Unsound 2026 Announces First Wave of Artists for Warsaw and Kraków. Passes on Sale Now!

LINEUP SO FAR:

Actress presents Radical Frame / Ana Roxanne feat. Hashtag Ensemble / Tianzhuo Chen (aka ASIANDOPEBOYS) and Siko Setyanto present Moyang 先祖& Seaman 漁師 / Dagmar Zuniga / Debit / Deli Girls / Diamanda Galás / DJ Plead / DJ Spanish Fly / Everything Is Psychedelic / feeo / Giant Claw & Julek ploski present CONTROL FREAK / gyrofield live / Jawnino / K Wata / Księżyc present Eternal Circle feat. Svitlana Nianio & Friends / L’Rain / Liars present Drum’s Not Dead 20th anniversary show / Mandy, Indiana / Opla / Pink Siifu / PPP (DJ Plead, Piezo & DJ Python) / WARP present The Providenza Ensemble (Mabe Fratti, Clarissa Connelly & Mark William Lewis) with Sinfonietta Cracovia / SEXISDEATH b2b RABIT / Siete Catorce / Tercet Imperial / Tim Hecker & Vincent de Belleval / username b2b Marsh crane / WARSZAWA by Piotr Kurek & Wilhelm Sasnal with Śląsk Song & Dance Ensemble / weed420 / xavisphone

• More to be announced!

In 2026, Unsound will take place across two Polish cities for the first time in its history: Warsaw (2–6 October) and Kraków (8–11 October), under the theme SOFT POWER. No performances will be repeated between the two cities.

"We’ve chosen to announce this first lineup as a whole before revealing its geography," says Artistic Director Mat Schulz. "Unsound 2026 is conceived as a single event unfolding chronologically across Warsaw and Kraków, and we wanted audiences to encounter the programme in that spirit before it is divided between the two locations. The map comes later. Over the coming weeks we’ll begin revealing where artists are performing, with full city allocations announced in July."

The two chapters of the festival will be connected by a dedicated Unsound train travelling from Warsaw to Kraków on 7 October. Passes for Warsaw and Kraków are on sale now, alongside a discounted combined pass granting access to both programmes. The train will require an additional ticket.

Individual event tickets, as well as tickets for the Unsound train, will go on sale in late July alongside the next artist announcement. Further information can be found in the festival FAQ, or by contacting [email protected].

As for the programme, the festival includes a rare appearance from Diamanda Galás, a towering figure whose influence spans generations of experimental music.

WARSZAWA is a new commission referencing David Bowie’s stop in the city 50 years ago and his discovery of a recording of the traditional piece “Helokanie”, performed by the Śląsk Polish National Song and Dance Ensemble, leading to the track “Warszawa” from his album Low. Piotr Kurek will rework the original piece with vocalists from Śląsk Song & Dance Ensemble, accompanied by 16mm visuals by Wilhelm Sasnal, one of Poland’s most prominent contemporary artists.

Ahead of a new work appearing in the coming months, Tim Hecker will premiere a new show and music with commissioned visuals by Vincent de Belleval. Meanwhile, Actress will transform his upcoming Ninja Tune album Radical Frame into a brand new A/V show. Warsaw’s own Julek Ploski will team up with his friend Giant Claw, the co-founder of Orange Milk Records, to debut a commissioned collaboration called CONTROL FREAK.

There are again plenty of bands at Unsound. This includes Liars, who celebrate the 20th anniversary of their pivotal album Drum’s Not Dead with a special performance commissioned by Unsound. Local Polish musicians to be announced will join on drums. New York’s L’Rain will perform in Poland for the first time, following the release of her new album Fata Morgana. Manchester-based quartet Mandy, Indiana will perform in the wake of the explosive URGH.

Veteran Polish act Księżyc, who combine medieval Slavic sounds with elements inspired by 20th century minimalism, will mark the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut with Eternal Circle, a special performance featuring friends old and new including Svitlana Nianio. And Tercet Imperial reimagine Polish folk dance through synths, drum machines and vocals.

Last year, ASIANDOPEBOYS created a sensation at Ephemera Warsaw with their eight-hour slice of rave theater, PHYSIS. At Unsound, Tianzhuo Chen (aka ASIANDOPEBOYS) and Siko Setyanto will preset Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師, a new work inspired by Japanese Nō theatre.

Collaborations with local ensembles will include the continuation of the WARP-presented Providenza Ensemble, bringing together Mabe Fratti, Clarissa Connelly and Mark William Lewis. The trio will each separately compose a piece and perform with the 26-piece string ensemble Sinfonietta Cracovia. And Ana Roxanne, who recently returned to Kranky with the heartbreaking Poem 1, will team up with Poland’s Hashtag Ensemble.

Radically different approaches to songwriting guide not just Dagmar Zuniga, who appears in Poland for the first time supporting her acclaimed debut album, but also feeo, who broke out last year with the soulful Goodness, a seductive set of hybrid electronic experiments that pulse with emotion.

The biggest club nights will again take place at Hotel Forum, a culmination of the two-city festival, but there will also be plenty of space in Warsaw to dance. First names include Houston-based DJ and producer RABIT, who will be playing back to back with video director and “cybersigilism” pioneer SEXISDEATH, Mexican-American artist and academic Debit, who brings her Potpourri concept, a speculative blend of acid, dub techno and tribal guarachero, to Poland for the first time, and Hong Kong-born DJ/producer gyrofield, who will perform her new live show.

UK duo Everything Is Psychedelic, a collaboration between prolific Birmingham rapper Tony Bontana and London-based beatmaker psychedelic ensemble, will deploy their surprising blend of punk, rap and free noise, while noise act Deli Girls appear with their drummer John Bemis (of Murderpact), who amplifies their already deafening post-everything squall. Melbourne’s DJ Plead supports his new album Please with sunny diaspora memories and reflective deep house bumps, and K Wata, who set a new standard for minimal bass music on Give U Space, is set to provide the bass weight.

Bona fide Memphis rap legend DJ Spanish Fly, the influential producer and rapper who inspired Three 6 Mafia and Tommy Wright III, makes his Polish debut, and Unsound will also be welcoming Pink Siifu, Alabama’s most unpredictable underground rapper, who melted down jazz, noise and industrial sounds on last year’s BLACK’!ANTIQUE. Moving from the American South to South America, Venezuelan “sound collage collective” weed420 will bring their idiosyncratic internet-era psychedelia, while Dominican-Brazilian producer xavisphone will introduce Kraków to his twisted funk ritmado variations.

Siete Catorce, the veteran Mexican producer and DJ whose early work foreshadowed waves of contemporary Latin club music, returns with a brand new set, and PPP bridge three entire continents, linking DJ Plead with New York’s DJ Python and Italian club alchemist Piezo. US pals username and Marsh crane will go back to back playing their IDM-inspired footwork and trap experiments, Polish duo Opla will veil local folk sounds with trance-inducing rhythms, and London’s enigmatic Jawnino, fresh from his collaboration with Surf Gang, will bring his warts ’n all raps and woozy beats that tell the true story of “broken Britain”.

Unsound’s daytime discourse program will explore the shifting logics of the SOFT POWER theme, both as a phrase and in terms of the individual words. Among the first participants announced are Marek Poliks and Roberto Alonso Trillo, who will present a lecture based on Exocapitalism, imagining capitalism as an autonomous system that no longer depends on humans.

Questions of technological mediation and control also run through Listening In: How Audio Surveillance Became Artificial Intelligence, with Toby Heys and Marsha Courneya tracing the evolution of audio surveillance from Cold War listening devices to contemporary AI systems. Meanwhile, Brett Solomon will present Digital Ceasefire, navigating the emerging terrain of digitally mediated warfare and the possibility of peace in networked environments.

Histories of control and resistance surface again in Unearthing the Music, presented by Alexander Pehlemann, Lucia Udvardyova, and Daniel Muzyczuk, a project mapping experimental and underground sound practices across non-democratic Europe from 1950 to 2000.

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. 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. Tianzhuo Chen (aka ASIANDOPEBOYS) and Siko Setyanto present Moyang 先祖& Seaman 漁師 are presented in partnership with The Pavilion Of Dance And Other Performing Arts.