Kraftwerk, Second Life and Oskar Schindler’s factory

Image posted 24 Sept 08 by Richard M Marshall on Flickr.

Avant-garde music, Second Life and Oscar Schindler's museum - Poland's sixth edition of the Sacrum Profanum music festival came to Krakow last weekend, and brought German electronic giants Kraftwerk with it. Our Observer went to the festival.

The ad for the sixth edition

Kraftwerk - "Man Machine"

Posted by "eyeswide79" 21 September 08.

"An old galvanizing factory for Kraftwerk"

If you want to get people interested in contemporary avant-garde music, then Sacrum Profanum is the place to take them. The sixth edition of the Polish festival exceeded all expectations with over eleven thousand music lovers turning up to the event in person, and an extra thousand per night in virtual form - on Second Life. Poland's own virtual world platform, Second Poland, recreated a virtual version of the concert hall for Web users.

Each year Sacrum Profanum devotes itself to music from a certain country, which it presents in various post-industrial venues. This year's theme was 20^th century German music. Post-industrial concert venues like Oscar Schindler's factory, the Museum of Urban Engineering and an old galvanizing factory made good venues for artists Kraftwerk, Ute Lemper and Sinfonietta Cracovia conducted by Marc Minkowski. A large part of the festival was devoted to 20^th century contemporary music icon Karlheinz Stockhausen, who sadly died in December. Other German composers were present - if not in person, in spirit - including Hans Werner Henze, Helmut Lachenmann, Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm. The line-up for next year is already very interesting, but the pop star remains a secret.