This weekend, Unsound Adelaide will be a light to slice though July’s winter malaise. With heavy-hitting headline acts including Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale and German electronic pioneer Wolfgang Voigt (with the Australian debut of his audiovisual project GAS), the festival will spread left-field and experimental music across the city’s various venues as part of Illuminate Adelaide’s program.

Kraków is the primary home of Unsound, though it has limbs all around the world with annual festivals in cities from London to New York. Adelaide might seem an unlikely outpost for its Australian home, but speaking to Limelight, Unsound’s Australian Artistic Director Mat Schulz, says it feels “totally natural”.

KLASSIK underground: Different Trains at Illuminate Adelaide, 2022. Photo © Jack Fenby

“We really like the idea that not only has Unsound developed an audience within Adelaide, people make this pilgrimage to the city for the music and also for the vibe. the atmosphere and this sense of community. Many of the same people come year after year, just like they’re doing Krakow. It feels similar in that way,” he says.

What started as a “side hobby” of Schulz’s...