Festival Spectaculare kicks of on 20th January with Belgian dance group, Mossoux-Bonté and a concert featuring Clarinet Factory and Christopher Willits Press information Festival Spectaculare kicks of on 20th January with Belgian dance group, Mossoux-Bonté and a concert featuring Clarinet Factory and Christopher Willits Prague – 14th January 2014 – The premiere of Festival Spectaculare kicks off at the New Stage of the National Theatre on 20th January with an evening featuring contemporary dance and movement theatre as well as an unforgettable musical experience. The first part of the evening will welcome leading Belgian dance group Mossoux-Bonté performing their new show, Les buveuses de café which is full to the brim with visual perfection, musical and dance equilibrium, not to mention gentle surrealism. “Prague spectators will recognise the group from the Tanec Praha festival as well as Zero Point,″ theatre programme dramaturgist, Petr Boháč revealed. The Clarinet Factory quartet will be performing in the second half. “They live by the motto of music without borders – ranging from classical, jazz, ethnic to free-thinking improvisation,″ claims musical dramaturgist, Josef Sedloň. They will be christening their new double album Worx and Reworx at the event, which celebrates two decades of activity and which will contain both original compositions as well as exclusive remixes. A number of musicians have contributed to the album including Sylvain Chauveau, bvdub, Hidden Orchestra, aus, Floe, not to mention the American multi-instrumentalist, Christopher Wil¬lits who will be playing at the New Stage of the National Theatre alone as well as alongside Clarinet Factory. Willits has collaborated with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and is known for his ability to use his guitar to paint abstract sound images on the boundaries between ambient, shoegaze and glitch pop. Tickets for the launch can be purchased at the box office of the New Stage as well as throughout the Ticketpro, Ticketportal and Ticketstream sites. More information on /…ctaculare.cz.
Festival Spectaculare merges electronic and experimental music with dance, physical theatre and multimedia, not to mention film screenings and the visual arts. It runs until 31st January 2014 and will be held at the New Stage of the National Theatre as well as at Palác Akropolis, The DOX Centre of Contemporary Art and at the Studio Hrdinů inside Veletržní Palace. It will present a number of leading names on the contemporary music scene including Jon Hopkins, who has collaborated with Coldplay and Brian Eno, as well as Nils Frahm, Fennesz, Hauschka and Samuli Kosminen. The work of leading VJs such as Jon Wozencroft, Anders Weberg as well as household names, Dan Gregor and Dušan Urbanec will accompany the concerts. The Festival is also preparing a special presentation of a new performance of Faith by leading Czech physical theatre group, Tantehorse with live music, German, dark-jazz quartet Bohren & Der Club of Gore. This selection will be enhanced by screenings of musical films at Bio Oko (Dead Can Dance, Sigur Rós, Einstürzende Neubauten etc.) and interactive workshops for children with Clarinet Factory and Alanem Vitouš as well as workshops for those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the performing musicians.
The events will be held at the New Stage of the National Theatre, at Palác Akropolis, the DOX Centre of Contemporary Art and the Veletržní Palace. Visitors can look forward to hearing the new double album of Czech group, Clarinet Factory as well as checking out performances by Belgian dance group Mossoux-Bonté, local Czech group Tantehorse who will be teaming up with the dark-jazz German quartet Bohren & Der Club of Gore. A selection of films will also be screened at Bio Oko as part of the festival. Festival Spectaculare is being organised by Palác Akropolis and follows on from their successful concert series, Music Infinity. Presales of tickets are already available at Palác Akropolis and on Ticketpro. Tickets will also be available during the event at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and at the Veletržní Palace. Check out the full programme on /…ctaculare.cz. Festival dramatic advisor, Josef Sedloň sheds some light on what audiences can expect here: “The name of the show itself offers some indication that all the performances will be accompanied by a strong visual component – screening, VJing and videomapping.” Sedloň is also the brainchild behind the Music Infinity project: “Festival Spectaculare is a natural extension of this concert series, the culmination of our efforts spanning eight years. We are putting it together for all those interested in how contemporary music is developing, what’s going on right now in the world with some overlap into the future.” On 27th January at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Austrian musician Fennesz will be “putting up” his guitar walls accompanied by VJ Jon Wozencroft, graphic designer and founder of the Touch label. The second part of the evening will be devoted entirely to the Marsen Jules trio from Germany accompanied by VJ Anders Weberg blending atmospheric electronics with piano and violin. Just one day later at the same venue audiences can look forward to checking out a performance by American ambient musician and producer, Brock Van Wey, better known as bvdub. Other guests featuring at this event include American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri, lover of Czech surrealism Jan Švankmajer who enjoys flitting between the boundaries of ambient, electronic and modern classical music. He uses delay and reverb effects, delivering melodies which delve deep into the abstract atmosphere between dreams and reality. He uses delay effects and reverb with melodies submerged in an abstract substratosphere on the edge between dream and reality. VJs Dan Gregor and Dušan Urbanec will accompany sound with their video projections. Scheduled to perform at Studio Hrdinů (Veletržní Palace) on 29th January is Miřenka Čechová and Andrey Miltnerová’s highly acclaimed Czech physical theatre group, Tantehorse. They will be teaming up with cult dark-jazz German formation, Bohren & Der Club of Gore and will involve first ever performance of Faith as a joint collaboration. The biggest draw at Festival Spectaculare however will come on 30th January at Palác Akropolis where audiences will have the privilege of sharing the space with British electronic wizard, Jon Hopkins whose album Immunity was a contender for the annual Mercury Prize. He will be supported during the course of the evening by current wonder on the electronic scene, Swiss musician Frederic Robinson mixing influences of drum'n'bass with contemporary classical music. The show will come to a close on 31st January returning to Palác Akropolis for a double concert by talented pianist and composer from Berlin Nils Frahm and a performance by German pianist, Hauschka who will be bringing along Finnish percussionist Samuli Kosminen, known among others fir his collaboration with the Kronos Quartet.

Tickets are available prior to the event priced between 250 and 450 CZK at Palác Akropolis (evenings 27th to 31st January) as well as through Ticketpro (for all the main events). On the day of the event, tickets will also be available at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art as well as at Studio Hrdinů. A discounted pass for all the main events from 27th to 31st January. Tickets for the film screenings at Bio Oko are on sale at the cinema’s box office.

Festival Spectaculare is being organised by Palác Akropolis following on from the successful concert series, Music Infinity. More information: /…ctaculare.cz a /…spectaculare FESTIVAL SPECTACULARE 20th – 31st January 2014, Prague Organiser: Art Frame Palác Akropolis With support from: The Capital City of Prague, representation Wallonia – Brussels Partners: Philips, Trashmade, The New Stage of the National Theatre, The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Studio Hrdinů – Veletržní Palace, Bio OKO, AVE Hotels, Video AD, Auto Palace Spořilov, RentPoint

Media partners: Radio 1, Český rozhlas 3 – Vltava, Full Moon, Expats.cz, Prague.tv, Metropolis

If you are interested in receiving any further information or photos, please get in touch with: Jiří Sedlák, ArtsMarketing.CZ tel.: 604 868 914 jiri.sedlak (at) artsmarketing.cz

Hi-res photos are available for download here: http://bit.ly/spectaculare