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The clash of music cultures originating from big, influential agglomerations, where sound keeps developing, evolving and taking up new areas – it’s the idea of another Boogie Brain Festival edition. In the industrial heart of the city, on three stages set up on the downtown island  in Szczecin - Lasztownia, the sounds from UK and Berlin will reverberate confronted with Polish artists creating aspiring electronic sounds on a stage sponsored by Polish music magazine LAIF. The fourth stage will be brought over by Red Bull Tourbus.  Aspiring and eclectic  sounds from rock, reggae, jazz and hip hop will dominate the stage.


Laif Stage (Friday, 22nd of July)

Life stage – sponsored by Laif music magazine, the only one on the Polish market presenting exclusively contemporary music of all genres. The magazine has supported Boogie Brain Festival from the first edition in 2008 and has taken it as seriously as other music festivals like Open’er or Audioriver.

Laif stage will bring you our Polish representative of techno scene Jacek Sienkiewicz, exploring minimal techno sounds Pol_On, Max Skiba with his unique electro disco and digital funk, Cracow based Supra1 duo associated with New York label Trouble&Bass and Catz’n’Dogz, a Dj-producer duo previously known as 3Channels who release their productions on best foreign labels and has earned recognition of top foreign DJs. Catz’n’Dogz are one of the Polish producers renowned abroad who travelled with their DJ sets almost all over the world.

The main star of Friday’s Laif stage is Ms Dynamite , a singer, MC, R&B vocalist double Brit Awards prize winner and triple MOBO Awards finalist. A dynamite woman, freely getting around urban music style.


Red Bull Tourbus (Friday, 22nd of July)

Several bands will perform on Red Bull Troubus stage – an innovative music project promoting Polish artists. A mobile scene – at the same time a roof of old-school bus – will bring you some gigs of current and future stars of a diverse independent music. You’ll hear Łona & The Pimps, Fisz Emade, Paprika Korps, Kristen, My Head Is Dubby and Maria Peszek Klubowo.


Berlin Stage (Saturday, 23rd of July)

The atmosphere  of Berlin has always drawn artists, it’s incessantly present in music originating within the city. Disturbing, ambiguous, energetic, and at the same time joyful and life affirming by clubbing hedonism.

Henrik Schwarz experimenting with electronica and jazz, deep house old timer blends with Berlin’s  tren. Among his huge fans are Jazzanova and Gilles Peterson. Boogie Brain Festival is proud to present an artist of such range for the first time to wider audience. The vicinity of Berlin let us over ten years ago find out about DJ Dixon - another Boogie Brain star. His ‘Off Limits’ series attracted attention with its fresh perception of house music inspired by multicultural influences. His over ten-year career constitutes of continual work on Wahoo projects, releases at the prestigious Sonar Collective label and cooperation with Henrik Schwarz and Ame at ‘The Grandfather Paradox: A Journey Through 50 Years of Minimalistic Music’, a cross-sectional music journey aiming at showing the similarities between modern minimal techno sounds and classic achievements of minimal electronic artists.

Another offering is an cross-national eclectic music volcano. Jahcoozi is an international, Berlin based trio, Mc Sasha Perera, Robert Koch and  Oren Gerlicz. As a music and culture mixture Jahcoozi offer their own electronic pop version. Trio’s style is a unique  and evolving  mixture of  avant-dub-glitch-dubstep with traces of pop brought afresh by musicians’ specific esthetics. For over  years now Jahcoozi has collaborated with several contemporary music artists, Modeselektor, Asian Dub Foundation, Stereotyp, M Sayiid (Anti-Pop Consortium), Buraka Sound Sistema, MC Soom-T, Missill, RQM, Lexie Lee, Ata & Sasse, Cassy, Luomo, Siriusmo, Lethal B, Kano, JME, Skepta, New Flesh, Infinite Livez, Alhaca Soundsystem, Puppetmastaz, Hannah Holland, Chris De Luca vs. Phon.o, Rustie, DJ Maxximus, Mochipet & King Cannibal. Their compositions were released on the most recognized labels of contemporary music (Kitty-Yo, Asound, Playhouse, Ninja Tune, Bpitch, Citizen Records; Crosstown Rebels, 1965 and WMF Records, to list only some of them).

Another guest from Berlin is a German rising star Shed mixing all  the best techno, dubstep, garage and r&b. The last but not least – Till Von Sein, whose tech house made fuss in Berlin’s clubbing and this this year’s EP ‘Sundown’ is one of the most frequently talked about ’12.


UK Stage (Saturday, 23rd of July)

London is an undisputed music centre of the Globe. The metropolis generating a creative upheaval and inspiring in a big way next generations of DJs, producers and musicians of various kind. The city which stands for cradle of urban music phenomenon, where drum’n’bass, 2step, garage, dubstep flourished and gave way to new unordinary urban music mutations.

On UK Stage we will hear sets by some of the most acclaimed djs and producers from around the British music scene. The first one is Zed Bias – one man institution, the author of the immortal ‘Neigbourhood’ track, the head of such projects as Maddslinky and Phuturistix; he still writes music that evades any known categories and is the author of remixes for, just to mention the two, Kosheen and The Streets.

A dj that is close in his status to Zed Bias and who will add splendour to the third edition of the Boogie Brain festival is MJ Cole, the producer mainly associated with UK garage and house music, an innovator who blends dynamic club tracks with the touch of soul. The crowning achievement of his style was his debut album called ‘Sincere’ which was awarded the Mercury Music Prize. Both of them have been active for over a decade.

The next generation will be represented by Actress. Actress is a stage name of D. Cunnigham, the head of Werk Discs label, a home for such unconventional artists as Zomby. Any attempt to describe her work with one word is going to be a total failure. The same happens with the Actress project – any definition within any known style is simply pointless. Actress is pure energy that draws heavily upon bass music and funk in all their good aspects.

The UK Stage will also include Benji B, famous for his radio show on BBC1Xtra, and Marcus Intalex with MC Fats who represent a lighter, more musical and more soul-like side of drum’n’bass.


Prelude: Chopin na Betonowcu (Saturday, 10th of July)

Antoni Gralak, Marek Pospieszalski, Tymon Tymański, Jim Black or Chris Speed – these are just some of musicians who will perform 10 July on ‘Urlich Finsterwalder’ concrete ship run aground in Dąbie Lake. The concert will present jazz interpretations of Chopin, trimmed with electronic tunes on one and only stage of this kind in the world. 

‘Chopin na Betonowcu’ (i.e. Chopin on the concrete ship) is a follow-up of jazz concerts inaugurated last year on  concrete ship run aground in Dąbie Lake. Some of the splendid Polish artists, Antoni Gralak (trumpet, tube), Marek Pospieszalski (saxophone), Alek Korecki (saxophone), Bronisław Duży (trombone), Darek Sprawka (trombone, bass), Klaudiusz Kłosek (trumpet), Ola Rzepka (drums), Tymon Tymański (bass), Darek Makaruk (sampling), Piotr Pawlak (guitar),  for many years recognized as eminent representatives of Polish music, will perform live alongside American world-famous artists: Jim Black (drums) and Chris Speed (saxophone). Black and Speed (both born in 1967, Seatlle) play together in AlasNoAxis, an avant-garde band  which released 4 albums and their names appear at numerous projects. Currently they are the heart of New York’s jazz scene.

This year’s edition of the concert, supported by such prominent artists, will become a masterpiece opened  for an audience unique in a history of  making shows on water.

The idea of organizing a music show on a solid German shipwreck, made waves in Poland and abroad.  The use of a passengers fleet will let broader audience  who do not own their boats participate in  the concert. Efficient sound system reaching all water tourism fans gathered will make the concert a huge festival for sailors.

Not only the concert  will attract all generations but also will spread over other non-artistic activities. It’s hard to find a bigger artistic conglomeration.


Festival Music Cinema (Thursday, 22nd of July)

Festival Music Cinema is about to bring the audience closer to an aspiring, multigenre and uniquely diverse music culture via the magic of a silver screen. The selection of repertoire will also support youg artists’ independent activities.  From 5pm until midnight we’ll be screening short and feature films.

Up to 9 pm the screening will take place in an intimate cinema ‘Zamek’ and after that the projections will be transferred to the main court of the Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle. The technical facilities will create an event combining qualities of a cinema and extraordinary music party.


Lasztownia - the heart of the town / the centre of the festival

For a long time Lasztownia has been regarded as one of the most attractive and yet not fully discovered places in Szczecin. In the minds of town-planners it is to become a new servicing, residential, and cultural centre of the town. But before it happens let us make Lasztownia (and especially the Starówka Enbankment) be famous for its ambitious and remarkable cultural projects. The northern part is filled with a specific atmosphere whose extraordinary character is due to its post-industrial landscape that consists of port-cranes, a huge complex of the post-German city slaughterhouse and some unused port storehouses.

Now, that part of Lasztownia, awaiting all those future investments and revitalizational programmes, is frozen in dead space that all the cultural activites have no problems with, using its every element, giving a new meaning and function to almost all of its buildings, machines and devices. Culture as such is capable to make this part of the town alive without having to deal with big renovation plans. The festival music will bring some life to Lasztownia for sure.

Having decided to have our festival in Lasztownia, we are making a unique cultural event in a unique place. It will undoubtedly be our ace in the sleeve that will attract festival-goers from around Poland and Europe.