Thou artist in residence Roadburn 2019
There are a few pretty immovable parts of Roadburn these days; traditions that we maintain to showcase the best and brightest in our little world. One of these cornerstones is our Artist In Residence – a band or solo artist who will perform multiple times across the weekend, and with each set they showcase a different facet of their creativity. Past artists in residence include Earthless, Gnod and Misþyrming.
The choice for 2019 was… easy. If there’s one band who have surpassed themselves – and arguably many of their peers – in terms of creative output this year, it’s gotta be Thou. They performed with The Body at Roadburn 2018 and absolutely decimated the Koepelhal: an outstanding set that left minds blown and tiny little hairs standing on end all up our arms.
In case you’ve missed them, Thou have spent the summer putting out four distinct and compelling releases. For a band with a back catalogue as extensive and varied as Thou, the 2018 releases – The House Primordial, Inconsolable, Rhea Sylvia, and Magus – when looked at as a package, do as good a job as anything can of summing up what Thou is all about.
That is to say that every move has been carefully considered, every collaborator engaged with deliberately, every composition in tune with its surroundings. This isn’t a band carving up a collection of songs into bitesized chunks for the sake of it. Each and every release in the history of Thou is a thread that weaves around another to form the fuller picture of this band. To put it bluntly, we’re in awe. As long time fans, we’re blown away by their creativity.
Of their Roadburn residency, Bryan Funck comments:
“In the spirit of creative experimentation and in supplication to bacchanalian delights, we will be performing four distinct sets at Roadburn 2019. If you think you can already guess what those sets will be, then you still don’t understand us, and we look forward to shocking your senses, irritating your pride, or reaffirming your apathy.”
At this point what we can tell you is that there will be a collaborative set, a covers set, an acoustic set, and a Magus era set. What exact form those performances take, and the details of them will unfold between now and… well, the moment they step on stage for each of those specific sets. We know we’re in good hands with Thou, and cannot wait to welcome them back to Roadburn as our Artist In Residence for 2019.
Becky Laverty
