Rockhal and Rocklab have announced that their annual festival and music conference, Sonic Visions, is launching online sessions to support and promote some of Luxembourg's most talented artists on a European level.

In the current situation, artists not only face the challenge of having no or very few opportunities to play in front of their fans, but emerging talents especially lack the chance to present and showcase their music to professionals like agents, managers or promoters at festivals and music conferences.

As such, Sonic Visions is launching online sessions featuring:

  • a 40-minute online showreel encompassing Luxembourg's most exciting emerging artists performing in secret and unusual places;
  • an online panel discussion about the future of showcase festivals and music conferences;
  • the INES#talent 2021 Festival of Streams featuring 70 of the most talented emerging European artists selected by the Innovation Network of European Showcases (INES) and including the Luxembourg bands Tuys and The Tame & The Wild, nominated by Sonic Visions.

Since the launch of the first Rocklab Pop-Up Sessions in November 2020, the video series has been a great success with more than 500,000 cumulated views for the ten local artists who participated in the first season of the project. Rockhal and Rocklab have decided that it is now time to promote these high-quality live videos towards the international community of music professionals, especially among the professional network built over the past years via the Sonic Visions Festival and Music Lab and its involvement in the European cooperation project INES.

The organisers have compiled a video (which can be viewed below) featuring an extract of each of the ten Rocklab Pop-Up Sessions that have been released so far, shot in the country's secret and unusual places. The video includes:

  • Francis of Delirium, 90's grunge meets millennial DIY;
  • Napoleon Gold, ambient electronic music producer;
  • the Grund Club featuring Priscilla da Costa, rock-music singer-songwriter;
  • Jackie Moontan, indie-pop artist and master of humour, absurdity and funk-ready swagger;
  • EDSUN, R&B / pop singer, dancer and performer;
  • Claire Parsons, jazz singer and composer mixing genres and influences;
  • CHAILD, queer, rising electro-pop artist;
  • ROME, folk, dark ambient and cold wave singer-songwriter;
  • Scarred, one of the standard-bearers for the Luxembourgish metal community;
  • Bartleby Delicate, singer-songwriter of contemporary folk with loop-oriented electronics. 

Next to the online showcase, a digital panel discussion featuring local and international music experts sheds a light on what artists need to develop their careers and what showcase festivals and music conferences could look like in the future. During this panel, participants discuss how digital technologies and audiovisual formats can connect artists and the industry while examining their added value and impact in terms of promotion and visibility. They also look at how hybrid formats could combine the best of both worlds by building on the resilience of quality audiovisual content and the unique opportunities offered by real-life events, in order to achieve an environmentally friendly, digitally enhanced yet humanly connected context.

The panel discussion, hosted by Max Hochmuth (independent musician, producer and creative entrepreneur), features the following panellists: Jana Bahrich (Francis of Delirium); Paul Bradshaw (Rockhal); Zachary Glavan (Kultur:LX); Luka Heindrichs (De Gudde Wëllen, Twist & Tweak); Andraj Kajzer (MENT Ljubljana); Géraldine Zanaska (Compass Music).

Finally, Luxembourg acts Tuys and The Tame & The Wild will be highlighted as part of INES#talents 2021 Festival of Streams.