Huddled deep within the programming of the winter arts festival Illuminate Adelaide is Unsound – a cultish, boundary-pushing two-night event that brings some of the world’s top experimental musicians and performance artists to South Australia.

These are artists that might otherwise not find their way to our city, least of all at the tail end of July. It’s a little treat for Adelaide’s weirdos and non-conformists, who get to sample breathtaking performance work.

Curators Mat Schulz and Gosia Plysa had their work cut out for them to meet heightened expectations following 2023’s spectacular line-up, but they certainly delivered. The hype was there for Sonic Youth frontwoman turned unlikely rap icon Kim Gordon, and chatter abounded on Saturday in anticipation of oddball ambient artist The Caretaker.

However, as has been this reviewer’s experience at Unsounds past, it was the lesser-known acts who enraptured the audience the most. That’s the best thing about this festival: even if you aren’t sure what to expect, you’ll always leave impressed and surprised.

This was certainly the case on Friday night. The crowd escaping gale-force winds and freezing rain outside were met with something just as icy when British artist Lee Gamble and Spanish choreographer Candela Capitán’s opening performance kicked off the festival.

Utilising music from Gamble’s latest album, Models, the performance featured a young woman strapped to chrome-covered chains that dangled from the roof of the Dom Polski Centre. As she tried to escape, the performer was live-streaming on Unsound’s Instagram page and striking uncomfortable and provocative poses. When the music crescendoed, the model’s attempts to break free from her literal chains accelerated to the point that she was almost jumping directly into the crowd.

The piece is certainly chic – you can tell all elements of the model’s look were agonised over – but it was overly long for what it is. Yes, we get it, we’re all hooked on our phones.

Lee Gamble and Candela Capitán captured the crowd’s attention with their festival-opening work. Photo: Saige Prime

Gamble’s piece was followed by an earsplitting guitar solo performed by Melbourne noise musician Marco Fusinato. Flanked by two massive amp stacks, Fusinato’s screaming guitar filled the Polish club with racket in the best way. Disturbing footage of hyper-violence and war was projected to the artist’s right, cementing the message. Earplugs are always recommended at Unsound, but were a necessity for Fusinato’s electrifying show.

The vibe was turned down a few notches with Jim O’Rourke & Eiko Ishibashi’s live ambient set. Although they are both masters, the set felt flat after the two previous compelling and visually interesting performances.

Norwegian saxophonist and performance artist Bendik Giske. Photo: Saige Prime

The crowd-favourite of the Friday night was Bendik Giske. Sauntering onto stage clutching his saxophone, Giske was a vision in a backless leather gown, platform Rick Owens heels and dangly silver earrings. He oozed charisma, and his performance – haunting saxophone over the top of mesmeric, glitchy beats – generated rapturous applause after every song.

Shanghai-based producer 33EMYBW closed out Friday with a thrilling showcase of her music backed by visuals from Joey Holder. The almost gabber beats collided with Gigeresque images of alien creatures to form a cohesive and thoroughly danceable set. It would have been the perfect prequel to Unsound Club, but organisers had decided that just one club night at The Lab was enough this year.

Calmer weather greeted festival-goers on Saturday, and the crowd was larger, too, likely due to the drawcard performance by Kim Gordon.

But the evening’s surprise highlight came right at the beginning from Yirinda: a collaborative project by Brisbane duo Fred Leone – a Butchulla songman – and musician Samuel Pankhurst. The set was captivating in large part due to Leone’s incredible vocals, supported by Pankhurt’s mastery of the double bass and tuned percussion. It felt cut short when it finished.

Thankfully, Ale Hop and Laura Robles continued with the theme of storytelling via song. Their time on stage was centred around an instrument called the cajón – a Peruvian box drum – which had feet moving in the crowd. Hop was in a groove in her station, playing textured synths and noodling deftly with an electric guitar.

Following these two quite serious and sincere performances was Leyland Kirby, aka The Caretaker. The UK artist is perhaps best known for “Everywhere at the End of Time”, a monolithic ambient project that explores the effect of dementia on the brain. He was one of the most-hyped artists on this year’s bill, but it is difficult to know what to expect from the oddball artist.

Strangely, his set began with a chipmunked karaoke performance of an ABBA song. Behind him on screen, cheeky phrases flashed on top of kaleidoscopic, disorientating imagery. In the centre of the stage was a large leather armchair and, off to its left, a bottle of Jameson whiskey. With the karaoke session out of the way, Kirby plopped himself into the chair where he would sit for the rest of the “performance”. After a few minutes of this, the crowd started groaning, with his behaviour failing to win over many of those who had dropped $80 on the night.

The Caretaker’s music played as he finished the entire bottle from which he was drinking. Then he got up, did more chipmunked karaoke, and left with a message on the screen saying “The World’s fucked. See you in another life. Don’t stop believing. Xxxx”. His non-performance felt insincere and off amid a collection of artists who put effort into their craft on stage. It seemed defeatist and was genuinely boring – a shame considering his reputation.

eYe performs against a backdrop of visuals by C.O.L.O. Photo: Saige Prime

Yamataka Eye (styled as eYe) was the perfect antidote to Kirby’s feat of nothingness. The artist, who is best known as the drummer in Japanese rock band Boredoms, put on a blistering display of electronica backed by gorgeous visuals from C.O.L.O – Cosmic Oscillation Luminary Operator. eYe was also a great way to get the crowd rearing for Kim Gordon’s performance.

The former Sonic Youth frontwoman kicked off her set with one of her newest songs, “BYE BYE”, essentially an industrial hip-hop song about minutiae and the objects in her suitcase. Although let down by her vocals being mixed too low, she wasn’t rattled at all. Blending into a wall of sound is nothing new for Gordon anyway, and her mumbled, cool performance style still shined. Adelaide loved Gordon, and she returned the favour with a healthy encore complete with one of her best solo tracks, “Air BnB”.

We then made the trek across the city to The Lab for Unsound Club, which featured DJs Crescendoll, Manuka Honey, Moktar and Lee Gamble. Previously, crowds have been critical of the sound system at The Lab, but the team there knocked it out of the park in 2024; the music was loud and punchy. The visuals covering The Lab’s screens were also on point, making the space feel worlds away from Adelaide.

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While it’s a shame that there were no local artists on this year’s Unsound line-up, curators Schulz and Plysa once again proved that their Adelaide version of the experimental music festival is one of the most vital events on the state’s artistic calendar.

Unsound Adelaide was presented as part of the 2024 Illuminate Adelaide Festival.