In collaboration with our partnered audience development project NOISS, this year’s NEXT Festival features musicians from Norway, Iceland, Slovakia and beyond, thanks to the support of the EEA Grant scheme in Slovakia.

Our music showcase organized with NOISS (Norway – Iceland – Slovakia): New Music for New Audiences opens on 28 September at the P. O. Hviezdoslav City Theatre in Bratislava with a concert by Kyiv-based composer and musician known as Heinali, performing a modular synthesizer solo set.

On Thursday, 29 September, Norwegian impro trio Skavhaug Nergaard / Lindvall / Abrahamsen Garner will search for unusual ways to play traditional instruments in a performance at A4.

Friday’s festival night sets off with Icelandic composer and musician Kaðlín Sara Ólafsdóttir presenting her debut album Hljóðfirring at the Clarissine Concert Hall, followed by now-legendary German composer Limpe Fuchs on her sizeable collection of unique percussion instruments. Continuing at A4, next in line are international electroacoustic improvisation collective NOISS Collab, a festival commission formed of creative musicians from Norway, Iceland, Turkiye and Slovakia. This year’s program organized in collaboration with the audience development project NOISS also features Arnalds & Mofjell & Rónaiová & Skavhaug Nergaard & Tanrıkulu. Arriving in Bratislava from the USA, composer and producer Lyra Pramuk will present her debut album Fountain, composed solely of vocal recordings. DJ Lycox will bring contemporary club music to the unique boiler-room venue Kotolňa at the Faculty of Architecture with a set starring African subgenres and more. The night will also hear De Schuurman, a key name on the club scene signed on the trailblazing label Nyege Nyege, his set launching us off into the new day and month.

On Saturday, 1 October in the Foyer of the Faculty of Architecture, Norwegian composer Fredrik Rasten and an international ensemble of dancers, or rather moving guitarists, will perform an organic blend of physical theatre and concert in a piece titled Six Moving Guitars. A fresh exciting collaboration between well-known Tuvan singer Sainkho Namtchylak and Belgian artist Jochem Baelus a.k.a. Slumberland will combine traditional Tuvan praise songs and ancient vocal technique with avantgarde principles. Their concert takes place later at night on Saturday, 1 October.

For the last night of NEXT Festival on Sunday, 2 October, Kunsthalle Bratislava will host an intimate sonic performance by Chinese London-based duo Mengting Zhuo & Li Song.

With NOISS, the festival ventures beyond the field of music performance. From 28 to 30 September, NEXT will offer a course in music journalism focusing on contemporary music, the independent scene, subcultures and subgenres. The three-day intensive module running throughout NEXT 2022 will be led by Czech music critic Pavel Klusák.