*“These ain’t your grandma’s folk troubadours… This is the sound of irrevocable, total fcking ego death.”

The Texan project Ak’chamel is one of those acts whose immersive live performances cannot quite be replicated by listening to an album. Their handcrafted masks and costumes, stage performance and unpredictable use of sound create an intense spectacle that lies somewhere between a concert, a ritual and a hallucination. They are coming to Slovakia for the first time, with a set-list based on their new album Spiritually Unemployed. Demonic psychedelia, ritualistic ethno-folk, dark ambient and disjointed song forms converge on the album with the Middle Eastern instrument the oud, as well as wind instruments, the niner, hand-made violins, damaged tape recordings and field recordings.

Drawing from the dust of the US-Mexican border, abandoned towns and sonic finds, Ak’chamel do not recreate specific folklore, but forge their own, deliberately implausible tradition – the music of a world that is falling apart and forging new myths from its ruins. Music that is as unsettling as it is captivating. Ak’chamel have built a reputation as one of the most intriguing live acts on today’s psychedelic and experimental scene: their performances can be hypnotic, absurd, terrifying and unexpectedly beautiful.

Supported by public funds from the Arts Support Fund and the Bratislava City Foundation.

What happens when virtuoso improvisation meets the raw power of noise rock and the political urgency of experimental hip-hop? Expect a thrilling, genre-bending experience: the elite trio Mopcut will be performing in an expanded line-up featuring MC Däle – the voice of one of the most influential avant-garde rap groups of the last decade.

The trio Mopcut comprises experimental vocalist and electronic musician Audrey Chen, French guitarist Julien Desprez and Austrian drummer Lukas König. Their music functions as a concentrated chain reaction. The voice shatters into rhythm and noise, the guitar transforms into an electrical impulse, and the drums can shift in an instant from intricate sonic craftsmanship to overwhelming physical energy. Their latest album, RYOK (featuring guest appearances by activist and poet Moor Mother and turntablist Mariam Rezaei), takes this line-up into new territory, straddling free jazz, post-punk, electronica, noise and hip-hop. On stage, the trio is joined by MC Dälek, whose dark, precise and politically charged vocals transform Mopcut’s sonic whirlwind into a new form of industrial hip-hop.

Supported by public funds from the Arts Support Fund and the Bratislava City Foundation.

Mattia Müller Presents Slovak All Stars is a one-off concert evening which, on 26 September, will bring an exceptional all-star line-up from the Slovak music scene to Kácečko.

The project is the brainchild of Mattia Müller, a musician and producer based in Brooklyn and a graduate of Berklee College of Music, who is bringing to Bratislava an evening blending indie, electronic, R&B, post-punk, alt-pop and the contemporary Brooklyn sound. The line-up will feature a band comprising top-class Slovak musicians of world-class calibre, whom Mattia has personally selected for their exceptional talent, musical personality and energy. Together, they represent the very best the Slovak scene has to offer — in a single live line-up and on a single evening. The band will be joined by guests such as Billy Barman, Anita Soul, Meowlau and FVLCRVM — names you wouldn’t normally see sharing the same stage or programme. This evening won’t be a traditional concert by a single band, but a special club event built around powerful tracks, exceptional guests and the energy of a live line-up with a world-class sound.

Following the success of his 2022 EP Le Piano, Donny Benét returns with another installment in his instrumental series: Il Basso. This time, he pays tribute to the bass guitar, the most important instrument in any band, clearly demonstrating his weakness for rich bass lines. In addition to songs from the new album, the tour will feature all of Donny’s now legendary cult classics. An evening full of passion, heat, and virtuosity performed by Don and his band.

Three bands, three moods, one evening.

All three bands share a raw openness, a melancholic atmosphere and a guitar sound that conveys unfiltered emotion. Each works with contrasts – gentle versus loud, intimate versus chaotic, dreamy versus raw – to create music that is personal, sincere and human.

Following their successful collaboration on the track Girl, I’m Not Your Friend, Trilobeat and Ovarius are set to perform a joint summer concert.

In the courtyard of Bukowski Bar 1.0, visitors can look forward to an evening full of original music – Ovarius will perform his solo set, followed by Trilobeat, and of course the first live performance of their joint single will also be on the programme.