Last year’s new opening of the festival formula was just a foretaste of the revolution that comes with the 12th edition of the Sacrum Profanum. The worlds of classical and alternative music will be connected even more closely and daringly into a single melting pot teeming with creativity and life. Forget the conventions, it is spontaneity that counts! – says Filip Berkowicz, the Festival's Artistic Director.


Exchange of intergenerational experiences in the synergy of composing order, the unbridled avant-garde, and the alternative electronic sound are decisive for the new quality of the Sacrum Profanum. Forcing the opposites to collide and the extremes to enter a dialogue has been inscribed into the festival from its earliest days, and consequently this year we will witness the combinations of such encounters in three unique concert series: Kronos Quartet Residency, Classic!Now, and Modern!Now.

The Kronos Quartet’s Residency, connected with the 40th anniversary of the group, is the essence of contemporary American music, where the academic nature resounds in harmony with the avant-garde. The two worlds function side-by-side enjoying equal rights, in mutual interpenetration and complementation. Such a presentation couldn’t miss the fathers of minimalism: Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich. The cosmic and multimedia composition of Sun Rings in a monographic concert, and the jazz-like G-Song will show different faces of the first of the triad. We will also hear Glass’sString Quartet No. 6 written just a few months ago, and Reich’s long expected WTC 9/11. Their music will come juxtaposed against the new generation: Bryce Dessner and Clint Mansell – both hailing from the world of alternative music. The first earned his title to fame as the leader of National, the latter – as the composer of inspiring music to Aronofsky’s films. Once we’re with the American avant-garde, we cannot miss Laurie Anderson, who together with the Kronos Quartet will perform her composition Landfall, where the natural sound of the instruments, electric violin played by Anderson, and a broad range of experimental electronic effects combine into modern music that discloses a wealth of meanings, especially valid in the light of Anderson’s comments, oscillating between humour and philosophy.

The Classic!Now series is the core of the Sacrum Profanum Festival. Concerts by Alarm Will Sound and Bang on a Can All-Stars always attract large audiences and enthusiastic applause. Alarm Will Sound, famous for the energetic interpretations of Aphex Twin’s pieces, will this time lend its mind solely to the works of Steve Reich, including the Polish premiere performance of Radio Rewrite – a particular remix of two Radiohead songs, Everything in Its Right Place and Jigsaw Falling into Place. The remix is quite special, as its idea originated in Krakow during the Sacrum Profanum Festival in September 2011. Besides the above, there will be two works in phasing technique, namely Clapping Music and Piano Counterpoint, besides Four Genesis Settings consisting of excerpts from The Cave opera, and Reich Rewrite John Orfe’s new composition paying, together with Alarm Will Sound,a musical homage to Steve Reich. Bang on a Can All-Stars will arrive with a continuation of the Field Recordings programme presented last year, and devoted to pieces that originated as field recordings. This time, the attempt at interpreting the documented reality in sound was made by the mad producer Dan Deacon, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, the avant-garde Alvin Lucier, Polish jazz discoverers from Skalpel duo, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth never ceasing in his experimentation, a young French composer Daniel Wohl, and Philip Glass. You will see the composer of music for the Qatsi trilogy on the stage side-by-side with Maki Namekawa and Piotr Orzechowski performing a cycle of piano etudes. This exceptional and essential concert is absolutely a must! Etudes are a set of pieces of extraordinary variety in their dynamics, agogics, and the emotions they carry. From romantic colour subtlety to purely baroque passages, from focus to fleeting glimpses, and from a potent sketch to a diluted watercolour.

Modern!Now Cycle is a quintessence of Sacrum Profanum quests: here the alternative and contemporary electronics come to the fore. The Festival opens with Ufabulum performed jointly by Squarepusher and Sinfonietta Cracovia. A combination of precise, powerful beats with the sound of an orchestra treated as a single organism. The air of acoustic instruments, their natural colour, and the power of electronic production will allow an effect of a synthesis previously unheard. Moreover, the programme includes compositions by György Ligeti, Iannis Xenaxis, George Benjamin, and Olivier Messiaen that made a strong impact on the work of Squarepusher. The Masters of the 20th century – György Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, John Cage, and Steve Reich – will be there for your ears, performed by London Sinfonietta in a project of renown under the name of Warp Works and 20th Century Masters. The compositions will be set against orchestra arrangements of 21st-century masters of electronic sound represented by Warp label artists: Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Mira Calix. Today, it would be hard to decide which group draws more inspiration from another, as the borders have blurred, and the classical and academic artists frequently share the same stages. A true hit is left for the end: a unique event that at the same time is a radical step towards club music: Warp 25th Anniversary. The 20th anniversary of Warp was celebrated in Paris, Sheffield, New York, London, Tokyo, and Berlin. This year, the Krakow audience has every right tofeel élite as Warp 25th Anniversary is an exclusive and one-off event! The number of the performing artists includes the kingpins from the label’s catalogue: praisers of the abstract electronic – the long-expected Autechre with a new programme, another premiere: the rock & electronic Battles with their broken rhythms, Hudson Mohawke verging on hip-hop, the radical Rustie, Darkstar gravitating towards pop, and LFO (experimenting with electronic sounds in the spirit of IDM) and patten. The all-night-long festivity will be held in the Forum Hotel, the place that is most suitable for the purpose, as its character suits the Warp label style perfectly.

What is your choice, alternative or classic? There is no other selection – Sacrum Profanum!

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