From 17 to 19 October, TIMES was in Tromsø for Insomnia Festival 2024.
The Norwegian festival joined forces with Elevate, Nuits sonores and Sónar as guest curators for the music programme, joining incredible acts from Norway and beyond!
The Arctic Circle witnessed the fusion of bass-heavy electronics, avant-garde percussion, and trippy ambient layers. From hypnotic acid house energy and raw dancefloor intensity to the atmospheric and dub-infused tones of experimental pop, these performances blurred the boundaries between club sounds and live instrumentation.
Co-curated with Nuits sonores:
Decius
Decius are a London based outfit made up of brothers Liam and Luke May, Paranoid London‘s Quinn Whalley and Fat White Family frontman Lias Saoudi. They make music that draws on the rich traditions of acid house sprinkled with disco and techno. A string of lowkey 12’’ releases has cemented the group’s consistency. It is when they play live however, that their rawest energy is released.
Paying homage to the cultural heritages of house music and its roots in gay culture, there’s an intensity of their shows that cannot be missed.
Co-curated with Elevate:
Flysch
The Graz-based band Flysch may not yet be a household name, even though its members are no strangers. With Martin Pfeiffer (prepared drums), Michi Eisl (electronics, pocket trumpet) – Gottfried Krienzer (effected nylon string guitar) and Catrin Manoli aka Cookie (vocals) we meet familiar faces from bands such as Hella Comet, Code Inconnu, or The Striggles. The Flysch sound navigates towards experimental pop music, enriched with elements of ambient and dub and the sounds of extended instruments.
Co-curated with Sónar:
upsammy & Valentina Magaletti
upsammy has constructed an estimable catalog in just a few years, laying out a crystalline vision of trippy, bass-heavy club music over a series of EPs and albums for labels such as PAN, Dekmantel, AD 93 and Nous’klaer Audio. Not just a producer, she’s also a well-respected DJ with a residency at NTS Radio and Amsterdam’s Garage Noord, and a multidisciplinary artist whose interest in architecture and the vibrational qualities of her surroundings helps shift her sounds into the most unexpected spaces.
She presented a live performance alongside Italian percussion virtuoso, Valentina Magaletti, whose versatile technique and tireless commitment to explorative rhythmics has seen her collaborate with a long list of contemporaries. She’s worked with everyone from Thurston Moore to Nicolas Jaar, and has ongoing projects with Al Wooton as Holy Tongue (with whom they recently released a stellar album together with Shackleton) and Raime under the moniker Moin.
The duo’s live performance of percussion and electronic modulation creates a sound environment where natural and synthetic textures merge seamlessly.