Modern Sky Festival Helsinki was held in Finland - and in all of Europe - for the first time. The festival originated in China and had previously spread to North America. The Finnish event was held on August 28th and 29th in Helsinki, offering a wide range of alternative music both from Asia and Nordic countries. We were pleased to find out the list of performing artists included a few names from South Korea's indie scene.
On Friday at 5:30pm, Kuang Program, a duo playing experimental music, performed on Nosturi Stage. The duo consists of singer/guitarist Taehyun Choi, who composes most of the music, and drummer Yongman Kwan. In Finland, Kuang Program began playing to a rather small crowd: a handful of people spread out near the walls, leaving the front rows completely empty. Fortunately more people came in during the show. The reason behind the small crowd might've been due to the early performance time during a weekday and also due to the fact that Nosturi Stage was the one interior stage on this festival. Therefore, on a warm day, the open-air stages are alluring and also to reach Nosturi Stage one had to go through a bar - a passageway that was not marked with signs or even in the event map.
Kuang Program's latest EP Flames, Dreams, Laughter was released in last November and includes their most intense music so far. The recording uses electronic sounds in order to create noise-influenced music with a bleak and tragic style. The group's earlier releases on the other hand offer more warmth and a more traditional style of rock even though the experimental touch remains present.
All of Kuang Program's releases so far featured an inspiring integrity by themselves but the way the duo collected their various kind of works together for the setlist at Modern Sky Festival ended up with a surprisingly functional outcome. The gig included songs that were calm, even cosy, and from where the atmosphere got worked up into extruding energy, finally getting into a strenuous mix of sounds.
The Nosturi Stage was decorated with flower patter designs from the collections of Vallila Interior, a Finnish textile company who had partnered up with the festival. When Kuang Program started their performance, the lights went dim and soon the audience heard them play the song Ambulance. This is a song with a desperate vibe, which combined with the shadowy red lighting managed to turn a flower patterned stage into something inspiringly dark. Although at a later time everyone was swinging their bodies to some relaxed beats with the song Who Cares.
At the end of the setlist the duo included the track Flames, Dreams, Laughter (from the homonym EP), which is a fierce song with electronic sounds and speech. Yet they also played the song Seoul, balancing out the experience. Seoul was originally released on Kuang Program's very first EP in 2012 and now left the audience in a relatively relaxed state.
One of the songs that stood out the most was Gangs Are Blue, which was performed in a dramatic way. The song is an example of their more melodic material while retaining the duo's attitude. The music video can be played below.
