After months of slowly releasing program details, with expectation building, Unsound 2010 opens this Sunday. The festival program is devoted to the theme "HORROR - the pleasure of fear and unease", and has garnished wide praise. As Fact Magazine recently wrote: "This is a festival that bespeaks good taste and good judgement. It feels like a festival where one might actually learn something, as well as get battered and dance the night away."
The program kicks off at 19:00 on the 17th with a concert in Kijow Centrum, entitled "The Dark Side". Icelander Daniel Bjarnason conducts Sinfonietta Cracovia performing Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack to Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film. Penderecki’s “Kanon for Orchestra and Tape” will also be performed, as well as Bjarnason’s own “Bow to String”, with a new animation by Una Lorezen. Presented with the Miasmah label, Marcus Fjellström presents eerie screenings and music including a commissioned piece with Sinfonietta Cracovia and Elegi.
Afterward, in Manggha, there's the Unsound opening party. Asked to contribute frightening music to Unsound, Polish cult band Baaba decided to reinterpret Krzysztof Komeda’s score for Roman Polanski horror spoof “Fearless Vampire Killers”. Haunting and humorous, this combines jazz, folk songs and classical music. Roll the Dice open, a Swedish duo referencing everything from John Carpenter to Basic Channel, with visuals by Norwegian Frode Fjerdingstad.
Also, on the Sunday 16:00, a series of installations grouped under the name "The Hidden" will open in the grounds of the Miraculum Cosmetics Factory (on the same site as Fabryka, where Unsound club nights will take place a few days later). A series of installations located in the cellars, corners and disused rooms of a former cosmetics factory, they explore submerged sound, histories, menace and music. Included is the world premiere Mordant Music's "Nesst", Jacob Kirkegaard & Lukasz Szalenkiewicz "The Visitor",  commissioned by Unsound, Jana Winderen's "Energy Field" and a new work by Finnbogi Petursson.
Finally, here's a reminder that running throughout the festival week is a series of midnight screenings of horror exploitation movies curated by audio-visual duo Jigoku, taken from their extensive VHS collection. Called "Night of the Living Dirt", they will be shown at Kino Pod Baranami in gloriously defiant lo-definition and are also marked for their weirdness and originality. They begin at midnight on 16th October, where you can stay awake until dawn with an opening movies marathon. More info on the Kino Pod Baranami website.
The entire Unsound program can be seen at www.unsound.pl