Unsound 2026 Reveals Second Wave of Artists – Including a Night Co-Curated by Arca
LINEUP SO FAR:
Actress presents Radical Frame / Ana Roxanne feat. Hashtag Ensemble / Arca presents Airdoll / Arca b2b Bobby Beethoven / Tianzhuo Chen (aka ASIANDOPEBOYS) & Siko Setyanto present Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師 / Azzi On The Beat / Bendik Giske / Blackhaine presents Saints in the Wethouse / BNNT & Radwan Ghazi Moumneh present A Faithful Daughter / Charlie Osborne / Dagmar Zuniga / Dawuna / Debit / Deli Girls / Diamanda Galás / DJ Plead / DJ Spanish Fly / Donato Dozzy / Everything Is Psychedelic / Ewa Dziarnowska presents This resting, patience / Father Dionysos Tabakis / feeo / Giant Claw & Julek ploski present CONTROL FREAK / gummi b2b Taan / gyrofield live / Jawnino / Juliana Huxtable b2b JASSS / K Wata / KAVARI live / KAVARI b2b Ship Sket / Kode9 b2b Nikki Nair / Księżyc present Eternal Circle feat. Svitlana Nianio & Friends / L’Rain / Liars present Drum’s Not Dead 20th Anniversary Show feat. Macio Moretti & Tymek Papior / Mandy, Indiana / Mica Levi (DJ) / Natalia Panzer / One Leg One Eye / Opla / Pink Siifu / PPP (DJ Plead, Piezo & DJ Python) / Radical Polish Arkestra / Sarah Davachi presents The Will of Tongues feat. Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble / Serokolo 7 / SEXISDEATH b2b RABIT / Siete Catorce / Tercet Imperial / Tim Hecker & Vincent de Belleval / username b2b Marsh crane / Vigro Deep b2b Batu / Visible Cloaks feat. Hashtag Ensemble / WARP present The Providenza Ensemble (Mabe Fratti, Clarissa Connelly & Mark William Lewis) with Sinfonietta Cracovia / WARSZAWA by Piotr Kurek & Wilhelm Sasnal with Śląsk Song & Dance Ensemble / weed420 / Wendy Eisenberg / xavisphone
More to be announced!
Four weeks ago, we announced the first artists for Unsound 2026: SOFT POWER without revealing its geography.
Today, the map unfolds.
Alongside a second wave of artists, we’re revealing how the festival is shaped across Warsaw (2–6 October) and Kraków (8–11 October). No performances are repeated. Each city offers a distinct chapter, connected by the Unsound Train on 7 October.
“Warsaw and Kraków are not separate festivals competing for attention nor mirrors of each other,” says Artistic Director Mat Schulz. “They’re two different parts of the same work. Each city has its own identity, but they only make complete sense together.”
Whether you join us for the complete journey or experience just one leg, the map of Unsound 2026 is now forming – with a third artist announcement in mid-August. A limited number of remaining festival passes for Warsaw, Kraków and the complete two-city festival are now on sale. Once festival passes sell out, only individual event tickets will remain available. Three-day Unsound Kraków Club Passes will go on sale in August, giving access to all events at Hotel Forum, along with all individual tickets to events.
Arca headlines the second announcement with her first-ever Warsaw appearance on October 3, while also co-curating the program on which she appears. Alongside a solo hybrid set from Arca, the night features a b2b with longtime friend Bobby Beethoven, a DJ set from Mica Levi and a live A/V show from KAVARI. The event will also include interventions from Polish performers to be included in the next announcement. Note: Arca’s new album XXXXX will be released on July 31, related to previous mixtapes from her catalogue: 2020’s @@@@@ and 2013’s &&&&& – which first drew Arca to our attention. This event is included in Warszawa and Warszawa-Kraków combo passes.
Individual tickets for Airdoll – the event co-curated with Arca – go on sale 6 August, along with Diamanda Galás at the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Also appearing in Warsaw is Blackhaine, who will present his new show Saints in the Wethouse. Bendik Giske will perform material from his long-awaited forthcoming album on Smalltown Supersound. Wendy Eisenberg will perform with a band, drawing on music from her acclaimed 2026 self-titled album alongside earlier work. Ambient duo Visible Cloaks return to Unsound with their distinctive blurring of the acoustic and digital, joined by members of Hashtag Ensemble. Greek Orthodox priest Father Dionysos Tabakis performs following the release of his celebrated album Paradise Metal, bringing together drone metal, electronics, field recordings and Byzantine hymns.
The Unsound Train linking Warsaw and Kraków departs on 7 October, with music and performances on board to be announced soon. Already confirmed is an expanded version of Radical Polish Ensemble as the Radical Polish Arkestra, presenting its collision of traditional Polish folk music and contemporary avant-garde composition. The Unsound train will go on sale with the third artist announcement.
Shortly before travelling to the Venice Biennale to receive the Silver Lion, Sarah Davachi will present music from her forthcoming album The Will of Tongues, a landmark of deep minimalism. In Kraków, she will pair solo organ compositions with works performed by members of Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble. Polish duo BNNT will also play music from their collaborative album with Lebanese-Canadian artist Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem in My Heart), to be released by Instant Classic. One Leg One Eye sees Lankum’s Ian Lynch and George Brennan explore the intersections of Irish folk, black metal, noise and drone. Announced in the first wave, Liars return to mark the 20th anniversary of Drum’s Not Dead, performing the album with additional Polish drummers Macio Moretti and Tymek Papior. Musician and artist Charlie Osborne will appear with a band, while Kraków-based sound artist Natalia Panzer presents her dreamlike compositions following the release of The Loss of Small Detail.
Four expansive b2b sets anchor the late-night programme at Hotel Forum in Kraków: Juliana Huxtable with JASSS, Kode9 with Nikki Nair around the latter’s upcoming footwork EP on Hyperdub, Vigro Deep with Batu, and KAVARI with Ship Sket. The Nyege Nyege label – connected to Unsound since its first appearance in Europe – is also represented by Nigerian multidisciplinary artist Azzi On The Beat and South Africa’s Serokolo 7, whose adrenaline-charged 180 BPM sound reimagines the mapanta genre. Back in Warsaw, yet another b2b brings together gummi and Taan, creators of the city’s GUNGE event series.
Also in Warsaw, a pre-festival on 2nd October is co-presented with the club Jasna 1: Italy’s Donato Dozzy headlines. You can already buy tickets here – this event takes place before the passes start on 3rd October. Another accompanying event is Ewa Dziarnowska This resting, patience – presented with TR Theatre Warszawa – a three-hour choreographic work unfolding at the intersection of performance and installation. Tickets available here.
In terms of the discourse program, music journalist Liz Pelly – author of Mood Machine – returns to Unsound with musician and educator Max Alper (aka Peretsky) for a live edition of their Critical Listening podcast, joined by artists from this year’s program. Sonic and atmospheric warfare will be explored in a hybrid talk-performance by multidisciplinary artist Mohamed Choucair, producer and theorist Steve Goodman (aka Kode9), and sound scholar Gascia Ouzounian, author of the forthcoming The Trembling City. Memphis rap pioneer DJ Spanish Fly – who performs at the festival – will engage in a discussion with his long-time friend, arts writer William Skeaping.
Music critic and avid runner Philip Sherburne, an Unsound regular, will speak with critic and author Ben Ratliff about Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, considering how listening in motion can open up new ways of writing about music. The conversation will be followed by a collective sound run, using music, movement and the cityscape as a shared listening environment. In the discussion on the evolution of audio surveillance, Toby Heys and Marsha Courneya will be joined by media and cultural theorist Paul Rekret.
Award-winning journalist Sophia Smith Galer will present a lecture based on How to Kill a Language, examining how languages disappear through political coercion and cultural dominance. Meanwhile Cem A., the artist behind the meme page @freeze_magazine, will stage Double Bind, bringing together speakers in a playful session where responses are mapped through live transcription and language analysis.
Unsound is co-financed by the City of Kraków and the Capital City of Warsaw. The festival is supported by its main partner, the Polish National Foundation. Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage’s Culture Promotion Fund within the “Music” programme, implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance. Co-financed by the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the National Centre for Culture’s SYNERGIE programme. The discourse program is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Creative Industries Institute’s Development of Creative Sectors programme.