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Rock Icon Brian Viglione, best known for his work with The Dresden Dolls, Face of the Sun, and Nine Inch Nails, now serves as Rock Ambassador for “Sound Central,” Afghanistan & Central Asia's first rock music festival.
Sound Central: The Central Asian Modern Music Festival - the world's first "stealth" music festival - includes all four rock bands in Afghanistan, bands from Central Asia, Iran, and Pakistan, and championed by rock ambassador Brian Viglione as he travels in Europe and Malta recording albums.
Brian Viglione will give a video conference workshop on being part of the global music industry and producing successful albums, as well as advice for drummers, to benefit Afghan musicians and the region’s emerging rockers. While on the road, he will also be available to interview with press along with the festival leadership about the cause of freedom of expression. Find the festival Press Kit and Facebook page on SoundCentralFestival.com.
Combat Comms, a Kabul-based media production group founded and run by musician and photojournalist Travis Beard, is producing the festival. Argus Productions and HELO Media are co-producing the festival. While most events will take place in Kabul, there will be shows to rally global support for music freedom in the region held in New York and Los Angeles, as well.
The festival includes the talent of KabulDreams, WhiteCityKabul.com, District Unknown, White Page, ArianaDelawari.com, Fereshta.com, Maral, Rich Poor Boys, Eklektika.kz, SunBand.uz, BrianViglione.com, GatoLocoMusica.com, YXFMmusic.com, and more. We're sponsored by groups from the US Embassy to the Institute Francais Afghanistan to Paiste percussion. The festival also has two videos coming out this week to promote the festival and freedom of expression.
*** Note that for security reasons this is a "stealth" festival which means that the Kabul main event day, time, and location will not be released until 24 hours beforehand, and the musician’s workshop is private. All events aside from the workshop will be open to the public. Some video and photography in Kabul will be restricted.
Video: http://vimeo.com/combatcomms/videos
Web: http://www.soundcentralfestival.com
Press kit: http://www.soundcentralfestival.com
Facebook: Sound Central’s new Facebook page
Travis Beard, Sound Central festival founder and director:
“Sound Central will be an international and national youth event that will attract young musicians, artists and international media. This event will be novel, dynamic, original and the eyes of the world will be on Afghanistan. The concert will also promote awareness of Afghan youth culture as well as other traditional and contemporary art forms.
“We already have received huge interest from Central Asian bands and defined the list of participants from Afghanistan (“Kabul Dreams”, “District Unknown”, “White Page”, “White City”), Iran (“Maral”, “Yellow Dogs”), Pakistan (“Poor Rich Boys”), Kazakhstan (“Eklektika”), Uzbekistan (“Tears of the Sun”), Iraq (“Acrassicauda”), USA (“Brian Viglione”, “Ariana Delawari”, “Gato Loco Coconino”, “Yula & The Extended Family”, “Religious to Damn”), Canada (“Blurred Vision”) and other bands from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Brian Viglione, known for The Dresden Dolls and Nine Inch Nails, serves as global rock ambassador.
“In addition to the concert itself and pre-festival workshop for musicians we are planning to pull together other events and activities. There will also be performances of electronic artists such as DJ City Power (Brit based in Afghanistan), Massa Cygent (Australia) and many others musician supporters.”
Mr. Beard highlights that he has been living in Afghanistan for five years now and has have seen the underground rock music scene grow from nothing to numerous bands and gigs every other week: “My own band White City was the first band to rock out here and playing alone in a town gets boring soon enough. The inspiration behind Sound Central Festival is to change the outsiders view about Afghanistan, to ignite cross border exchange of artistic ideas and expose Afghan youth to artistic forms that they may have only seen online.
Daniel J. Gerstle, Festival producer and development partner:
"When festival founder Travis Beard and his organizations, Combat Comms and Argus Productions, invited my organization, HELO Media, to be part of Afghanistan & Central Asia's first rock music festival, my jaw dropped. While so many people responding to crisis focus on what's going wrong, here is a perfect example of people looking at what is going right, and building on it. After all, Afghan youth and their neighbors, despite the war and political uncertainty, are hungry to imagine what a future peaceful Afghanistan will look like. Here's their chance.
Sound Central is about rallying solidarity behind Afghanistan & Central Asia's emerging rock and modern music scenes, so we have focused everything on that. Once we were sure we could build this, we decided to start inviting global culture figures and media insofar as it didn't take the spotlight away from the cause and the regional musicians.
“We found fantastic people like Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Dresden Dolls drummer Brian Viglione who were excited to take part. But we also found a great number of people who wanted to be involved like human rights-oriented rock band Blurred Vision and Iraqi heavy-metal band Acrassicauda who wanted to do something in the West, so we decided to add a New York opening and closing night. With the right sponsorship, we'll be able to bring more features and potentially simulcast the event on the web."
About Combat Communications:
Combat Communications is a small anonymous group of international artists founded in 2010 year with the aim of advocating/promoting free expression through Afghan youth in Afghanistan.
Combat Communications [CC] was founded as a result of a flurry of art-based activities in Kabul and a need for them to be united under one flag. After the pioneering graffiti campaign by some foreigners in Kabul: Cost of War, it was decided that an icon, logo, banner was needed as a ‘face’ to this group that wished to be anonymous. CC was created as Identity for the evolving art scene.
Combat Communications [CC] was founded in 2010 as a result of a flurry of art-based activities in Kabul and a need for them to be united under one flag. After the pioneering graffiti campaign by some foreigners in Kabul: Cost of War, it was decided that an icon, logo, banner was needed as an ‘face’ to this group that wished to be anonymous. CC was created as Identity for the evolving art scene. After the success of the project many other projects requested to be associated with CC and their... (read more)
The sole purpose of CC is to unite all artists and their activities, so that when any art event or activity happens in Afghanistan, people can identify the group that they are associated with. CC acts as umbrella organisation, where all artists can shelter under, but still be 100% free to make their art as they wish. CC is not a governing body to the artists. CC does not control the artist and their output. CC does not have a director or board that make decision on behalf of the artists. CC is not a profit-making venture. CC is just the glue that connects the artists, the venue and the audience together.
Website: (premiering soon: www.combatcommunications.com)
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/combatcomms
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Combat-Communications/226854990663601?sk=info
About HELO Media:
HELO Media creates social spaces where survivors of war and disaster, humanitarian aid workers, rights advocates, crisis journalists, musicians, artists, and global thinkers can meet to produce media, share stories, and develop relationships which help people survive crisis.
HELO, pronounced "heal-o," is a slang term for helicopters in war zones. HELO Magazine, the organization’s pilot project, was founded by humanitarian aid worker and media producer Daniel J Gerstle in 2009. The online magazine has produced stories from all over the world including tales about surviving a plane crash in Angola, how crisis responders cope with stress through music, and debate on how to know when to trust war journalism.
Website: http://www.helomagazine.org/about-helo/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/HELO-Magazine/110747705629343
For more information please visit http://www.soundcentralfestival.com
Sound Central: The Central Asian Modern Music Festival - the world's first "stealth" music festival - includes all four rock bands in Afghanistan, bands from Central Asia, Iran, and Pakistan, and championed by rock ambassador Brian Viglione as he travels in Europe and Malta recording albums.
Brian Viglione will give a video conference workshop on being part of the global music industry and producing successful albums, as well as advice for drummers, to benefit Afghan musicians and the region’s emerging rockers. While on the road, he will also be available to interview with press along with the festival leadership about the cause of freedom of expression. Find the festival Press Kit and Facebook page on SoundCentralFestival.com.
Combat Comms, a Kabul-based media production group founded and run by musician and photojournalist Travis Beard, is producing the festival. Argus Productions and HELO Media are co-producing the festival. While most events will take place in Kabul, there will be shows to rally global support for music freedom in the region held in New York and Los Angeles, as well.
The festival includes the talent of KabulDreams, WhiteCityKabul.com, District Unknown, White Page, ArianaDelawari.com, Fereshta.com, Maral, Rich Poor Boys, Eklektika.kz, SunBand.uz, BrianViglione.com,
*** Note that for security reasons this is a "stealth" festival which means that the Kabul main event day, time, and location will not be released until 24 hours beforehand, and the musician’s workshop is private. All events aside from the workshop will be open to the public. Some video and photography in Kabul will be restricted.
Video: http://vimeo.com/
Web: http://www.
Press kit: http://www.
Facebook: Sound Central’s new Facebook page
Travis Beard, Sound Central festival founder and director:
“Sound Central will be an international and national youth event that will attract young musicians, artists and international media. This event will be novel, dynamic, original and the eyes of the world will be on Afghanistan. The concert will also promote awareness of Afghan youth culture as well as other traditional and contemporary art forms.
“We already have received huge interest from Central Asian bands and defined the list of participants from Afghanistan (“Kabul Dreams”, “District Unknown”, “White Page”, “White City”), Iran (“Maral”, “Yellow Dogs”), Pakistan (“Poor Rich Boys”), Kazakhstan (“Eklektika”), Uzbekistan (“Tears of the Sun”), Iraq (“Acrassicauda”), USA (“Brian Viglione”, “Ariana Delawari”, “Gato Loco Coconino”, “Yula & The Extended Family”, “Religious to Damn”), Canada (“Blurred Vision”) and other bands from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Brian Viglione, known for The Dresden Dolls and Nine Inch Nails, serves as global rock ambassador.
“In addition to the concert itself and pre-festival workshop for musicians we are planning to pull together other events and activities. There will also be performances of electronic artists such as DJ City Power (Brit based in Afghanistan), Massa Cygent (Australia) and many others musician supporters.”
Mr. Beard highlights that he has been living in Afghanistan for five years now and has have seen the underground rock music scene grow from nothing to numerous bands and gigs every other week: “My own band White City was the first band to rock out here and playing alone in a town gets boring soon enough. The inspiration behind Sound Central Festival is to change the outsiders view about Afghanistan, to ignite cross border exchange of artistic ideas and expose Afghan youth to artistic forms that they may have only seen online.
Daniel J. Gerstle, Festival producer and development partner:
"When festival founder Travis Beard and his organizations, Combat Comms and Argus Productions, invited my organization, HELO Media, to be part of Afghanistan & Central Asia's first rock music festival, my jaw dropped. While so many people responding to crisis focus on what's going wrong, here is a perfect example of people looking at what is going right, and building on it. After all, Afghan youth and their neighbors, despite the war and political uncertainty, are hungry to imagine what a future peaceful Afghanistan will look like. Here's their chance.
Sound Central is about rallying solidarity behind Afghanistan & Central Asia's emerging rock and modern music scenes, so we have focused everything on that. Once we were sure we could build this, we decided to start inviting global culture figures and media insofar as it didn't take the spotlight away from the cause and the regional musicians.
“We found fantastic people like Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Dresden Dolls drummer Brian Viglione who were excited to take part. But we also found a great number of people who wanted to be involved like human rights-oriented rock band Blurred Vision and Iraqi heavy-metal band Acrassicauda who wanted to do something in the West, so we decided to add a New York opening and closing night. With the right sponsorship, we'll be able to bring more features and potentially simulcast the event on the web."
About Combat Communications:
Combat Communications is a small anonymous group of international artists founded in 2010 year with the aim of advocating/promoting free expression through Afghan youth in Afghanistan.
Combat Communications [CC] was founded as a result of a flurry of art-based activities in Kabul and a need for them to be united under one flag. After the pioneering graffiti campaign by some foreigners in Kabul: Cost of War, it was decided that an icon, logo, banner was needed as a ‘face’ to this group that wished to be anonymous. CC was created as Identity for the evolving art scene.
Combat Communications [CC] was founded in 2010 as a result of a flurry of art-based activities in Kabul and a need for them to be united under one flag. After the pioneering graffiti campaign by some foreigners in Kabul: Cost of War, it was decided that an icon, logo, banner was needed as an ‘face’ to this group that wished to be anonymous. CC was created as Identity for the evolving art scene. After the success of the project many other projects requested to be associated with CC and their... (read more)
The sole purpose of CC is to unite all artists and their activities, so that when any art event or activity happens in Afghanistan, people can identify the group that they are associated with. CC acts as umbrella organisation, where all artists can shelter under, but still be 100% free to make their art as they wish. CC is not a governing body to the artists. CC does not control the artist and their output. CC does not have a director or board that make decision on behalf of the artists. CC is not a profit-making venture. CC is just the glue that connects the artists, the venue and the audience together.
Website: (premiering soon: www.combatcommunications.com)
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/
About HELO Media:
HELO Media creates social spaces where survivors of war and disaster, humanitarian aid workers, rights advocates, crisis journalists, musicians, artists, and global thinkers can meet to produce media, share stories, and develop relationships which help people survive crisis.
HELO, pronounced "heal-o," is a slang term for helicopters in war zones. HELO Magazine, the organization’s pilot project, was founded by humanitarian aid worker and media producer Daniel J Gerstle in 2009. The online magazine has produced stories from all over the world including tales about surviving a plane crash in Angola, how crisis responders cope with stress through music, and debate on how to know when to trust war journalism.
Website: http://www.helomagazine.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/
For more information please visit http://www.
