Festival Alternativa: Day 2.

TOE

It is no exaggeration to describe TOE as an all-star band on the Austrian audiovisual scene. Project founder Billy Roisz is joined by Dieter Kovačič (aka dieb13), Martin Brandlmayr and Karolina Preuschl – artists with impressive portfolios who have never lost their appetite for experimentation. As TOE – or Tripping on Electrons – the quartet processes Roisz’s extensive archive of audio and visual material. Their approach is as much about archiving as it is about (de)construction: fragments of works, including previously unreleased ones, dissolve into a fluid, multi-layered field to form something new.

Both the visual and sonic aesthetics of the whole naturally resonate primarily with Roisz’s focus on distortion, feedback and glitch. Further subversion of stable forms stems from the turntables, always manned by the rebellious dieb13. Brandlmayr’s drums largely refuse to bring order to this chaos, preferring instead to generate further sonic debris. Preuschl’s role, however, deserves special attention; her modular synthesiser, and above all her voice, shift the sound in completely unexpected directions. Alongside classic spoken word, ceremonial melodies can be heard, or the jagged clatter transforms into a ghostly radio broadcast from the fourth world.

TOC & Sakina Abdou

One of the special line-ups at this year’s festival will be the freerock ensemble TOC, joined by saxophonist Sakina Abdou. Jérémie Ternoy (Fender Rhodes), Peter Orins (drums) and Ivann Cruz (electric guitar) draw a trance-like effect from conventional rock forms, one that does not rely on endless repetition. The trio, whose creative method is based exclusively on improvisation, glides gracefully between delicate post-rock, jazz-core outbursts and fragments of psychedelia and pop. The distinctive sound of the Fender Rhodes keyboard evokes the 1970s from an alternative reality, whilst the guitar thoughtfully sketches subtle lines and erupts with noise. What is remarkable, however, is how often both instruments reject familiar patterns and stick to outbursts that are more primitive and elemental than a rock riff.  The drums, meanwhile, are a chapter unto themselves – at times gracefully jazzy, at others bluntly percussive, syncopated.

Throughout their nearly 20-year history, TOC have consistently been open to collaborations with exceptional saxophonists, and at Alternativa, Sakina Abdou will join the ranks alongside Jean-Luc Guionnet, Paulina Owczarek and Dave Rempis. A representative of the younger generation on the French scene, she made her solo debut as recently as 2022, straight away on the renowned Relative Pitch label; since then, she has collaborated with Mariam Rezaei and Bill Nace, amongst others. The album *Goodbye Ground* presents her as an outstanding instrumentalist and focused composer. Abdou recorded the album at home, without fellow musicians or effects. Even in the crystalline, lyrical passages, there is a certain tenacity; the musician simply demands attention. And when she turns up the intensity, her unpretentious emphasis takes on a touch of grandeur. During this performance, the title of one of TOC’s albums – about songs that will never be played again – will ring truer than ever.

Hervé Birolini

Hervé Birolini’s work encompasses a wide variety of sound-related fields, including interdisciplinary crossovers. The French artist is involved in live performance, installations and stage music, and whilst his primary focus is on electronics – which includes creating his own virtual instruments – he also occasionally utilises found sounds, classical instrumentation and various objects. At Alternativa, he will present the project *Des éclats* (glows, fragments, turmoil), in which he constructs an ‘orchestra’ of sixteen Tesla transformers and uses electricity as a sound source – the phenomenon that powers both our world and our bodies. The mesmerising pulse of violet flashes in a square grid is accompanied by an unmistakable crackling sound, which forms shifting patterns and stark beats. Thanks to the spatial arrangement of the speakers, the performance offers an experience akin to being inside a Faraday cage, with a storm sweeping across its surface.