Skaņu Mežs, the annual festival for unusual music, is now in its 11th year and will take place between October 10-12. The venues include the cinema Splendid Palace, the concert hall Palladium and the Latvian Railway Museum. The following are only part of the line-up set to perform at the festival: Stephen O’Malley (founder of the group Sunn 0))) ) with his duo KTL; free-jazz drummer William Hooker; Norwegian experimental jazz group Jaga Jazzist; dance music projects Shackleton, Andy Stott and Demdike Stare; dark ambient performer Lustmord.

The 2013 festival will be Skaņu Mežs’ eleventh installment and it will be structured in the following way: an electro-accoustic concert, “Spaces,” will take place on October 10; a dance music evening, “Chambers,” will take place on October 11; an evening of contemporary music, “Rooms,” will take place on October 12 in which both non-academic experimental and academic avant-garde chamber music will be presented. “Spaces,” “Chambers” and “Rooms” are imaginative titles which reflect the nature of the music played at each event – “Spaces” refers to the epic soundscapes the music of this evening will create; “Chambers” refers to the attraction that dance music has to dark, surreal and isolated venues; “Rooms” plays with the concept of chamber music.

A piece commissioned specifically for Skaņu Mežs will be performed on October 10. This project was created by Nate Young, member of the well known noise music group Wolf Eyes. Young has composed a new soundtrack to the classic Latvian film “Nāves ēnā” (In the Shadow of Death) based on the novel by Rūdolfs Blaumanis. The piece will be performed to segments of the film.

The following programme represents the festival’s selection so far, but as October draws closer it will be expanded to include further acts:

October 10, Splendid Palace – “Spaces”

Jaga Jazzist, KTL, NMO (Navngitt Mønster Opptog), William Hooker with Liudas Mockūnas & Edgars Rubenis, Phill Niblock, Nate Young’s performance of the new soundtrack for the Latvian movie “Nāves ēnā” (In the Shadow of Death).

October 11, Palladium – “Chambers”

Shackleton, Andy Stott, Demdike Stare, Evol, Ajukaja & Mart Avi, Martins Rokis, Toms Auniņš.

October 12, Latvian Railroad Museum – “Rooms”

Chamber music by Maja S.K. Ratkje, Milan Adamciak and Krzystof Penderecki; performance of Luc Ferrari’s work by eRikm; concerts by Marcus Schmickler & Lustmord

The festival’s final concerts will take place on October 26-27 and include the following artists:

Avant-garde pop singer Julia Holter, electro-accoustic improviser Otomo Yoshihide as well as an as of yet unspecified Keiji Haino project. Tickets for these concerts will be sold separately.

Tickets for the festival will be available at “Biļešu Servisa” box offices in Riga, or on-line at www.bilesuserviss.lv, at the end of July. Tickets for the events on October 10 in Splendid Palace, and October 11 at Palladium cost 10 LVL (14 EUR) each. The event on October 12 at the Latvian Railway Museum costs 7 LVL (10 EUR). A compilation ticket for all three festival nights is available for 17 LVL (25 EUR).