A Psych for Sore Eyes: Liverpool Psych Fest 2014

What is the psychedelic experience in the 21st century? Is it, as Aldous Huxley asserted, the sensation of being “transported, carried away toward that Other Earth of the Platonic Dialogue, that magical place where every pebble is a precious stone”? Or is it the truly modern psychedelic trip composed of slack-jawed gurning in a damp field to the sound of fuzz guitars and wah-wah pedals?

Either way, it’s impossible to ignore the simply staggering proliferation of psychedelic festivals on the modern festival circuit. From every two-bit town to raging metropolis, the psychedelic festival has become ubiquitous, the default adjective for any musical gathering worth its tabs. Does this dilute the whole notion of a psychedelic festival? Not necessarily, you see, especially when it comes to Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, the full and rather grandiose title of unquestionably the UK’s, if not Europe’s, premier psych fest.

The festival takes place at the city’s Camp and Furnace venue which this year plays host to a frighteningly feral music line-up. But more of that shortly. What makes Liverpool stand out above the parapet is the carefully curated visual style and art direction from the festival; the festival’s aesthetic is as much a part of the event as the music and audience. Sam Wiehl is the chief designer for Liverpool Psych Fest and sees his role as interdisciplinary curator, bringing together all of the art and visual aspects under a cohesive banner. “This year we have shifted the principal medium in the run up to the festival,” reveals Wiehl – “with video becoming central to the aesthetic. We have been releasing video trailers in the run up and this will form part of the AV set-up across the venue. I'll also be anchoring the visual goings-on in the Furnace – our largest festival space – over the weekend.”

But what of psychedelia? Has the term been diluted somewhat due to over-exposure? “I think the term 'psychedelic' is pretty broad these days, which gives 'psych' festivals a huge breadth of freedom to curate from,” he says, “meaning a wealth of really interesting, expansive artists playing together – often in some ways crossing over genres. This broad church is one of the key aspects, I suppose. I think you can find a lot of psychedelia in many areas of music; if it's transportive, in our mind it’s psychedelic.

“There's a strong global community of psych culture bubbling at present; it does feel like a truly global 'moment,' and this means that people travel a lot to various festivals, helping their growth. We saw this with our first international event, Eindhoven Psych Lab, in June. There is a genuine community of enthusiasts out there and it's brilliant to be able to put on shows that bring the community together."

"If it's transportive, in our mind it’s psychedelic” – Sam Wiehl

Wiehl has grand plans for this year’s festival, all of which are underpinned by a strong theoretical foundation; you’ll find no half-assed fractal wall projections or pseudo-horror graphics under his command. “We're really keen to develop a broad visual aesthetic at the festival. Innerstrings Psychedelic Lightshow will be doing their amazing oil-based wall transformations with us again this year – aided by some very special guests – and we have a brilliant analogue video artist also taking over one of the spaces.

“My own work tends to be quite momentum-driven and also this year I'll be using more film. I think that the only aspect the visuals have to fulfil is that they're completely immersive and transportive. Complementing the performances, a strong visual presence can be a really powerful addition to a show – and many forms can work. We like the way the rooms at the festival all have their own individual 'feel' and concept. They all share the idea of creating a world you can either drift off into or be completely bombarded by. I personally like the intensity of light and use a lot of white-light projections and strobes within performances – that'll definitely be going on over the two days.”

Last year’s festival saw the pairing of Spaceman 3 luminary Sonic Boom and London-based screen printers Heretic at a bespoke gallery space in the festival. The two created an entirely mesmerising and enveloping sphere of warped and wonky psychotropics; Wiehl is relishing the opportunity to consolidate and build upon this legacy for 2014. “This year's visual art programme is more expansive,” Wiehl proudly notes, “including an exclusive installation by Dan Tombs – who has worked with Jon Hopkins, East India Youth et al – plus we'll also have a live screen printing workshop. There is also a brilliant cinema programme curated with Tusk Festival in Newcastle and Piccadilly Records will be pitching up with a new pop-up, their Psychedelic World of Wax Wonders.”

Indeed, Dan Tombs’ installation piece is rather conceptual, based upon the concept of circuit bending, the deconstruction and re-wiring of cheap electronic devices to create entirely new hybrids. “It’s interesting to see what is redundant in the world and modifying it in a small way to change the possibilities,” says Tombs. “I’m a great believer in the idea of a common consciousness and am thinking of some sort of border-less, state-less way in which you can bring everyone together in a short period of time – that’s the interesting thing about the festival, you create a new world for people, which is a very exciting experience. I’m thinking of subtle ways in which I can involve this in the video work. My current thinking is to try and explore the idea of people’s colour perceptions. I’m quite fascinated by the idea that we have no idea if we all perceive colour in the same way; we all agree that the sky is blue and the grass is green but are we actually seeing the same thing? So, I’m trying to think about using that, along with using a large amount of old television sets to make the installation – which naturally will all have different representations of the same video signal – and playing around with changing the formats of the videos, using different international standards, and then rewiring it a little bit. Then I want to arrange the sets in a column or pyramid so you can walk around 360 degrees effectively.”

And what of the music? The lineup for Liverpool Psych Fest is stellar – mental Gothenburg psy-magicians Goat headline, but dig a little deeper and some more gems are to be found: Parisian Orval Carlos Sibelius beautifully melds kosmische cool with a glistening ear for melody worth of vintage XTC; ditto Sudden Death of Stars and their ersatz prog folk and the often frightening Gnod, Salford’s premier purveyors of occultist sonic menace. Sam Wiehl is breathlessly excited about this year’s prismatic jamboree: ”There is a brilliant mix of AV artists creating work over the weekend across all the festival spaces, including brand new AV elements I am building at the moment, which are heavily video based. I'm also working with Rocket Records on a new visual set for Goat – just for the festival – which is really exciting. Oh, and I'm installing strobes. Lots of strobes...”