Laibach in Sofia

Laibach is a Slovenian industrial and experimental group formed in Trbovlje in 1980, when the city was part of Yugoslavia. A co-founder of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collective, the band became known for martial electronics, authoritarian imagery and transformed versions of familiar songs. The album Opus Dei reworked “Live Is Life” and Queen’s “One Vision,” while NATO recast songs associated with conflict and popular culture. The 1983 Occupied Europe Tour took Laibach through Western and Eastern Europe during a period when the group was prohibited from performing under its name at home. In 2015, Laibach gave two concerts in Pyongyang, becoming the first Western rock band to perform in North Korea; the program included material from The Sound of Music. Outside the former Yugoslavia, Laibach has maintained long-standing concert audiences in Germany and the United Kingdom. In 2012, the group presented Monumental Retro-Avant-Garde at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London.