On 1 and 2 may, the fifth edition of Rewire Festival takes place in The Hague. Among the locations for this year are the monumental E.ON Electriciteitsfabriek and the alluring Korzo theatre. Previously Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Grouper were already announced. New names for the programme are: Evian Christ, Jenny Hval & Susanna, Lorn, Ron Morelli, Oren Ambarchi, Saskia Lankhoorn / Kate Moore, Thomas Ankersmit, Powell, Shit and Shine, Svengalisghost, Bronze Teeth, Gnod, Siinai, Yodok III. More names and locations are soon to be announced. Tickets on sale now

Jenny Hval & Susanna (NO)
Rewire presents a special live performance by two celebrated Nordic artists, Jenny Hval and Susanna; the latest chapter in an ongoing collaboration that began with an exchange of letters back in 2009. In 2014, Hval and Susannareleased a startling LP, ‘Meshes Of Voice’; a release that draws from both mythical bestiaries and Maya Deren’s surrealist film from 1943, ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. The release moved The Quietus to exclaim; “Despite often being a subtle and uncanny work, ‘Meshes Of Voice’ also possesses this destructive quality, a feeling that these styles are rejecting one another.”

Evian Christ (UK)
Evian Christ is a UK-based abstract hip-hop/downtempo producer, who is best known for his releases on the Tri Angle Records label. 2014 saw the release of his critically acclaimed ‘Waterfall’ EP. As Pitchfork commented; “The music is bursting with color and the surges are palpable, and you can almost see the legions of head-banging festival-goers whenever tracks hit a big peak.” Further to this, Evian Christ came to the notice of Kayne West, who asked him to co-produce one of the tracks on West’s ‘Yeezus’ album. Evian Christ will present a brand new audio-visual show at Rewire, in collaboration with live visual artist Emmanuel Biard.

Gnod (UK)
Gnod is a free/cosmic rock and proto-anarchist collective from Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 2006, and subject to an ever-rotating (sometimes rejoining) cast of like-minded musical experimentalists, the band has steadily built up a reputation for dramatic live shows and uncompromising musical statements. Gnod works closely with the artists at the infamous Islington Mill Art Academy in Salford, where the band also curated ‘Tangent’, one of sound artist Callum Higgins’ immersive and disorienting happenings. Even New Musical Express cast their trademark disdain aside to say; “this band are crazy good … see them live now.”

Thomas Ankersmit (NL)
Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and installation artist who lives and works in both Berlin and Amsterdam. Since 2006 Ankersmit has based work round a love of working with the Serge analogue modular synthesizer. His electronic music is characterized by a deliberate misuse of this instrument; using feedback and disruptions in the signal to create dense but finely detailed swarms of sound. His latest LP, ‘Figueroa Terrace’, created music for the original Serge synthesizers at CalArts and was released by the Touch label in 2014. The Quietus said the following about Thomas Ankersmit’s work on the venerable Serge; “Ankersmit makes this ancient beast of an instrument breathe, giving it life and, finally, teeth.”
Thomas Ankersmit will present his mastery of the Serge analogue synth, an instrument that rarely receives a spotlight in live performance. The German premiere of his solo act will feature the harnessing of a sound phenomenon known as otoacoustic emission, or in-ear tones. These “phantom sounds” are generated by listeners’ inner ears in response to certain sonic stimuli. The disturbing perception of sounds originating directly in one’s head has the tendency to obliterate any notion of space. In Ankersmit’s performance, in-ear tones and sounds conventionally perceived as coming from the loudspeakers form two intricately linked but distinct musical streams. The new performance was commissioned by OTO Projects in London.

Lorn (US)
Lorn is the alias of American electronic musician Marcos Ortega, who is best known for his releases on the renowned labels Brainfeeder and Ninja Tune. With his unique production style, Lorn creates dark and brutal but often beautiful electronic music. Lorn is also known for composing the music for the video game, ‘Kill Zone Shadow Fall’ that was developed by the Dutch company, Guerrilla Games. Rather than release a new full-length LP, Lorn spent most of 2014 releasing a run of free-to-download EPs known as the ‘Maze to Nowhere’ series. At this year’s Rewire Festival Lorn presents a brand new A/V show.

Oren Ambarchi (AU)
Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who has a longstanding interest in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly round exploring the potential of the electric guitar. The Wire described the results as; “re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation.”

Siinai (FI)
Finland’s Siinai are an underground supergroup of sorts, boasting members from Joensuu 1685, Zebra and Snake & Äänijännite. Siiani’s sound is an exciting mix of ambient, prog and Krautrock. Their recent album ‘Supermarket’, looks to create (in the band’s own words) ‘a soundtrack for the supermarket nations.’

Saskia Lankhoorn (NL) / Kate Moore (AU)
Saskia Lankhoorn is a dedicated “New Music” pianist from the Netherlands. Lankhoorn has a deep interest in the work of composer Kate Moore, one that saw her release an LP of Moore’s work, ‘Dances & Canons’ in late 2014. Lankhoorn displays a lyrical freedom with her touch and approach that reaches beyond the structural and technical demands of Moore’s score. Her insights into Moore’s pieces, and her sensitivity to their sonic possibilities, are based on more than a decade of close collaboration with the composer.

Yodok III (NO/SE/BE)
Yodok III is a collaboration between three avant-garde and boundary-breaking musicians; Norway’s Kristoffer Lo (amplified tuba), Sweden’s Tomas Järmyr (drums) and Belgium’s Dirk Serries (guitar). Tomas Järmyer and Kristoffer Lo are the backbone of Yodok, and have previously released avant-garde, experimental records that also incorporate elements of genres as diverse as jazz, (post)rock and classical. Serries joined the duo in 2014, and together the trio released the eponymous debut LP on Tonefloat’s A New Wave Of Jazz imprint. The follow-up, the epic double LP, ‘The Sky Flashed, The Great Sea Yarns’ is a set of 4 improvised pieces recorded over the course of 3 days in Brussels. ‘The Sky Flashed, The Great Sea Yarns’ was released in January 2015.

L.I.E.S. x Diagonal club night
On Friday May 1st, Rewire presents a club night in which two leading undederground dance labels are featured; L.I.E.S. from New York and Diagonal from London.

On the programme; Ron Morelli (US), producer and founder of L.I.E.S., Powell (UK), labelboss of Diagonal presents his live debut in The Netherlands, danceable and psychedelic music from Shit and Shine (US/UK), Chicago experimental dance from Svengalisghost (US) and scraping rave from Bronze Teeth (UK).

Friday 1 May:
Bronze Teeth (UK), Evian Christ (UK), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CA), Grouper (US), Lorn (US), Powell (UK), Ron Morelli (US), Saskia Lankhoorn / Kate Moore (NL/AU), Shit and Shine (US/UK), Svengalisghost (US), Thomas Ankersmit (NL).

Saturday 2 May:
Gnod (UK), Jenny Hval & Susanna (NO), Oren Ambarchi (AU), Siinai (FI), Yodok III (NO/BE).

Regular Weekend Ticket: € 39,95
Day Ticket: € 28
CJP cardholders will benefit from a discount on both weekend and day tickets.
Hotel packages are on sale from Friday 6 February