Gnod + Harrga

Two bold experimental projects from England will visit Warsaw's Hydrozagadka.

Formed in 2006 in Northern England, Gnod's sound is reminiscent of the edgier parts of the noise rock pantheon, like Swans or Oxbow; but their stretched-out, improvisational forms based on drones and heavy, shuffling rhythms also owe a massive debt to krautrock and psychedelic music in general. Gnod tame these retro-fetishistic ambitions with a hefty dose of punk grime, cynicism and political involvement; their best-known album is called Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine. Their discography includes more than a dozen other releases too, recorded in various personnel configurations and often exploring radically different sonic territories; among them are the results of collaborations with dark ambient producer Anthony Child (also known as techno producer Surgeon) and the Portuguese free improv wunderkind, percussionist João Pais Filipe. Gnod's most recent work is 2022's Hexen Valley.

The duo Harrga, consisting of Miguel Prado and Dali de Saint Paul, was founded in Bristol in 2017 as a project devoid of political themes and intentions; soon, however, influenced by the tragedy of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, it took as the focal point of its work the experience of people who cross borders illegally and have to burn their documents, thus losing their identity—the so-called harragas, hence the group's name. In 2019. Harrga released their debut album Héroïques Animaux de la Misère on Avon Terror Corps, combining noise electronica with lyrics in French, English and Darija, vividly denouncing the horror of the effects of European countries' refugee policies. Harrga currently has three albums to their credit; their most recent release is Femmes d'Intérieur, which leans into themes of domestic violence and explores models of femininity.