Event-Factory is executive producer of concerts “Penderecki, Aphex Twin & Jonny Greenwood” at the European Culture Congress Event-Factory was selected to produce the main feature of the European Culture Congress, a twin concert “Penderecki, Aphex Twin & Jonny Greenwood” to be staged in Wrocław on 9th September 2011. We have been commissioned by the Polish National Audiovisual Institute as the executive producer of this culminating event at the Congress, witch itself is the main feature of the Polish 2011 EU Presidency’s cultural agenda “Attention Culture!”. The Congress stands out among similar European events with a unique combination of culture in theory and practice served under the motto “Art for Social Change”. Along with debates on the hottest topics of contemporary culture the congress will feature a slew of stage shows, concerts, workshops, films and exhibitions of the latest in art, architecture, design and interactive installations. During the four days, between 8 and 11 September, more than 100 interdisciplinary projects will be held in an area of 90 thousand square meters. Among 300 European artists, scholars, philosophers and activists invited are: Zygmunt Bauman, Brian Eno, Jan Fabre, Oliviero Toscani, Azra Akšamija, Zbigniew Libera, Mirosław Bałka, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), Aphex Twin, Krystian Lupa, Dorota Masłowska, Stefan Kaegi, Grupa Kompott, Miasta w Komie and Fatos Lubonja. A musical high point of the Congress will no doubt be a planned meeting of Aphex Twin, a guru of contemporary electronic music, and Jonny Greenwood, a multi-instrumentalist and leader of Radiohead, with Krzysztof Penderecki, the classical music composer whose work has influenced both of the said musicians. Aphex Twin is a true icon of electronic music and had some of his pieces performed in orchestral adaptations by such respectable orchestras as the London Sinfonietta and Alarm Will Sound. Members of the cult band Radiohead admit to have drawn inspiration from Penderecki’s work and they have tried in vain to involve Aphex Twin in collaboration and a joint tour. Johnny Greenwood, their leader and guitarist, is a British musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He has been consistently named as one of the greatest guitar players and the Rolling Stone magazine ranked him among the top 100 guitarists of all time. In 2004, Johnny Greenwood became a resident composer with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The concert project is intended to present the classical music of Krzysztof Penderecki in the context of the work of the two icons of popular music. Penderecki will be the central figure of the two concerts, but the involvement of Jonny Greenwood and Aphex Twin in the same project is without precedent. Greenwood clearly feels at home with the “classical” instrumentation (which he proved in pieces such as Smear, Popcorn Superheat Receiver and others) and he openly manifests his attachment to Krzysztof Penderecki’s music. Aphex Twin, on the other hand, is a towering figure of the contemporary electronic sound and the fist techno artist whose music has been transcribed to an orchestra and performed in some of the most important concert venues of the world. Aphex Twin is also a highly controversial and unpredictable musician reluctant to play live performances. He is also known for his very strong ties with the world of “classical” music expressed in his fascination with John Cage, as well as in highly publicised arguments he had with the Karlheinz Stockhausen and others. There is one more interesting aspect of the choice of artists in this project. Radiohead, including Jonny Greenwood, admit to being inspired by Aphex Twin’s music, while the latter definitely turned them down when offered collaboration, including a joint concert tour, in a famous quip: “I wouldn’t play with them, since I don’t like them”. This means that Krzysztof Penderecki will play a role of a “link” between two icons of popular music who have never worked together before. Both concerts have been designed around the same three compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki: Polymorphia for Strings, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima and Canon for strings. All of them were composed for string instruments (including one for string instruments and magnetic tape) during Penderecki’s avant-garde years of 1960-1962, which was exactly the period that was so influential for both Jonny Greenwood and Aphex Twin. Both performers have been inspired by Polymorphia, which will have its 50th anniversary of the first performance next year, and will premiere their respective pieces: Jonny Greenwood will bring his 48 Responses to Polymorphia and Aphex Twin his Polymorphia Reloaded. The Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima was selected primarily as the source of inspiration for Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superheat Receiver. Aphex Twin also chose to introduce a remix of the Penderecki’s piece. Finally, the concert will feature the Canon for strings by Penderecki, a piece from the motion picture soundtrack There Will be Blood by Jonny Greenwood and two sets by Aphex Twin.

The night will start off with Penderecki and Greenwood, the more “classical” of the two concerts to be followed by a more “rave” concert of Penderecki and Aphex Twin. The event will be accompanied by a technologically advanced production, details of which are currently discussed, but are expected to include 12 channel sound, stage design solutions (a separate platform for Aphex Twin), multimedia (visualisations) and visual effects (a laser show). The project will mark a step in a new direction towards overcoming barriers and blurring the division between the classical and ambitious popular music genres. The collaboration of Krzysztof Penderecki with Jonny Greenwood and Aphex Twin has no precedent on the global scale and is set to be commented worldwide.

The project is headed by Filip Berkowicz as the programme director and curator. Event-factory is responsible for comprehensive organisation and production of the concerts to be attended by mass audiences of nearly five thousand spectators each. The entire project is part of the European Culture Congress, itself a feature in a larger cultural agenda of the Polish Presidency of the EU under an umbrella name “Attention Culture!” Organisers: the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Audiovisual Institute Co-organiser: City of Wrocław, Co-financing: European Union Benefactors of the Presidency: PKO Bank Polski, PZU S.A. Partners: Centennial Hall in Wrocław, Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych, European Cultural Foundation Congress Technology Partner: Orange