EU Funded 'Avante-Garde Eurovision' Event EuroNoize To Debut May 2019

Culture
13 Mar 19

This May 23rd at London's Scala comes the inauguration of an event which promises to turn Eurovision's concept on its head, featuring a selection of European artists from the world of experimental and noise music.

The brainchild of artist and promoters Pil and Galia Kollectiv's fascination with the Eurovision Song Contest, this one day conference will bring together a selection of 11 representative "punx and weirdos" to perform a single original song together, all being live streamed to an international audience, who in keeping with Eurovision will have a chance to vote for their favorite act.

Among the acts which will be appearing is Ireland's Sissy. Known for their outspoken feminist politics and pro-choice activism, the lo-fi punk group may be the most melodic entrants of the bunch. 'Sail and Rail', their take on Enya's 'Sail Away', garnered much attention for its brilliant parody of anti-abortion rhetoric. The song featured Radie Peat from experimental folk outfit Lankum, who are also well known for their political engagement. Read Lankum's interview with Hot Press from earlier this year here. Other entrants in EuroNoize are cult Estonian group Winny Puhh, who actually competed in Estonia's pre-Eurovision competition in 2013, as well as Russian experimental electronic trio Asian Women on the Telephone.

Pil and Galia Kollectiv are working with The University of Reading, Kunsthall Oslo and ARE Prague, alongside recieving EU funding for the project. Currently living in London, they were born and raised in Israel, ironically the controversial host of this year's song contest. Seeing Eurovision on television growing up, they were struck by the program's over the top spectacle: "the requirements on the one hand to represent an increasingly meaningless idea of national identity and on the other hand some kind of recognisabley Anglo-American popular music". With EuroNoize, they hope to take their Eurovision fascination in a weird and boundary pushing direction.

EuroNoize will take place May 23rd at Scala London, though Britain will not be represented following Brexit. For more information visit the EuroNoize website.

Listen to EuroNoize's Irish participants Sissy below.