Unsound was established in 2003 in Krakow, Poland, as a festival of advanced music. Starting out as an underground event, in recent years the festival has grown in size and name.

Unsound currently produces an annual festival in Krakow at the end of October each year, and in spring 2011 will produce the second Unsound Festival New York, with local producers, curators, venues and cultural institutes in that city.

Also with local partners, Unsound has created smaller events in Prague, Warsaw, Bratslava, Kiev, and Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Unsound is interested in the idea of cross border  collaboration, and thinking of the festival as a tool for commmissioning and fostering new work. As well as this, Unsound is focused on promoting music from Poland and generally the region east of Berlin.

Unsound's roots go back even further than Poland, though, to the small Australian country city of Wagga Wagga, Australia. The first Unsound event took place here, with a different organization team, many moons ago. Today, Unsound in Wagga Wagga no longer exists, but the name lives on, in the form of the Polish festival, which has its own trajectory and profile.

Unsound is produced by Fundacja Tone, a Krakow not-for-profit organization.

Recent press from Unsound:

“The Unsound Festival New York claims a shrewdly amorphous domain: a zone in a virtual Europe (including Eastern Europe and Scandinavia) where electronics; arty, multimedia experiments; chamber-music meticulousness; punk impulses; and D.J. dance beats may all appear amid clouds of noise. …this festival’s aesthetic: high-tech, allusive and not to be pinned down.” Jon Pareles, NEW YORK TIMES, February 5th 2010

“…the purpose of the Unsound Festival is to repel the baseless, spectacle-heavy notion that only a few states in the U.S. and a few countries in Western Europe are capable of making great, weird music that is riveting, outrageous, and thought-provoking.” VILLAGE VOICE, New York, February 2010

“Nearly all music festivals bill themselves as some variation of “adventurous,” and the Krakow, Poland–based Unsound Festival is no exception. But unlike other such get-togethers, which are often nothing more than expanded versions of regular club nights, Unsound—making its American debut in NYC, backs up that claim.” TIME OUT NEW YORK, February 2010

“Unsound Festival NY has cemented its status as one of the most important cultural festivities in New York City.” URB, February 2010

“you can never can be sure exactly who is going to blow your mind at festivals like this one” XLR8R, February 2010