CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG PLAYS AT POHODA FESTIVAL 2019 – THE FESTIVAL WON THE TAKE A STAND AWARD

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Charlotte Gainsbourg is another performer of Pohoda 2019. The French-English actress and musician is Serge Gainsbourg’s and Jane Birkin’s daughter. She became famous for starring in films such as Melancholia, Jane Eyre, 21 Grams and Nymphomaniac, and has received awards for the best actress from the César Award and from film festivals in Cannes and Bratislava. As a singer, she has released five albums, with IRM (produced by Beck) and the newest Rest resonating the most. The Guardian and The Independent ranked the latter among the best albums of the year. She collaborated on the extraordinarily personal record with artists such as Paul McCartney, Connan Mockasin and Blood Orange, and received the „French Grammy“ Victoires de la Musique for it. 

Charlotte Gainsbourg started her musical career as a 13-year-old with a controversial duet with her father called „Lemon Incest“. The well-known artist provocateur continued in the topic of „borderline“ relationship with his daughter in the film Charlotte for Ever, and in his daughter’s 1986 debut of the same name. The fans had to wait for her new work for two more decades. It was, however, worth it. The Observer awarded her “grown-up” debut, 5:55, ten points out of ten, and AllMusic praised the excellent collaboration of the super team of producers headed by Dunckel and Godin of the Air and the lyricist Jarvis Cocker (Pulp). The second album IRM (French acronym for magnetic resonance), produced by Beck, was even a bigger success. Pitchfork included the album among the Best New Music and added, that her voice gave Beck’s work depth it had been lacking. Magazine Spin put the video for the title song “Heaven Can Wait” in the selection of the twenty best videos of 2009. Another hit, „Trick Pony„, appeared in FIFA 11 game, Gray’s Anatomy, and in a Superbowl ad with the model Adriana Lima. In 2011, she released a double album Stage Whisper, which is a collection of unreleased songs from IRM and live recordings. In 2013, she covered Hendrix’s „Hey Joe“ which she recorded again with Beck.

It appeared on the soundtrack to Trier’s film Nymphomaniac with Charlotte in the leading role. On November 17, 2017, she released the album Rest, which is about coming to terms with the loss of her father and sister Kate Barry. Famous collaborators appeared on this album, too: Paul McCartney, Connan Mockasin, Manuel de Homem-Christo, Owen Pallet, and producer SebastiAn. Pitchfork put this record among the Best New Music (rated 8.7 out of 10) too, describing it as scorchingly intimate and adds: „Gainsbourg doesn’t just reveal her pain, but monumentalizes it, lays out a red carpet, and invites people to watch. Her refusal to be sequestered by grief is, quite literally, a death-defying feat.” The success of the album is followed by her latest EP Take 2, which was released a few weeks ago and was produced by SebastiAn again. Charlotte doesn’t stand out with an extraordinary voice range or singing technique. Her added value is the charisma and emotions she lends to the songs – especially on stage. The Independent and The Guardian described her concert at Village Underground in London as perfect. As Laura Snapes from latter writes: “Charlotte channels her father’s lascivious magnetism into a mesmerising, euphoric show.” The Telegraph started an article about her other London concert with the following words: “Profound grief, subtle grace and marvellous music.” Charlotte Gainsbourgh is going to mix these ingredients into a pleasant music-performance cocktail at the Trenčín airport, too. 

POHODA WON THE TAKE A STAND AWARD AND THE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE AND PASSION FOR MICHAL KAŠČÁK

After last year’s premiere victory in the most prestigious festival awards, the European Festival Awards, Pohoda turned both nominations in its categories into victories this year. We won the most awards at the EFA 2018 together with the Roskilde festival. From Groningen to Slovakia, we’re taking the Take a Stand Award as well as the Award for Excellence and Passion, which the EFA jury awarded to Michal Kaščák for the contribution to the scene in Slovakia and Europe. „Both awards are symbolic, both of them bring together art and freedom. I consider a free festival a miracle and I think it is natural that we want to use its power to spread tolerance and freedom. It’s also good to see that people in Europe are interested in what is happening in Slovakia,“ Michal Kaščák said about the awards. Thank you to our attenders, all of our colleagues, and friends. After a great concert delivered by The Ills, keep your fingers crossed for  other artists who will be performing within the Czech and Slovak Focus at ESNS 2019 these days.

Michal Kaščák took the Award for Excellence and Passion from the last year winner’s hands, Fruszina Szép. In her long introductory speech, she highlighted the way Michal approaches the organization of the festival, hinting to the previous award: „When Michal sees any problem in society, he doesn’t close his eyes before it, but instead puts it in the heart of his festival.“ Together with Michal, personalities such as Glastonbury’s lawyer Ben Chalis, EXIT Festival director Ivan Milivojev, Yourope boss Philippe Cornu, and Go-group Holger director Jan Schmidt were nominated in this category. The head of the Romanian festival ARTmania Codruta Vulcu, who won the EFA 2018 award for the best small festival, thanked Michal in her speech, saying he is one of the key personalities who influenced her the most. „It’s easy to be ‘excellent’ when you have so many excellent people around you. It’s easy to have passion for something as amazing as music. I consider the award to be the recognition of Pohoda, its charm wouldn’t work without our attenders, who give it meaning,“ said Michal Kaščák.

Take a Stand Award was presented to Pohoda by the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, who praised the extraordinary commitment to freedom and sense of social responsibility outside the festival stages as well. This was the second year of the award, with Pohoda having been nominated last year for the installation of Minaret, which, except for Pohoda, appeared also at the neighbouring Sziget. This year, the jury appreciated the long-term approach of the festival to sensitive social issues, especially the reaction to the tragedy of February last year – the murder of the journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancé Martina Kušnírová. In addition to concerts for Ján and Martina in Bratislava, Prešov, Žilina, Nitra, Košice, Pezinok and Gregorovce, Pohoda also responded to this unprecedented attack on freedom during the 22^nd edition of the festival. Michal explained our efforts after the first concert with the following words: „Independent art needs the freedom for its existence, and Martina and Ján died for it.“ The opening concert of the festival, the winning installation of the Public art festival contest and the initiative of visual artists called Reaction was dedicated to the couple. The artistic peak was, however, the world premiere of The Quartet of Tentacles Reaching Out by the young Slovak composer Miro Tóth, which was delivered by the world-famous Kronos Quartet string quartet. We also remembered Ján and Martina with the symbolic gate “They united us”, the name of which was also the main message that came from the stage at the European Festival Awards.

Find more about the artists performing within the Czech and Slovak Focus at ESNS 2019 here www.czskfocus.com.