• MARIA W HORN

Swedish composer Maria W Horn explores the spectral properties of sound. Her compositions employ a varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ and various chamber music formats. Synthetic sound is often paired with acoustic instruments and field recordings. As such, she creates dark and dense sound monoliths in which extremes come together.

Her debut album Kontrapoetik (2018) is a historical investigation of the the deceivingly serene, yet turmoiled past of her home region Ångermanland in the North of Sweden. Dies Irae (2021) derives from the resonant frequencies of an empty machine hall from the mining region of Bergslagen and Vita Duvans Lament (2020) is a sonic excavation of what used to be the only panoptic cell prison built in Sweden. Recently she created a composition for 4DSOUND and two singers commissioned by STUK for Ocean Of Sound. In addition to her artistic practice she is also the co-founder of Swedish record label XKatedral.

• SWANS

Singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira formed the band Swans in 1982. Being a product of the NYC no wave scene, the band was soon notorious for their relentless, brutal, high volume onslaughts of sound, the extreme, abject imagery of Gira’s lyrics and his thundering vocals. Always in transformation, Swans has had a mayor influence on genres like avant garde noise, post-punk, industrial and post-rock. After 11 albums and 15 years of incessant touring, the band broke up in 1997, while Gira founded Angels of Light and focused on his label, YThe current live line up of Swans includes Gira (voice and acoustic guitar), along with the stellar musicians Kristof Hahn (lap steel, loops), Larry Mullins (keyboards and drums), Phil Puleo (drums, melodica, dulcimer), Dana Schechter (lap steel, loops, bass guitar) and Christopher Pravdica (bass guitar, loops, sound generators).oung God Records. In 2010, a new chapter began: the band reformed, released six bombastic albums and toured the world again. The current live line up of Swans includes Gira (voice and acoustic guitar), along with the stellar musicians Kristof Hahn (lap steel, loops), Larry Mullins (keyboards and drums), Phil Puleo (drums, melodica, dulcimer), Dana Schechter (lap steel, loops, bass guitar) and Christopher Pravdica (bass guitar, loops, sound generators).