A Dozen Europes
Press conference
Monday, 24 November 2008, 10.30 a.m.
SLOVAKIA January
ESTONIA February
HUNGARY March
CYPRESS April
LATVIA May
SLOVENIA June
LITHUANIA July
MALTA August
BULGARIA September
THE CZECH REPUBLIC October
POLAND November
ROMANIA December
The 12 new EU member states offer fascinating insights into the music of “new “ Europe. Once a month throughout ‘09, popular musicians from these countries will bring musical enrichment to Linz’s Posthof. In most cases, artists from these lands have hardly made an impact on popular culture on the rest of the continent because the Iron Curtain long prevented cultural exchange on a regular basis between Eastern and Western Europe. Austria's pop music scene continues to be overwhelmingly characterized and dominated by “Western” musicians and bands. Nevertheless, there have occasionally been individual groups from the former Eastern Bloc—mostly from the Balkans—who have achieved success in the West too. Prominent examples are LAIBACH from Slovenia (former Yugoslavia) and FANFARE CIOCARLIA from Romania.
For many people, though, music from Eastern Europe, Malta or Cypress is even more exotic than music from far more distant regions of the world. Listening to Latin American, African or Asian music is no out-of-the-ordinary experience at this point. But Pagan Metal from Latvia? Grindcore Jazz from Poland? World-Dub-Trance from Hungary? Experimental electronics from Slovakia? Gypsy Groove from Bulgaria? And, to top it off, Drone scapes from Cypress! There’ll be lots of great new stuff to discover...
Linz09 and Posthof are jointly building these musical bridges, showcasing these countries’ music scenes on the basis of select contemporary bands ranging across a broad spectrum that includes Rock, World, Electronic and Dance.
