VIKENDICA – Neighbours Burning Neighbours – Sereias – 52 Hertz Whale

Vikendica is a travelling festival-weekender for adventurous new music, connecting three iconic venues in The Netherlands. In the first weekend of September, VERA joins hands with WORM (Rotterdam) and OCCII (Amsterdam) showcasing some of the latest acts from Europe’s most vibrant underground scenes. Named after the regional Western Balkans term for a weekend holiday home, the event simultaneously highlights the identitiy and ambience of independent clubs. Vikendica is curated by Yugofuturism. Art by Kat Kalkman.

52 Hertz Whale: Bratislava (SK)
Bratislava’s 52 Hertz Whale are known for their ferocious sound and "emotionally cathartic" gigs. Expect noisy melancholy. Fans of the Butthole Surfers should apply.

Neighbours Burning Neighbours: Rotterdam (NL)
Local heroes Neighbours Burning Neighbours are known for creating a huge, hard-rocking sound, filled with unexpected structures and dynamics. They are brilliant live, yet claim they make "sloppy math-rock for the masses". Nah, they’re briliant. Expect sultry, but explosive harmonies.

Sereias: Porto (PT)
Sereias make a luxurious free rock that draws from post-rock, kraut and free-jazz. This sound is topped with "the psychotic voice" of A. Pedro Ribeiro: a mix of raw poetry, invective and existential lamentations. You have NEVER seen anything like this.

Schau Schau
Schau Schau hail from Groningen. The band, built around Kinoo’s Kalle Wolters and Maarten Huizing, make atmospheric and rhythmic alternative music, and look to the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, CAN and Preoccupations for kinship. The band will release a double single and an EP this autumn, so a great time to catch them. 

Lenhart Tapes
Serbia’s Lenhart Tapes is a one-man-cassette-tape-manipulator, known for off-the-wall live performances using material selected from his cassette collection, alongside original rhythmic loops. Music experts say Lenhart Tapes makes "sophisticated and wild world-noise-ethno-industrial-folk zombie music". Only one way to find out…

Mart Avi
Mart Avi is THE twilight samurai of alternative pop, making nowhere-somewhere music, mapping uncharted territories between avant-pop, mutant R&B and timeless grandeur.

Boomkat: "Out on his own, no matter what way you look at it, Mart Avi makes the rudest, suavest links between far-flung paradigms in a singular style." MOJO: “The Estonian neo-soul enigma croons from the shadows of a film-noir of his own making!”