From 16 to 28 September 2022, the tenth edition of the Label Suisse festival in Lausanne offers a three-day window to Swiss music. The festival, launched on the initiative of RTS (French-Swiss radio and television) in 2004, supported by Pro Helvetia and held once every two years, transcends individual genres and mirrors the diversity of the Swiss musical landscape, ranging from hip-hop via jazz to new folk music. This year’s programme offers over 70 concerts with musicians from all of Switzerland’s linguistic regions. The festival is free of charge and aims to reach as diverse an audience as possible. By tradition, the Label Suisse festival also hosts the award ceremony of the Federal Office of Culture’s Swiss Music Awards.

Label Suisse provides a stage for established and up-and-coming talents as well as for both popular and experimental formats. The festival wants to enhance collaboration and dialogue within the Swiss music scene, showcase the diversity of contemporary music in this country and foster emerging musicians. Networking events for music professionals and representatives of the Swiss music industry are held besides the concerts to foster exchange among the various linguistic regions and music genres.

In the context of Label Suisse, Pro Helvetia also provides music practitioners from various genres with work grants for composition and the production of new pieces. This year’s beneficiaries include jazz pianist Colin Vallon, who will present a world premiere performed by students from the music academies of Lucerne and Zurich (17 September); Antoine Auberson and Benjamin Righetti, whose programme «Pastorale Alpine» offers fresh interpretations of folk songs from the Alpine regions (16 September); Harmonie Lausannoise, who together with Michel Godard, Lucas Niggli, Yumi Ito and Mats Spillmann will play pieces that merge jazz and new folk music (17 September); and Yilian Cañizares and Arthur Hnatek, who in collaboration with RTS are due to present a composition on the subject of radio (17 September).

Photo:  Phanee De Pool, Les Docks, 20.09.2020 © Aurelie Ayer