Coming out of hiding

For a quiet little niche event in a small town in Gloucestershire the Hidden Notes Festival sends out some pretty impressive ripples. This year’s programme (Sat 20/Sun 21) sees performers coming from the Pacific North-West, New York, Switzerland, Poland and Iceland, not to mention Chalford – a village about 3 miles from the festival’s Stroud base. And if past years are anything to go by the audience may well be coming from Spain, Poland, Japan and America. What’s the big attraction?

As the name suggests, Hidden Notes is a musical gathering from off the beaten tracks bringing together creatives working outside the mainstream in classical, folk and electronic music. The two-day programme features films, discussions, art installations and book talks as well as an amazingly diverse programme of live music offered in venues ranging from an art barn and a record shop to the Shambles Market hall and the Gothic church of St Laurence.

Stroud-based musician Dan Inzani took part in the first Hidden Notes in 2019 and was enticed to move to the town and join the festival organisation. We asked him about this year’s programme.

How did the festival originate?

Alex Hobbis and Adam Hinks, who also run Stroud based arts magazine Good On Paper, set it all up and put on the first Hidden Notes Festival back in 2019. Good On Paper plays a big role in connecting our artistic community, and in that spirit the festival connects the artistic venues in Stroud; the main stage is in the incredible St Laurence Church, this year there are also film screenings at Lansdown Hall, book talks at Stroud Valley Arts Space, installations at Rattle and Brash, and ‘Breakfast Club’ concerts at local record stores Klang Tone Records and Sound Records. It’s also a local crew and vendors, so it has a real town community vibe about it, which I think is part of its appeal, as you would often only get to see some of these artists in London, or a few other cities’ concert venues, and it’s just as unusual to see a back to back programme of this type of music anywhere in the UK.

Do you have a wish list of performers or is it largely happenstance?

Alex curates the line up, and it’s actually quite a fine balancing act to programme. Ideally, we want to host some incredible international headliners, but a lot of the pioneers and high profile artists in the niche of experimental, contemporary, avant-garde, neo-classical/folk realm that we programme are not necessarily touring artists. They might be more well known for bespoke soundtracks or maybe not UK-based and potentially be in their 70s by now, so the planets need to align with the artist’s availability and current live performance output.

In the past we’ve been extremely fortunate to have headliners like Jonny Greenwood and Hannah Peel, this year we have James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel (pictured at top) and Arushi Jain (aka Modular Princess). There are so many current artists who we would like to book who aren’t of a headliner status – and these can sometimes be the performances which stand out at the festival – but sadly there are not enough slots to book them all.

Who is the most hidden on this year’s line-up?

This year there is an installation named ‘Living Matter’ by Mara Simpson and Tobin Jones (music), JLM Morton (poetry) and Narna Hue (visual artist) at ‘Rattle and Brash’; a new artist residency venue on a farm. To get there is a half hour walk from the town centre through some nature with listening posts along the way. A dear friend of mine Kim Francis also has an exhibition of her beautiful sculptures at the Lansdown Hall gallery.

Which performers are coming the farthest this year?

I believe the act traveling furthest this year are viibra, who are an Icelandic 7 piece flute ensemble who formed to work with Björk and have stayed together since. They have never performed in the UK before and will be performing a unique, site specific choreographed show in the church.

Which hidden performers should we most try to find? 

Well I think viibra will be an amazing spectacle, and Melos Kalpa are a quartet bringing lots of interesting instruments and tape machines, if you’re into electronic music then check out both the headliners Arushi Jain (Saturday) and James Holden and Waclaw Zimple (Sunday). But I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone’s set as they are all innovative and unique artists.

Which are you especially excited about?

HOWL are an amazing 9 piece female and non-binary vocal ensemble from London who I’ve been lucky enough to work with in the past. They are really wonderful and will be opening the Main Stage. And I want to see Francesca Ter-Berg’s set, she combines cello, electronics and improv and is one half of Fran & Flora, who are part of Hidden Notes Records artist roster.

We understand people come from far away to catch the festival?

Oh yes – to our surprise people have travelled from all over. We have had people come over from Japan, Europe and North America, including a musician named Richard Sabon, who has come over from the States a few times and this year we have given him a performance slot at local record store Klang Tone Records as part of the festival’s Breakfast Club sessions.

The Hidden Notes Festival takes place on Saturday 20/Sunday 21 in various venues in Stroud.