Finland’s Flow Festival aims to mix art, culture and cuisine with music. While we’re keen to know what’s on the menu too, founding partner and artistic director Tuomas Kallio has made us a playlist of the acts he’s most looking forward to seeing Helsinki this summer (12-14 August).
Anohni – Drone Bomb Me
“This is a big song! And hey, Anohni together with Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke can’t result in nothing less than one of the albums of 2016. Looking so much forward to this one!”
New Order – Singularity
“With musical legacy such as theirs, New Order could have easily joined the ranks of other legendary music acts who are riding the international festival circuit on decades old merits but instead they went and did one of the best album of their 25-plus years career.”
Massive Attack – Ritual Spirit
“Massive Attack are finally back and what makes this especially thrilling for us is that they are playing the Flow Festival live show together with the Mercury Prize-winning Young Fathers.”
The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect
“Another classic song from Alex Turner and Miles Kane. Loving the craftsmanship behind their production and the warm analogue sound of their recordings which makes them stand out in these modern times of bedroom laptop productions and digital recordings.”
Iggy Pop – Gardenia
“Iggy has announced that Post Pop Depression would be his last album, so it could be he wont keep on touring for that much longer either. If this is true then hats off as this album is a great rock album and has been getting rave reviews.”
Sia – Space Between
“40-year-old Sia Furler is a breath of fresh air in modern mainstream pop music world. This Is Acting is a funny identity-game concept album. For example the track Sweet Design sounds like Sia singing a Beyonce song even though she’s singing one of her own. What gets maybe less mentioned is the fact that Sia also has one of the strongest pop voices around, like we can here on this track.”
Chvrches – Leave A Trace (Goldroom Remix)
“One of the big pop songs of 2015 gets a nice upbeat treatment. Chvrches has always been a very requested act for our festival lineup but this is the first time round they actually play Flow Festival.”
Jamie xx & Four Tet – SeeSaw (Club Version)
“I’d say Jamie xx and Four Tet could be the two most visionary UK electronic music producers of today. Happy to have them both playing Flow Festival on Friday 12 August.”
Anderson .Paak – Am I Wrong
“Anderson .Paak has something quite many of the contemporary hiphop and R&B acts might be slightly lacking – call it soul, call it talent, call it groove, but he’s got it! And people will love it.”
Stormzy – Dude
“I’ve been very happy to see America slowly waking up to the rough greatness of British grime music like Skepta or more lately Stormzy. Skepta played Flow Festival’s Black Tent in 2015 and we are happy to offer the very slot to Stormzy this August.”
Ata Kak – Obaa Sima
“Probably the most original and awesome act to come through the Awesome Tapes From Africa pipeline The Ghanian Ata Kak fuses highlife with dancehall, reggae, disco, soul and above all a deliciously eccentric take on rap. The resulting stew is like opening a door into an alternate reality of pan-human pop music.”
For more, including the full line-up and ticket news, head to Flowfestival.com.
