New Ruins Festival takes place across 4 days at The Lubber Fiend and Lubber Kitchen. The festival moves between heavy experimental music, fractured dance forms and artists reshaping inherited traditions for the present. Moving between acoustic and electronic, abrasive and intimate, the festival centres a shared approach: pushing at the edges of genre, treating sound as material, and rebuilding musical forms through DIY practice and collective experimentation.

To find out more about the festival, the venue, accessibility and inclusivity please check out the festival website here:

Or email any questions to info@thelubberfiend.com

Day splits and tickets will be announced at a later date.

We are incredibly excited to reveal the inaugural festival line up:

Maria W Horn - Swedish composer, sound artist and co-founder of Xkatedral label. Horn’s work explores the inherent spectral properties of sound and moves from fragile and beautiful to abrasive and powerful. Her compositions employ a varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ and various chamber music formats. Synthetic sound is often paired with acoustic instruments in order to extend the instruments timbral capacities with precise control of timbre, tuning and texture.

Rezzett - First surfacing back in 2013, the duo stitch together a grimey, lo-fi angle on live jungle, techno, footwork and experimental electronic soundscape, keeping it raw and analogue, switching from harsh to majestic in the blink of an eye. Their output on The Trilogy Tapes has been part of the labels flagship offering, creating this future-nostalgic and blown out sound.

Elena Colombi - A swirling headrush of techno, post-punk, industrial and experimental spoken word can only try to sum up Elena Colombi’s DJ sets. Founder of Osàre! Editions, a label supporting boundary-pushing artists, spanning everything from 1990s darkwave to forward-thinking dance music, their taste is dynamic and immersive. A regular on the international clubbing circuit, including the heavy hitters like Dekmantel, Atonal and Unsound, we’re pleased to let her loose in the open ground of New Ruin’s late night club spot to blend style, history and texture.

Smote - Taking folk, rock and drone, with cues from the 70s Swedish and 90s Japanese Psych scenes, Smote has honed their sound to a razor edged ritualistic and transcendental march. Live the band often expands to include multiple extra members adding violin, hurdy gurdy and other instruments, giving even more clout and psychedelic swirl to their time dilating sets.

Voice Actor - Perhaps THE artist from recent Stroom Records releases. The Belgian label sure can pick them and Voice Actor is no exception. Across a slew of missives, Voice Actor curates a bewildering and compelling world of low slung trip-hop, ambient/illbient, dream pop, dub and cracked electronics. All chopped and screwed, fucked about with and of the highest order.

O Yuki Conjugate - Legendary and a little unsung in our opinion, O Yuki Conjugate were part of the early wave of post-punk/industrial/”dirty ambient” groups that emerged in the early 80s across the UK. Moving from a slightly more beat driven sound early on, they crystallized into so called “dirty ambient’ on 1984s Scene In Mirage, but have been active with various line-ups up to the present.

Nina Harker - Freeform, pigeon-hole dodging, stylistic merry-go-round, restless, weird and addictive - genuinely otherworldly and intoxicating. This french duo deals in drug-damaged lo-fi tape experiments, cranky synth-pop and folkish art-song. Songs and elements are introduced and yanked away at random. Beautiful, often eerie, vocals come in and out of focus. It's all incredibly composed yet without losing any of its on the spot, playful and spontaneous feel which fizzles with possibility.

Sewer Election - Part of the incredibly prolific, distinct and innovative Discreet Music/Gothenburg scene - Dan Johannson aka Sewer Election is part of a dizzying array of projects such as Enhet For Fri Musik, Neutral, Amateur Hour and so many more. As Sewer Election though his music has largely been grotty lo-fi noise which runs the full gamut - from hushed creaking and churning debris to crushing and screeching blunt force sonics.

Handle - I guess you could say post-punk, but really it’s a tumbling, sideways, creaking, hypnotic and barely held together trio of bass, drums, keys, and poetry/vocals. Janky and frenzied in the best possible way, with an urgency and exuberance that drives the whole thing forward.

Alyssa - A newish duo consisting of Dan Johannson (playing at the fest as Sewer Election) and Irma Krook. Alyssa is a mix of ice cold vocals and loops with piano and synths, all with that classic grey murk associated with Discreet Music that we love so much. A sort of minimal waveish vibe but completely hypnotic and compelling.

The Shits - Repetition as bludgeoning transcendence, rock music boiled down to its essence and exploded back in sleazy dirges. Maniacal vocals narrate these paeans to The Stooges and Brainbombs with tales of murder and lust, albeit with a sardonic and self-parodying nature.

Philipp Otterbach - As an early resident of the epoch-defining Salon Des Amatures, Philipp has spent over 2 decades honing his craft as polymathic DJ, producer and remixer. His productions shine a glinting eye on epic ambient soundscape, his DJ sets can be like a frenetic jungling of post-punk, krautrock and percussive tribal rhythms, all expertly poised. With a newly developed live set in tow, we are proud to welcome Philipp back to the venue across multiple days and performances at the festival.

Beer Fear and Posset - Local legend Posset, king of the dictaphone and garbled sounds/vocals teams up with relative newcomers Beer Fear. Their performances are hard to pin down but the trio has a real sensitivity to sonics and each other, interweaving and perfectly complimenting each other. Hushed vocals, bass wobbles and rumbles, field recordings, scattered piano and mangled tapes all combine in symphony.

Harvey Parkin-Christie and Teruki Chan - fire music from this Leeds saxophone and drums duo. Think Coltrane/Ali, Ayler/Murray, Brotzmann/Bennink. Some lofty names, but these two know how to play and they have the same spirit of adventure and fun. Have no doubt it’s serious gear, but it's never pompous or dull.

More acts to be announced soon.

Raves & Dances

Date range

Location

New Ruins: Lubber Fiend Festival