SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL IS BACK and are delighted to announce their return on 8-10th July 2022 with a bold line-up and a new location on the outskirts of Digbeth in Birmingham. Tickets go on sale today via www.supersonicfestival.com.
Nowhere else will you find a festival experience quite like Supersonic’s – since 2003, they have been hosting superior weekends for the adventurous audience, taking care to present only the most artistically relevant and irreverent acts from the UK and across the globe, while simultaneously making sure to fill every moment with opportunities to let loose and party, or engage with talks, and participate in workshops, or take in exclusive screenings and exhibitions.
Supersonic Festival has been named as the UK’s premier experimental music festival, with rave reviews. Bringing together live performances by some of the world’s most extraordinary artists and audience participation to create a one-of-a-kind festival.
For the 2022 edition, Supersonic have programmed an inspiring weekend to explore mind-bending music, sense-shifting art and to celebrate their global community.
Supersonic Festival are proud to welcome back old friends, the dark-humoured bard of Newcastle Richard Dawson & Circle, the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, who will be presenting their new collaborative project together. Firm festival favourites The Bug feat. Flowdan will bring the noise with the heaviest of bass sounds. Eugene S. Robinson is no stranger to Supersonic, and the last performance in 2017 with the fantastic Oxbow choir was unforgettable, this time Eugene is the vocalist of BUÑUEL which also boasts the sound work of the Italian trio of guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours), the bass of Andrea Lombardini (The Framers), and the drums of Francesco Valente (Snare Drum Exorcism).
The extraordinary AA Williams with the rapturous blend of post-rock and post-classical, which smoulders with uncoiling melodies and haunted atmospheres, shifting from serenity to explosive drama, often within the same song. Old Man Gloom, the notorious experimental super-group continue their legacy following the passing of bassist/vocalist Caleb Scofield. The remaining members Aaron Turner (Sumac/Isis), Nate Newton (Converge), and drummer Santos Montano continue to forge on and bring in Scofield’s Cave In bandmate, Stephen Brodsky, to take Caleb’s place amongst the pulse and throat. Expect earth crumbling riffs, post-hardcore brutality, sprawling noise transmissions, experimental ambient sonic-subdivisions and epic impenetrable melancholy. Thou, the Baton Rouge collective, who blend shuddering heaviness with oppressive atmospherics, giving the band a monolithic sound. June Of 44 are a group with a lineage that includes beloved underground bands – Rodan, Lungfish, Codeine, Rex, Hoover, and Shipping News. They have chosen Supersonic Festival as the place for them to return to the stage, and will be performing in the UK for the first time in 23 years.
“it felt like the ideal place for us to re-emerge in the UK. There is an honest, gritty, hard-working, direct carefulness with the way it seems Supersonic has been built and continues to develop – in both its curation as well as its organisation. The approach resonates with us, it’s attractive and runs adjacent to the way June of 44 digs to construct itself. Additionally, we’d be remiss to not at the very least mention what an honour it will be to perform in the birthplace of such incomparable, deep inspirations as Black Sabbath, John Bonham… from Broadcast to Steel Pulse, so much extraordinary music has bloomed out of beautiful Birmingham.” – JM / Jo44
Santiago, Chile’s Föllakzoid are heavily informed by the heritage of the ancient music of the Andes, the band has learned to integrate their origins with contemporary sounds and technologies of our times, creating a rich yet minimal electronic-organic atmosphere. From Mexico J. Zunz (Lorena Quintanilla – otherwise known for Lorelle Meets The Obsolete) creates a thick atmosphere of experimental post-punk, using wonky synths and crafting haunting melodies that shine through cold repetitions. Nadja combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial music. No Home is the moniker of London based Charlotte Valentine who has been releasing music for more than half a decade that shape-shifts through an array of styles. Through a distorted cacophony of sound, Blue Ruth presents part-fiction, part-abstract stories, scribbled down from a morbid vision of their Birmingham hometown. From Nottingham (UK) come two very different sonic forces, the duo Bismuth bring their colossal earthshaking sounds and Bloody Head shall offer up their bleak party bangers.
Supersonic are thrilled to invite two guest curators in 2022, Jerusalem In My Heart (the immersive audio – visual performance project, with Lebanese – Canadian producer / musician Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and Montréal – based filmmaker Erin Weisgerber) and Decolonise Fest (annual DIY punk fest who advocate for emerging artists of colour to connect against the global struggles of the legacy of colonialism, and indulge in their love of punk). We look forward to revealing their invited guests next year.
Supersonic has been a festival that I have followed closely for many years, and always have been very impressed by the amazing and challenging programming that the festival proposes to its audience. Performing at the festival in 2019 was such a beautiful experience, where I realised how truly special of a community the festival has managed to create around the event. I am so thrilled to be invited to curate a portion of the festival in 2022 and be an active part of Supersonic. – Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Jerusalem In My Heart
“Decolonise Fest is excited to collaborate with Supersonic as a guest curator at the 2022 iteration of the festival and as a collective we can’t wait to work with Supersonic more in the future. Whether as attendees, performing artists, or workshop leaders, many of the Decolonise Fest collective have been involved with Supersonic previously. We are looking forward to bringing our ethos of inclusive, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, DIY punk organising to Supersonic.” – Decolonise Fest
This is just the beginning with more of the programme to be revealed in the coming months.
In the meantime, for further information about the artists + tickets visit: www.supersonicfestival.com
