messy tunes must work their magic live.
Ensemble Economique + Jerry Paper + Tonstartssbandht 09 May - Poortgebouw, Rotterdam 20.30 | €5 | Free for members
Vertical Scratchers + Bed Rugs
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Brian Pyle is from California, but in the kind of way Brian Wilson was from California – a bleak, outsider existence at odds with all the sunbaked revelry. Unlike The Beach Boys though, his Ensemble of yearning is well and truly surface
02 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 20.30 | €8 | Free for members Boasting an Enon founder, a touring member of Caribou and a Mike Watt collaborator, Vertical Scratchers’ back cat-
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11-05 15-05 20-05 26-05 03-06 17-06 04-07 05-07 19-07
THE DATSUNS DANGERS OF THE SEA ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK MOTORPSYCHO BOB LOG III CLUTCH THE DELTA BOMBERS THE COSMIC DEAD KLIKO FEST: THE SUMMER EDITON
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--------------------------------------------------------------PATRONAAT | HAARLEM | VOLLEDIGE PROGRAMMA: WWW.PATRONAAT.NL
Y O U A R E PA R T OF SOMETHING Become a Subbacultcha! member and see our complete selection of concerts, films and exhibitions for 8 euros per month
G R E AT E R ic us M
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Richard Dawson: 11 May
the boundaries of the purely traditional, incorporating avant-garde and pop elements into his unique style of guitar playing, and he delivers his history-minded lyrics with a ruggedness and intensity that have earned him comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum.
level: horror soundtrack ambience, agoraphobic soundscapes and eerie digital deterioration. Jerry Paper, on the other hand, bills himself as a mariner, multimillion record label signing and spiritual being. Only one thing is for sure, he makes oddball lo-fi pop songs that everyone can enjoy. Last up, brotherly duo Tonstartssbandht make music that’s slightly more comprehensible than their name – similarly stumbled together with overlapping delays and shambolic percussion.
HF Young Academy ft. Gardland
15 May - Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam tba | €tba | Free for members The second of Holland Festival Young Academy’s lecture series at Looiersgracht 60 rears its head. Like the first, it’s designed to give you a rudimentary artistic and critical skillset, the idea being, when you turn up to HF's shows later on – or any other shows for that matter – you can brag about your learnèd interpretations to all of your less-educated peers.
Richard Dawson
11 May - WORM, Rotterdam 20.30 | €6 | Free for members Already a local legend in his hometown of Newcastle, a handful of well-received festival appearances have helped shine the international spotlight on Richard Dawson. Though his is an unmistakably British brand of folk, he ventures beyond
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Tonstartssbandht: 09 May
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the abject, the rapid, paralysing synth punches and Stewart’s anguished vocals often border on bands like Wolf Parade and Shearwater. It’s a testament to both the continuing indie sensibility and unflinching gruesomeness of Stewart that new record Angel Guts: Red Classroom is simultaneously razor sharp and moreish as ever.
Following the lecture, Aussie newcomers Gardland give us yet another taste of RVNG’s free-flowing stream of improvised, hardware electronics. Known for locking themselves up for ten days at a time, their sound is an organic, heavily textured take on dubby, dystopian techno.
ZZZ’s + Fenster
16 May - De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam 20.00 | €8 | Free for members
Muziekgebouw at Trouw: Ben Frost + Nisennenmondai
ZZZ’s are three jagged, hissing consonants from Japan. Their sound is a concentrated racket of razor-edged post-punk fed through a noise filter that somehow fails to dull their sharpness. ZZZ's palette is rich; their hard knocks often stretch out into menacing grooves that suck you in and slice you up at the same time. Supporting act Fenster are an NY-Berlin fusion duo whose dream pop melds bleak Americana with noisy jams.
20 May - TrouwAmsterdam 19.30 | €19 | Free for members
Reykjavík-based director-composer Ben Frost has all the highbrow stripes to be taken seriously in the world of classical, experimental electronic music. Since his move to the ‘icey’ rock, he’s been as consistently acclaimed as he is prolific. 2014 sees the release of his latest fulllength A U R O R A, which promises to be as tense and evocative as his previous work. If Ben Frost is electronic music future, Japanese trio Nisennenmondai represent its distant past. Shades of krautrock, post-punk and industrial weave through a dense maelstrom of guitar and percussion resulting in a simmering mass of noise.
Xiu Xiu
18 May - WORM, Rotterdam 20.00 | €7 | Free for members Xiu Xiu have managed to maintain a legendary standard of avant-garde brutality and a devoted following thoughout their 12-year career. With a penchant for
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Soft Metals + Sally Dige
Amen Dunes
23 May - Dokzaal, Amsterdam 20.00 | €8 | Free for members
22 May - OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for members
Since his return from Beijing, Damon McMahon’s released a series of jaw-dropping records. 2011’s Through Donkey Jaw found the skeletons of early ideas fleshing out into beautiful, benumbing lo-fi pop, while its challenging follow-up Spoiler was a series of compiled experiments. With a little help from Colin Stetson and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 2014 LP Love looks to be his most ambitious and entrancing work yet.
LA-based duo Soft Metals have been making music together since 2009. Much like their titular materials, their music is more ductile than its seemingly steely exterior implies. An amalgam of influences, Soft Metals’ songs are forged into dark and retro-sounding electronic pop reminiscent of a more sinister Glass Candy. Danish-Canadian Sally Dige might just steal the show with her own sassy, seductive take on dark synth pop.
Odonis Odonis
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding
28 May - OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for members
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Toronto punk outfit Odonis Odonis are not lacking in reference points, their knowing, hyphenated rock spanning industrial, surf and noise without breaking a sweat. Their sophomore full-length gradually ebbs from sharp punk shocks to a shoegazey flipside. Though metallic walls of noise and frantic energy are not common bedfellows with rollicking drum machines and dreamy guitar strums, it’s this hybridity – self-dubbed (tongue firmly in cheek) ‘industrial postgaze’ – that makes for a schizophrenic live experience like none other.
22 May - Rotown, Rotterdam 21.00 | €9 | Free for members Craig Dermody, an unshakably Australian New Yorker, wastes little breath on anything other than his continual struggle with emigré status. Though his NY turn brings oodles of Lou Reed drawl, it’s the Melbourne lilt that shines through most strongly. This combination may seem uncanny to yanks, but it's a homecoming for a long tradition of jangling Oceanic indie rock, and one that Dermody nails with an endearing mix of confessional detail and self-deprecation.
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Group Rhoda: 30 May
30 May - Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam 19.30 | €10 | Free for members
Murcof: 31 May
4DSOUND: Murcof 31 May - Cruquiusweg 146, Amsterdam 20.30 | €20 | Free for members
San Francisco’s Mara Barenbaum, aka Group Rhoda, makes records that sound like lullabies to a lonely self stuck inside a machine. Anything but robotic, her voice sounds more human for its feeble echoing against a motorik, metallic exterior. This mechanical shell spans minimal arrangements of clockwork beats, retro-futurist synths and unwinding arpeggios. Monica Tormell and her band Moon & Sun display their new audiovisual project From Palm Trees To Pine Trees, while a host of other loosely tropical acts, Moemlien, Swedish artist Nadine Byrne and DJ collectives Vintage Voudou and Future Vintage, complete the night.
For the fifth and final of this series of residencies, Barcelona’s minimal electronic composer Fernando Corona will be the metaphorical man-behind-thecurtain as the 4DSOUND studio unleashes its future-tech complexity in an experience that will be part DJ set, part sound installation and part performance art. As you move around the 4DSOUND studio, Murcof’s intricately unfolding music will move and hover among the ever-shifting sound structure emitted by 16 pillars, allowing you to experience a full immersion.
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Group Rhoda + Moon & Sun
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The Wind Rises
24 Hour Party People
06 May - LantarenVenster, R'dam tba | €9 | Free for members
The Wind Rises
/Kult Film: 24 Hour Party People
Jiro dreams of becoming a pilot, but since he’s near-sighted, he settles for becoming a flight engineer. While on the fast track to becoming Japan’s most innovative designer, Jiro witnesses some of the nation’s most important events – be it the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, World War II or a tuberculosis epidemic. But this wouldn’t be a true historic drama if Jiro didn’t fall deeply in love. This beautiful and melancholic anime is the swan song of retired anime legend Hayao Miyazaki. The master will be missed.
Centred on Manchester’s Factory Records from 1976-1992, 24 Hour Party People follows label boss Tony Wilson (played to comic perfection by Steve Coogan) from the roots of punk through Ian Curtis' suicide, the rise and fall of New Order, and the babylonian excesses of acid house, the Hacienda and the Happy Mondays. It's a ripe history for legends both real and urban, so director Michael Winterbottom makes no bones about mixing fact and fiction.
21 May - Studio /K, Amsterdam 21.30 | €9 | Free for members
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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Cinema Concert: Phantom of the Opera
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 27 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam 19.00 | €9 | Free for members
+ Cinema Remake Exhibition 25 May - EYE, Amsterdam 16.00 | €tba | Free for members
One of the great animated adventures of Japanese cinema, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind will go down in history as the starting point of Hayao Miyazaki’s legendary career. Released in 1984, this film sold enough tickets for Miyazaki to found his own animation studio: the acclaimed Studio Ghibli. Part fairy-tale and part sci-fi, the film tells the story of Nausicaä, princess of the people of the Valley of the Wind, who roam the universe centuries after the Earth was destroyed.
Rupert Julian’s Phantom of the Opera (1925) is a touchstone of silent horror, made particularly famous by Lon Chaney's depiction of the deformed phantom. You can catch this extensively re-made classic with live accompaniment as part of EYE's extended programme for their current Cinema Remake Exhibition. Don’t forget to check out the exhibition itself, it’s free for members on the day.
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Phantom of the Opera
Subbacultcha! events. Free for members SignBup per month IB Nfor I NN€8 EN NE KN O K RO TR at T Osubbacultcha.nl .O A. .A .
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V RV RCASUAL CASUAL SEX SEX 0 90 9RAUWE RAUWE 80’S-ROCK 80’S-ROCK METMET REGGAE-, GLAMGLAM0 50 5REGGAE-, EN EN FUNKINVLOEDEN. FUNKINVLOEDEN.
V RV RCULTFARM CULTFARM INVITES INVITES 2 32 3VAKULA VAKULA 0 50 5+ CALICO + CALICO DE DE OEKRAÏNSE OEKRAÏNSE VAKULA VAKULA ALLALL NIGHT NIGHT LONG! LONG!
V RV RXIU W OW OOBJEKT XIU XIU XIU OBJEKT (3H) (3H) 1 61 6HERSENSPINSEL HERSENSPINSEL VANVAN AVANT-GARDE AVANT-GARDE 2 82 8+ + DET DET ++ DJ+ DJ+ ARTIEST JAMIE JAMIE STEWART, STEWART, VANVAN 0 50 5ARTIEST 0 50 5DYNAMISCHE, DYNAMISCHE, RAUWE RAUWE TECHNO TECHNO METMET GEFLUISTERDE GEFLUISTERDE TOKKEL-INDIE TOKKEL-INDIE EENEEN MINUSCULE MINUSCULE FLIRT FLIRT DUBSTEP DUBSTEP EN EN ACID. ACID. NAAR NAAR WAANZINNIGE WAANZINNIGE WAVENOISE. WAVENOISE.
V RV ROPKIKKER D 0D 0THE OPKIKKER THE ELWINS ELWINS 1 61 6ROBAG 2 92 9FRISSE, FRISSE, ONGEDWONGEN ONGEDWONGEN GITAARPOP GITAARPOP ROBAG WRUHME WRUHME CATCHY CATCHY REFREINEN. REFREINEN. 0 50 5+ NUNO + NUNO DOS DOS SANTOS SANTOS + PITTO + PITTO 0 50 5METMET EENEEN AVOND AVOND VOLVOL FRISSE, FRISSE, NIEUWE NIEUWE GELUIDEN, GELUIDEN, METMET ROBAG ROBAG WRUHME WRUHME (EX-WIGHNOMY (EX-WIGHNOMY BROTHERS). BROTHERS).
VOLLEDIG VOLLEDIG PROGRAMMA PROGRAMMA& &TIJDEN: TIJDEN: WWW.EKKO.NL WWW.EKKO.NL
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Foam: Richard Mosse Nederlands Fotomuseum: Viviane Sassen
Foam
Nederlands Fotomuseum
Keizersgracht, Amsterdam Open daily 10.00-18.00, Thur and Fri until 21.00 €9.50 | Free for members
Wilhelminakade, Rotterdam Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, Sat and Sun from 11.00 €9 | Free for members The Fotomuseum offers two very different exhibitions in May, Viviane Sassen’s UMBRA, which displays her idiosyncratic use of colour and shadows, and a collection of Carleton E Watkins’ rare vintage prints of so-called Mammoth photos from 19th-century California.
Four diverse exhibitions are on view, including Richard Mosse’s acclaimed video installation The Enclave about the conflict situation in Congo. Also on view are exhibitions by Iranian photographer Kaveh Golestan, Ola Lanko and conceptual illusionists Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs.
TENT
Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam Open Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 €5 | Free for members
Lightness
Mediamatic, Amsterdam Open Wed-Sun 13.00-18.00 19.00 | €8 | Free for members
On 17-18 May TENT hosts Radio Calling, an exploration of ‘liveness’ as the simultaneous presence of both artist and audience, irrespective of place. Artists and experts will discuss the relevance and influence of the internet in live performance and broadcast, and the value of the digital experience of art.
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This exhibition is here to counter our seasonal depression with a bit of fun. Eleven weeks, 11 exhibitions, six dance performances and plenty of partying. So for those rainy days the Dutch spring brings, go get some lightness at Mediamatic.
Agenda: September 2013
What else is on this month On the following pages you’ll find a fine selection of concerts, festivals and exhibitions taking place around the country. Art: Crisis of History Opening on 02 May, until 15 June Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam Framer Framed gets first dibs at an exhibition space in the newly-renovated Tolhuistuin. Join for the opening of Crisis of History part 1, and examine the broken promise of modernity.
colony of Suriname. It includes Jouwersma’s video Mono Kodo, which shows what happens when a Dutch artist stays in a small mining town for three months wearing sunglasses and a fringed leather jacket. Music: King Khan & The Shrines 03 May - The Oosterpoort, Groningen 04 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam Whether he’s playing with Black Lips side project the Almighty Defenders, BBQ (aka Mark Sultan) or with the Shrines, garage rock guru King Khan sure as hell knows how to put on a refreshingly anarchic show.
Art: Jisan Ahn - White Night Until 10 May - Galerie Bart, Amsterdam Korean artist Jisan Ahn recently graduated from the Rijksakademie and is now showing his paintings at Galerie Bart. His works start from a fascination with the human desire for violence; the result is effectively haunting paintings.
Music: London Calling in the Tolhuistuin 07-08 May - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam Before this year’s spring London Calling Festival, you can warm up with two extra nights of poppy indie bands, mostly from England, in the brand spanking new Tolhuistuinzaal.
Art: Eddie The Eagle Museum Time Capsule Event Party Launch 02 May - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam This is it, the main event. Eddie the Eagle Museum is capturing the zeitgeist in a container and will bury it for 15 years at the Tolhuistuin, and they’ve invited pretty much everyone to join them. So should you.
Music: Big Ups 09 May - 013, Tilburg 10 May - Merleyn, Nijmegen 11 May - Vera, Groningen 24 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht Big Ups frontman Joe Galarraga alternates between furious howl and disaffected, Ian Mackaye-esque monotone
Art: An Elaborate Set of Keys 03 May-12 June - Jeanine Hofland Gallery, Amsterdam Feiko Beckers invites Julien Beneyton & Steven Jouwersma for an exhibition that reflects on the former Dutch
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What else is on this month as the band bashes out post-punk corroded by the bile of classic punk and post-hardcore bands like the Descendents, Minor Threat and Fugazi.
the kingdom of ’80s goth demigods like Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Cure, making their most concerted attempt at crossover success in the process. Equally ’80s-obsessed duo Crocodiles open.
Music: Here’s Your Future #3 09 May - 013, Tilburg After previous editions with the likes of Ty Segall, Cloud Nothings and Widowspeak, Tilburg's rock’n’roll oracles gaze into their crystal ball and pick out Big Ups, Zhod and more for 2014.
Music: Mac DeMarco + Tonsstartsbandht 15 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam Mac DeMarco has carved out an extraordinarily weird niche for himself as a pretty talented guy who writes catchy but humble rock’n’roll songs that people love a thousand times more because they’re delivered by a gap-toothed goofball who does not give a fuck.
Music: London Calling 09-10 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam Paradiso’s semi-annual pop showcase consistently boasts a line-up of up-andcoming indie artists solid enough to make it worth getting shoved by hordes of drunk teenagers as you dig a tunnel to the front row.
Art: SPRING Performance Art Festival 15-25 May - Utrecht Spring is in the air! Utrecht becomes the heart of dance and theatre during the SPRING Performance Art Festival. The most innovative and daring contemporary art performances will be showcased throughout the lovely historic city centre.
Music: Subroutine Label Night 09 May - Effenaar, Eindhoven Subroutine ride their recent wave of success all the way down to Eindhoven for a showcase night featuring three roster MVPs and special guests Madensuyu.
Music: White Denim 16 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam This freewheeling Austin quartet’s fusion of garage rock, psychedelia and jazz is often soulful and emotionally moving and always refreshingly unpredictable, and their live shows are deliciously noodly.
Art: Group Show 10 May-07 June - Gallery Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam International group show including some almost-famous artists, but also some new kids on the block, such as crazy cat Juliaan Andeweg.
Music: Xiu Xiu 16 May - EKKO, Utrecht 18 May - WORM, Rotterdam 23 May - Lepel, Groningen Read more on Page 62.
Music: Dum Dum Girls + Crocodiles 13 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam On their latest album, Dum Dum Girls raise their shoegazes heavenwards to
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What else is on this month Music: tUnE-yArDs 18 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam Merrill Garbus’ early work as lo-fi folk phenom tUnE-yArDs was striking despite its rough production by virtue of her big voice and bigger personality, but the addition of bassist Nate Brenner and improved production have given Garbus the room and confidence she needed to develop into a fully-fledged siren.
Music: Hamilton Leithauser + The Amazing Snakeheads + Francois & the Atlas Mountains 21 May - Tolhuistuinzaal, Amsterdam Paradiso and labels Domino and Ribbon Music kick off what is certain to be a fruitful collaboration with The Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser, Glasgow rock’n’roll trio the Amazing Snakeheads and oh-so-charming French indie-poppers Francois & the Atlas Mountains.
Music: Cloud Nothings 19 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam 29 May - Vera, Groningen In the five years since Dylan Baldi started Cloud Nothings, the Cleveland band has evolved from a promising but rough-hewn solo project into an indierock tour de force finally poised to enjoy the sweet taste of victory.
Art: Kunstvlaai 22-24 May - Amstelpark, Amsterdam Every two years, Kunstvlaai provides art initiatives with a platform to meet, discuss and exchange ideas. Around 50 local and foreign art initiatives present themselves by means of a spatial intervention in the Amstelpark with site-specific art works.
Art: DEAF 2014 BIENNALE 21-24 May (exhibition until 09 June) various locations, Rotterdam For its tenth edition, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF) calls into question the very notion of progress. Through a series of exhibitions, lectures, performances and seminars, The Progress Trap explores the seductive gains of technological innovation.
Music: Scott & Charlene’s Wedding 22 May - Rotown, Rotterdam 23 May - Merleyn, Nijmegen 24 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht Read more on Page 63. Music: Black Lips 24 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht 25 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam This Atlanta ‘flower punk’ four-piece made a name for themselves with their wild shows and outrageous on-stage antics, though lately they’ve notched up their professionalism enough to entertain the damned fools who stay at home listening to their records when they should definitely be seeing them live.
Music: Duchess Says + White Lung 21 May - dB’s, Utrecht A doubleheader of loud-mouthed, female-fronted Canadian punk on a Wednesday night. Montreal synthpunks Duchess Says and Vancouver post-punks White Lung unite the Canadian expanse on the outskirts of Utrecht.
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Agenda: April 2014
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What else is on this month Music: Le Guess Who? May Day Ft. The War on Drugs + Future Islands + Sun Araw + more 24 May - Utrecht If you’ve ever been to Le Guess Who?, surely you agree that taking in so much good music in such a special place once a year just ain’t enough; May Day is here to satisfy your mid-year Le Guess Who? cravings with a more compact but equally compelling line-up of today’s finest indie artists.
Lux’s Ryan Lott layers electronic elements with orchestral flourishes, resulting in songs that are sometimes starkly minimal and meditative; sometimes lushly orchestrated and rousing but always very beautiful. Music: The Notwist 28 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam Indietronica veterans The Notwist have been going strong for 25 years, but they like to take their sweet time in between albums. Earlier this year they rewarded fans’ patience with their first album in five years, Close to the Glass.
Music: Pharmakon 24 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht 25 May - Vera, Groningen Diminutive and deceptively wild New Yorker Margaret Chardiet thrashes your ears with her ridiculously heavy, ridiculously raw power electronics/death industrial music, and her live performances are confrontational and cathartic.
Art: ZomerExpo 29 May-31 August Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag Another edition of the biggest opencall exhibition in a museum. This year’s theme is Light, that fundamental fascination within art and the source of many an artwork.
Music: together Pangea 24 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht 25 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam 26 May - Merleyn, Nijmegen 27 May - Rotown, Rotterdam 28 May - Vera, Groningen LA rock’n’roll band together PANGEA’s killer guitar solos, colossal drums and occasionally wildly catchy vocal hooks should draw together fans of Ty Segall, Black Lips and FIDLAR into a unified mass of a mosh pit.
Music: Het Lente Kabinet Festival ft. Actress + Huerco S. + Anthony Naples + Malawi + more 31 May - Paviljoen ’t Twiske, Amsterdam Dekmantel’s Lente Kabinet festival takes place in Het Twiske nature reserve once again, featuring a film and art pavillion curated by Foam and EYE Film Institute, a literature programme curated by Das Magazin and, of course, plenty of cutting-edge electronic music. Actress, Huerco S., Anthony Naples, Malawi and more take to the stage.
Music: Son Lux 25 May - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam A classically trained composer and electronic musician from Denver, Son
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Free tickets and goodies To win, sign up to our mailing list on www.subbacultcha.nl. 5x2 TICKETS + 5 DVDs The Wind Rises / Like Father Like Son
2x2 tickets Mac DeMarco
5 x DVDs Nymphomaniac
release date: 01 May Various theatres
15 May Melkweg, Amsterdam
Out: 15 May Wildbunch
2x2 TICKETs White Denim
2x2 TICKETs Cloud Nothings
3x2 TICKETS Volt by Orange Tea Theatre
16 May Melkweg, Amsterdam
19 May Melkweg, Amsterdam
21 May Melkweg, Amsterdam
3x2 TICKETS Spring Utrecht
3x2 Tickets DEAF Biennale exhibition
5x2 TICKETs Shirley: Visions of Reality
15-24 May Utrecht
21 May - 09 June Het Nieuwe Instituut, R'dam
release date: 26 May EYE, Amsterdam
Xxx
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Submitted photos
AFTER MIDNIGHT
Send photos that were taken after midnight to aftermidnight@subbacultcha.nl This month’s photo was submitted by Martha Hirsch
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All Subbacultcha! events in May See all these shows for free. Join at subbacultcha.nl 01 May
Woolen Men
dB’s, Utrecht 20.30 | €7 | Free for members
02 May
Vertical Scratchers + Bed Rugs Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 20.30 | €8 | Free for members
20 May
Ben Frost + Nisennenmondai
Trouw, Amsterdam 19.30 | €19 | Free for members
21 May
/Kult Film: 24 Hour Party People
28 May
Odonis Odonis
OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for members
30 May
Group Rhoda + Moon & Sun
Studio /K, Amsterdam 21.30 | €9 | Free for members
Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam 19.30 | €10 | Free for members
Film: The Wind Rises
22 May
31 May
09 May
OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for members
06 May
LantarenVenster, Rotterdam tba | €9 | Free for members
Soft Metals + Sally Dige
Jerry Paper + 22 May Tonstartssbandht + Ensemble Economique Scott & Charlene’s Poortgebouw, Rotterdam Wedding 20.30 | €5 | Free for members
11 May
Richard Dawson
WORM, Rotterdam 20.30 | €6 | Free for members
16 May
Rotown, Rotterdam 21.00 | €9 | Free for members
23 May
Amen Dunes
Dokzaal, Amsterdam 20.00 | €8 | Free for members
Xiu Xiu
WORM, Rotterdam 20.00 | €7 | Free for members
Open daily 10.00-18.00, Thur and Fri until 21.00 €9.50 | Free for members
TENT
Open Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 €5 | Free for members
Lightness
+ Cinema Remake Exhibition EYE, Amsterdam 16.00 | €tba | Free for members
18 May
Foam Photography Museum
27 May
15 May
Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam tba | €tba | Free for members
All month
Cinema Concert: Phantom of the Opera
25 May
Gardland
Cruquiusweg 146, Amsterdam 20.30 | €20 | Free for members
Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam
ZZZ’s + Fenster
De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam 20.00 | €8 | Free for members
4DSOUND: Murcof
Film: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Melkweg, Amsterdam 19.00 | €9 | Free for members
w iec urvs vMe O
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Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, Sat and Sun from 11.00 €9 | Free for members Mediamatic, Amsterdam Open Wed-Sun 13.00-18.00 19.00 | €8 | Free for members
EELS NOVASTAR
JOHN BRAMWELL (I AM KLOOT) ADMIRAL FREEBEE (SOLO) LEWIS WATSON * DAYNA KURTZ EWERT AND THE TWO DRAGONS MATTHEW & THE ATLAS * DOTAN MIGHTY OAKS * CHAMPS * MICHAEL PRINS RUE ROYALE * DIANA JONES AND MORE TO COME
28 juni 2014
MUZIEKGEBOUW EINDHOVEN
* INFO &TICKETS WWW.NAKEDSONG.NL
simon stone, belvoir, sydney De gruwelen uit de Griekse mythe bewerkt tot een eigentijds verhaal vol liefde, seks en destructie. 23 – 27 juni Theater Bellevue Engels met Nederlandse boventiteling
ben frost, iain banks Componist en regisseur Ben Frost bewerkt Iain Banks’ ijzingwekkende cultroman tot spannend muziektheater, met een onheilspellend toneelbeeld en extreme klanksculpturen, klassieke muziek, minimalisme en rauwe pop. 22 – 23 juni Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ
PROGRAMMA & TICKETS WWW. HOLLANDFESTIVAL.NL
THE WASP FACTORY
INTERNATIONALE PODIUMKUNSTEN AMSTERDAM 1 – 29 JUNI 2014
HOLLAND FESTIVAL
THYESTES