Supersense 2017

Overview

Spiritualized premiering a tour of its back catalogue, Pussy Riot telling their own tale through theatre, a concert dedicated to the spiritual music of Alice Coltrane, and New York's Blonde Redhead playing a re-orchestration of their 2004 album Misery is a Butterfly. They're just some of the highlights on offer at Supersense when it returns for 2017.

Every festival aims to offer audiences a sensory experience; however, as the name gives away, that's the entire point of Supersense. Celebrating the ecstatic in art, music and performance is on the agenda between August 18 to 20, with the fest delivering an immersive, hyper-sensory onslaught that transforms every space in Arts Centre Melbourne into a place of wonder and excitement. This is a festival that includes a day-long festival-within-a-festival of improvised music, after all.

Indeed, there's only one thing to do at the event that's curated and co-founded by performer Sophia Brous: surrender. The lineup of punk, devotional music, free improvisation, dance and movement also features Brous collaborating on theatrical song cycle Lullaby Movement with multi-instrumentalists David Coulter and Leo Abrahams, and joining forces with Kimbra to bring their New York hit Exo-Tech to Melbourne. Tickets are available for Friday evening ($90), all day Saturday ($140) or for the whole three-day shindig ($270).