In Adelaide this weekend, one of the world’s most progressive experimental music festivals is taking place in the South Australian city.
Melbourne might be the most well-known Australian city in the rest of the world for music, but it doesn’t have Unsound Adelaide.
On Friday, July 19th and Saturday, July 20th, Unsound Adelaide will be the place to be at Illuminate Adelaide, bringing some of the most exciting global names in experimental music to the Dom Polski Centre.
There’s Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon, still going strong as an idiosyncratic solo artist in 2024. There’s the equally legendary The Caretaker, aka Leyland Kirby, the ambient British musician whose music has profoundly moved people on TikTok and beyond. There’s Norwegian saxophonist and performance artist Bendik Giske, as well as renowned producer and musician Jim O’Rourke and Japanese multi-instrumentalist Eiko Ishibashi.
“Embracing the unknown and cutting edge of seldom-explored musical frontiers, Unsound is something amorphous, undefinable, unmatchable. Over two massive nights set to rattle the windows of Dom Polski Centre, this is a must for any brave-hearted, adventure driven music fan,” the official description of Unsound Adelaide states.
Ahead of this weekend, Tone Deaf caught up with Unsound Artistic Director Mat Schulz to find out why Unsound Adelaide is one of the unmissable music events in the city’s calendar.
Tickets to Unsound Adelaide are available here.
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Tone Deaf: Tell us about Unsound Productions. What should our readers know about the events that you put on?
Mat Schulz: Unsound is a platform used to produce festivals, commission new work, and release music, both on vinyl and in digital format. Founded more than 20 years ago, the HQ and flagship festival is in Krakow, but we’ve also presented Unsound in many cities around the world, from New York to Kyiv and Yerevan. We’re interested in music that feels adventurous, [and] is driven by a spirit of experimentation. Genre is less important.
How does your team decide which cities to host Unsound Festival in? Why Adelaide?
It’s usually a matter of the way relationships naturally unfold, rather than any grand vision or plan. As for Unsound Adelaide, we were initially invited here as part of Adelaide Festival, after the Artistic Director at the time, David Sefton, heard of Unsound New York in The New York Times. After he left the city, Lee and Rachael at Illuminate went above and beyond in making sure Unsound remained in Adelaide.
But Unsound is always about making less obvious choices – so making the festival’s home here, rather than in Melbourne or Sydney, therefore makes sense. We like the idea of people making an annual pilgrimage here, from other cities, as well as bringing this music to a place which is often forgotten on the map of touring artists.
You grew up in Australia, is that correct? Did you get to Adelaide much?
I grew up in Wagga Wagga, which is more than 1000km away, across the Hay Plains and beyond. Funnily enough, I never went to Adelaide until the first Unsound Adelaide!
If you could compare Adelaide to one European city, which would it be?
There are similarities with Krakow, in that both Adelaide and Krakow are cities known for their many festivals, and they are also places where you immediately feel comfortable as a visitor. You can walk on foot between venues – or take a short cab ride. But at the same time, Adelaide is distinctly Australian, in all sorts of ways.
Are there any other events in the Illuminate Adelaide you’re keen to see/would highly recommend?
I’ve always loved fire, so I will absolutely check out Fire Gardens. Top of the list after Unsound Adelaide.
Sorry for putting you on the spot, but which artist on this year’s Unsound Adelaide bill are you most excited about?
I always find this question difficult, as in programming a festival I’m excited by all the artists. I would never program anyone I don’t want to see myself. But the Saturday night lineup is particularly great, with the wild trio of legends The Caretaker, EYE, and Kim Gordon, with Yirinda Ale Hop and Laura Robles opening. That’s a world-class lineup that would be exciting in any city in the world – let’s hope Adelaidians realise and come out in droves.
Friday is also fantastic – I’m particularly excited by the fact we’re bringing saxophonist Bendik Giske to Australia for the first time, as his live shows are stunning.
How does your team first go about deciding who plays Unsound Festival? Take us inside the curatorial process.
There’s a team of curatorial advisors from around the world who come together on the Krakow Unsound, and I painstakingly arrange the program, agonising over every decision. I think about how the elements of the whole program relate to one another, as well as the journey of a particular event, [and] what it will feel like to be there as an audience member.
I’m a big believer in contrast in music programming, whilst finding unexpected links between shows and artists. We also work with local presenters in each city where we present Unsound, to ensure the program makes sense for local audiences, and those presenters feel engaged, part of things. Unsound is always about collaboration, rather than imposing ideas.
The Caretaker is an incredible musician. How special is it to see someone like The Caretaker have his music be embraced by different generations thanks to platforms like TikTok?
The Caretaker is such a unique artist, and it’s wonderful to see how his music has reached such a wide audience, spanning generations. I can’t think of any other experimental musician who’s managed to do that in the same way. His shows are also always surprising, and like the best art can be divisive. I’m pretty sure he likes it that way, wanting to elicit a strong response. I’ve been trying to bring him to Adelaide since the very first editions of Unsound, and it’s great we were finally able to make it a reality.
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Kim Gordon is obviously a big name, but which artist on the Unsound Adelaide bill do you consider to be perhaps underrated?
Well, The Caretaker is underrepresented in the music press considering how vast his impact and influence is – from going viral on TikTok to concerts at Geffen Hall and Barbican, and Lana Del Rey using his music to end her concerts. But there’s hardly a word written on him anywhere, perhaps because his approach doesn’t involve a press team.
As for the rest, artists like Lee Gamble, Bendik Giske, or Ale Hop can be widely praised within the experimental scene, but little known outside that world. Music is like that generally, though, these days – bubbles of genre and scene that sit alongside one another.
At the same time, experimental music is constantly affecting pop – listen to Charli XCX’s fantastic album Brat as an example. As for other artists at Unsound Adelaide, I love the music of Yiranda, and I assume they will get more and more attention.
What makes the Dom Polski Centre a good venue for Unsound Adelaide?
It’s like teleporting yourself to a hall in Poland, one that you could find at Unsound Krakow, where we almost always adapt spaces rather than use existing clubs. It makes the festival feel more exciting, more unique. You know that it won’t look or feel the same once the Unsound Adelaide weekend is over, which is one more reason to come.
