Radio Azja 2019
The third and last edition of Radio Asia Festival, the only European event dedicated to new Asian music, was held in Warsaw, on December 4–8, 2019.
During the five days of the event, we will present five outstanding Asian bands from the margins of the prevalent music currents, balancing between the niche and the popular, rooted in both local traditions and modern trends.
For the first time, the Festival will host artists from Nepal and Taiwan, along with bands from South Korea and Japan, which have been present at the festival every year. We will also present an Asian-European collaboration with the participation of one most recognizable voices of the electronic scene. This year’s Radio Asia will be an encounter with elemental musical force. The program includes an intimate duo building up massive, pulsating sound waves, and a micro orchestra serving a powerful, hypnotizing, audiovisual mixture of soundscapes and classical instruments. There will also be moments of silence before the storm and bands presenting elements of traditional music filtered through the prism of avant-garde experiments and underground energy.
There will also be workshops, meetings with artists as well as music-related lectures, which will take place as part of the Radio Asia Academy.
Programme of the Radio Asia Academy
Tickets for concerts available at festival website at event's page, at eBilet and Going.
Radio Asia Festival
4-8 December 2019
TR Warszawa / Marszałkowska 8
999 / Plac Dąbrowskiego 8
4,5 XII: Jan Jelinek & Asuna Arashi
• meditative ambient • throbbing electronic •
A concert premiere of the material from the Signal Bulletins album, which came out this spring. An encounter of two first-league aficionados of electronics, long sounds, musical textures, and sound transformations. Their compositions and improvisations include meandering drones, throbbing synthesizers, sound loops, and thick superspaces based on the whole width of the harmonic arc.
6 XII: Night
• mysterious songs of the himalayas •
A once avant-metal formation, now inspired by tradition and the riches of the music of Nepal. The artists travel to remote Himalayan towns, searching for sounds and traditions on the verge of extinction, creating modern compositions using classical Nepali instruments.
6 XII: J-Dub feat. WaqWaq Kingdom
• japanese rave •
A night filled with dance music, a dub rave with Japanese DJs and the WaqWaq Kingdom duo. The WaqWaq performance is a psychedelic mix of traditional Japanese music, Jamaican dancehall, dub, techno, and the native polyrhythms of Nintendo soundtracks. Their lyrics and visualizations are inspired by Shinto mythology and matsuri festivals, worshiping local "Kama-sama" deities.
7 XII: Unsounded Sound Project
• shaman rituals • contemplative sounds •
A new project of four remarkable Korean musicians and singers. On the scene, we will see both gayageum, a classic zither, and shaman drums. An authentic shaman singing and dancing ritual will become a part of the concert. For the band, the traditional music of Korea is the basis for their own discoveries – the traditional elements are woven into a modern, minimalistic form.
8 XII: Go Go Machine Orchestra
• unpredictable electrosymphony • hypnotic minimalism •
A young Taiwanese quintet creating hypnotic compositions for piano, marimba, guitar, electronics and synthesizer, which draw from minimalism, slowcore, and drum music. The powerful, unrestricted, at times majestic sounds of the band fully deserve the name of orchestral music. Repetitive, massive parts played by each of the instruments create a texture reminiscent of a giant, accelerating machine.
