ST. PETERSBURG — Avant-garde musician Genesis P-Orridge — of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fame — will headline SKIF, or the Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival, St. Petersburg's leading experimental and avant-garde music event.
The U.K.-born, U.S.-based musician, who will perform with his/her band PTV3, is perhaps the most experimental artist to appear at SKIF so far. Genesis P-Orridge's experimentation has involved his/her own body, having dozens of operations, including breast implants, to form a "pandrogynous" entity with his/her now-late wife.
Sixty-two-year-old industrial-rock and electronica pioneer P-Orridge, who was born Neil Megson, claims to have had problems with the British authorities because of his/her radical art and declared a self-imposed exile to California in the early 1990s.
In 2009, the now-Brooklyn-based P-Orridge announced his/her retirement from touring in "any and all bands" to concentrate on art, writing and music, but lately seems to have had second thoughts.
However, the festival's organizers warn that "every concert could be the last, and it can't be excluded that this visit to Russia will be the last in the history of the band."
Chrome Hoof, an experimental orchestra from London, will be the main act to perform on the second night.
Featuring from eight to 14 members, the band performs a mixture of very diverse music styles. "Doom metal, disco, acid house and Donna Summer had a car crash on the highway to oblivion," Chrome Hoof's official biography states.
"Chrome Hoof emerged from the wreckage, grooving."
The Belgian-American-French trio Hoquets — pronounced "OK" — mostly play with instruments that they invent and construct out of wooden boards, broken strings, tin cans, etc. in their Brussels workshop, according to the band's website.
They admit influences of indie pop, hip-hop, punk, funk and the "strangeness of their homeland, Belgium."
From Norway comes Next Life. Founded by guitarist and composer Hai Nguyen Dinh in 1999 in Tonsberg, the band also features Tormod Christensen on bass and Anders Hangard on drums and has been described as "progressive, electronic- and rock-based."
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, also known by the acronym TKDE, formed in 2000 as a project to compose new music for existing silent movies.
Based in Holland, the band uses traditional instrumentations, including cello, trombone, violin, beats and vocals.
SKIF was launched in memory of the late St. Petersburg musician Sergei Kuryokhin and aims to continue his music and performance ideas by drawing experimental bands that are believed to be kindred in spirit with him.
SKIF Festival. Sergei Kuryokhin Center of Contemporary Art. 93 V. O. Sredny Prospekt. St. Petersburg. Tel. +7 (812) 322-4223. .
