The Rock Subculture Journal will be covering Caprices Festival in Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps of Switzerland in March. Just a few weeks away, I’ll be covering all nine nights of the annual music event, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Sadly, The Kills will no longer be part of the line-up due to an illness, but the organizers have added rock legend Alice Cooper to the bill. The festival runs March 8th through the 16th, and tickets and more info can be found at the official site at www.capricesfestival.ch.
The latest announcement from the festival can be found below:
With just three weeks to go until the opening night of the tenth Caprices Festival, the festival organisers regret to announce the cancellation of The Kills show. Instead, a truly legendary performer will replace the English duo at the top of the bill : Alice Cooper ! It will undoubtedly be a spectacular performance.
It is a sad fact of life that cancellations are just one of the imponderables that festivals have to deal with. This year, it’s The Kills that have been forced to cancel their live performance on Thursday, 14 March for medical reasons. The Caprices Festival is honoured and delighted to announce that it has found a worthy replacement for the English group: Alice Cooper, the legendary king of hard rock, is sure to give a memorable concert. The pioneer of ‘theatrical rock’ will put on an extravagant and electrifying show on The Moon stage, a performance that is sure to go down in the history of the festival!
Festival-goers can have their tickets reimbursed until 8 March at the point of sale where they purchased their ticket in accordance with the terms of the outlet in question.
As far as the discovery of new talent is concerned, the moment has come to announce the finalists in the 2013 Orange New Talent Contest ! They won the hearts and minds of both Internet users and the jury, and it was their talent that tipped the balance in their favour: Crash Island, Demi Mondaine, Nadine Carina, DGTO, and Rootwords will be the supporting acts for five artists at the festival on 9, 14, 15, and 16 March 2013! Suffice it to say that they have their work cut out for them: it is up to them, the stars of tomorrow, to waken the stage animal slumbering inside and let it roar! After all, the jury and the public will choose the winners on the basis of their stage performance, presence, and charisma.
Find out more about the five finalists at http://www.caprices.ch/fr/ntc/groupe/.
Additional news about the show was recently circulated by the organizers:
I Love Live : curtain up on the Caprices Festival’s new essential stage!
It is a well-known fact that the Caprices Festival is playing the novelty card in 2013. It is no surprise, therefore, that new acts will benefit from the I Love Live stage, which will be a showcase for both emerging Swiss and international acts and renowned artists.
Before revealing which artists will be on the bill for this new stage, which promises to be nothing less than exceptional, let’s take a last look at the programme for The Moon and The Tube, which is getting better by the day.
The evening of 9 March will be brought to life by the presence of the English producer and DJ Tom Staar on The Moon stage. Later that evening, in the club The Tube, DJ Sebb Bash will hit the turntables, the ideal complement to Dj Shadow. On 11 March, the warm-up act for Björk will be her former keyboardist, the divine Leila, who excels in the art of juggling styles such as jazz, hip-hop, soul, etc. It’s a mixture that promises to be at least as thrilling as the sexy brand of R’n’B presented by The Weeknd, the Canadian artist who has been the subject of massive hype and has generated the most incredible buzz around the world. The support act for Portishead on 12 March will be the English musician Baxter Dury, whose light and sunny brand of pop will provide the perfect contrast to the melancholy atmosphere of the trio from Bristol. On 13 March, France’s Kavinsky, the man who gave us the hit ‘Nightcall’ from the film Drive, will share The Tube with fellow artists Sebastian and 2manydjs. The second part of the evening of 14 March, which will be under aegis of the D! Club, will play host to DJ Speedrax. And so to the closing night, which will begin with a performance by Logic as a warm-up for Method Man/Redman and Cypress Hill on The Moon stage, and will continue in The Tube with a DJ set by the legendary Mix Master Mike (DJ for the Beastie Boys), followed by our very own local boy, Mr Mike!
That’s the programme for the two main stages. As far as the programme for I Love Live is concerned, the name of the stage says it all:
The Labrador City, a group from the Swiss city of Berne and undoubtedly the next big thing in Swiss pop, have the honour of being the first to perform on this new stage on 8 March. Josef Of The Fountain, from Nyon in Switzerland, will also be on stage that evening. Their brand of new-wave post rock will be a marvellous partner for the electronic music and the incandescent cold wave of the excellent Parisian quintet Poni Hoax !
The evening of Saturday, 9 March will be all about reggae, dub, hip-hop, funk, and pop, first and foremost with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a group from Chicago which boasts a number of collaborations with major artists such as Erykah Badu, Damon Albarn, Mos Def, Wu Tang Clan, and many more. Although not (yet) as well known as the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Rootwords, the next big thing in Switzerland’s French-speaking hip-hop scene, will share his percussive flow with the audience. After that, the unmissable Mark Kelly will seduce the same audience with his smooth voice and unstoppable songwriting. The forecast is for widespread good vibes!
The duo Mnemosyne, two sisters from the town of Martigny, will bring an atmosphere of ‘peace and love’, lively refrains, and captivating repetitive tunes to the stage. Staying with the stars from the canton of Valais, singer Marc Aymon will present his latest, eponymous album, while a very talented young man from Lausanne, Alejandro Reyes, will perform the choicest pearls from his folk repertoire in intimist surroundings.
On 11 March, the Geneva-based group Sinusite, champions of sinusoidal electronic techno, will really get audiences burning! Warning: this group causes chronic fever and is seriously contagious! Oil (formerly of the Troublemakers) from France will be delivering his ‘black notes’, a little black book full of rhythmic funk, hip-hop, and electronic music. 12 March will still be about classy electronic music, but this time it will be mixed with trip-hop performed by the incomparable Sinner DC from Geneva. The same evening will see a performance by the next big thing in French pop new wave, Lescop, who will take us ‘into the forest’, a poisonous, haunting forest described in his eponymous hit single.
The Animen, who oscillate between vintage rock’n’roll and bouts of calm, fantastically sensual soul will share the stage on 13 March with Static Frames, a group of three Basel-based men who excel in luminous, arty indie-pop. 14 March will be a celebration of big sound with Progstone from the canton of Valais, a group that is bringing raw rock and grunge right up to date, The Hathors, a furious rock combo, and Bloody Sailor, four fans of the 90s from Lausanne who combine driving, ravaging riffs, heavy basses, and lush guitars!
On 15 March, the blues legend Vigon and the Dominos will bewitch the public with a wild yet elegant rock’n’roll of the kind that warms the heart and soul, while Time Machine will revive R’n’B, funk, and disco hits including classics from Aretha Franklin, ABBA, and Michael Jackson: time to bring the 1980s back to life!
The closing night, 16 March, is shaping up to be the perfect evening for fans of Balkan folk music and other gypsy styles that make you want to clap your hands and tap your feet to the joyous effervescence of the music. The bill for this evening includes Palko Muski, a marriage of polka and disco, Gypsy Sound System, and Kadebostany … a fantastic end to a fantastic show!
There can be absolutely no doubt: the I Love Live stage gives absolutely everyone the perfect opportunity to make a multitude of exciting new musical discoveries and to enjoy the talented performances of some well established names. I Love Live: every evening from 8.00 p.m. to 1.00 am.
Below is a new time-lapse video showing the construction taking place at Crans-Montana in advance of the festival:
All upcoming coverage of the Caprices Festival will be found via the following link:
Jason DeBord