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Full Line-Up
Eternal Music Society (SE)
Eternal Music Society is a Swedish supergroup emerging from the fertile experimental scene of Göteborg and Malmö, centered around the visionary Discreet label. The band unites members from some of the most distinctive underground projects of the past decade: Enhet För Fri Musik (Discreet), Skeppet, Frihet, Neutral, Leda (Knotwilg), and Kröppskanedom (Morc). Each known for pushing the boundaries of free music, drone, and avant-rock.
Together, they form a collective that channels the raw spirit of improvisation into a dense, hypnotic whirlpool of fuzzy noise rock. Their sound revolves around dirty, overdriven guitars, a deeply grooving bass, and relentless, repetitive drum patterns that lock into a trance-like pulse. Twin drummers not only emphasize rhythmic precision but create a subtle, almost psychoacoustic phasing that blurs the line between structure and chaos. Addictive, looping riffs rise and fall like waves, evoking a sense of ecstatic propulsion. In short, cloud-busting psych headbanging for the initiated.
Gearing up to the festival, Knotwilg Records has released the limited edition LP ‘Eternal Music Society’.
Reference Points: Water Damage, France, Spacemen 3 / Loop, Shellac, Faust / Tony Conrad
TOMO (JP) + LP-release ‘Wheel of Life’
At Knotwilg Festival 2026, Japanese hurdy-gurdy artist TOMO presents his new lp Wheel of Life in an exclusive live premiere.
As the successor to Vieille-Electronica, this work goes even deeper into drone, folk and minimal experimentation, rooted in Breton tradition and infused with influences from Japan, India and medieval music.
TOMO’s playing moves between quiet intimacy and raw, almost punk-like build-ups: timeless, hypnotic and meant to be experienced live.
A unique EU premiere, a one-off chance to witness this release for the very first time.
Reference Points: Claude Flagel, La Tène, Lise Barkas, France, Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino
Split Apex (UK)
Hollowing out crab legs is a craft as meticulous and demanding as scraping away excess sound from a song structure. This is precisely where Split Apex excel.
The duo of Peter Blundell and Jussi Palmusaari construct a world of deep, pulsing basslines, minimal and poetic yet menacing vocals, inventive electronics, noisy but restrained guitar implosions, all carried by subtle, finely judged rhythms. Music that does not accumulate, but pares down; not layered, but carved.
Echoes of Blundell’s past with Mosquitoes clearly seep through, while simultaneously feeling like a natural continuation. Their debut LP Thoughts In 3D (Ever/Never) is hypnotic, incantatory and almost breath‑stealing: deconstructed post‑punk dub that forces you to listen between the sounds, grasping for points of reference.
Split Apex fit seamlessly within the Knotwilg Festival universe: uncompromising, intense and fiercely individual.
Reference Points seem absent, until they suddenly emerge. An emaciated Shadow Ring. Public Image Ltd. at the time of Metal Box. And yes, even an unlikely alliance between Throbbing Gristle and Captain Beefheart does not feel far‑fetched here.
pFeM (FR)
Brutalist guitar drone at its heaviest. pFeM is the formidable duo of Pierre Faure (Sun Stabbed, La Morte Young) and Erik Minkkinen (Sister Iodine), two pillars of France’s radical underground. Their sound: corroded feedback and dense layers of vibration collapsing into slow, grinding waves. At Knotwilg Festival, they’ll challenge the river IJzer with a trembling bombardment of guitar resonance aimed straight at the banks of Diksmuide. Will 4AD hold? Of course it will. But it won’t escape unshaken. Their first ever appearance on a Belgian stage.
Heavy guitardrones, folks. Come prepared.
PPaulus & Frère (FR)
PPaulus & Frère is a two-headed and agile duo composed of Manuel Zenner and Baptiste Filippi.
Together, they form an alliance through cables, audio signals, and voltage spikes.
This imaginary brotherhood gives life to an electronic soundscape shaped by a heterogeneous assemblage of augmented drum machines, homemade instruments, acoustic devices, turntables masquerading as guitars and cassette players manipulated like samplers…
Active in both music and visual arts, they can also be seen in other musical projects such as Les Percussions De La Montagne Verte and Groupe de lecture. Constantly battling boredom, they also co-founded Travail Rythmique, a shape evolving collective in which they release cassette tapes, draw and screen-print posters and organize shows in Strasbourg.
Reference Points: Durian Brothers vs John Cage, Coil vs Don’t DJ, early Rephlex vs Pierre Henry
Kindvriendelijk (BE)
‘The noise is in your head my friends’
Transcendental surgery by the likes of Vincent Dallas and All Shadows And Deliverance.
Reference Point: Non(e)
Kroppskiste (BE/SE)
A menu of lo-fi rhythms and drones, served on a bed of Swedish meatballs with a rich Flemish beer sauce. That’s one way to frame Kroppskiste, the collaboration between Glen Steenkiste (Hellvete) and Andreas Malm (Kroppskännedom).
A meeting written in the stars. Cassette manipulations and traditional folk instrumentation generate a field of tension that crackles and slowly unfolds, like a drawn-out spring offensive. Drones are not treated as an end point here, but as part of a hybrid form where experimental folk and light industrial rhythms subtly surface.
Live, this translates into a physical experience. Sound that moves, scrapes and accumulates in the room. Not a static sonic field, but a set that breathes, pushes and unfolds layer by layer.
This marks the very first appearance of these seasoned musicians together under this moniker.
Their respective outputs speak volumes: Hellvete, Silvester Anfang, Skeppet, Kroppskännedom, Frihet… Those familiar with releases on Knotwilg and Morc know the drill. Fragile tones subtly steered by rough, abrasive undercurrents. Honey on barbed wire. Not to be missed.