The city of Istanbul is said to be a special state of mind or a feeling, a combination of exhilaration and melancholy. The city is an ancient metropolis, which has started to flourish again after years of hardship. This new dawn is displayed in the local culture, in literature, visual arts and music.

At Flow, we’re going to see three artists from Istanbul. BaBa ZuLa combines Turkish musical tradition with modern psychedelic tones and touches of contemporary production, featuring a whiff of “Ottoman Hendrix” in their energetic live show. Kolektif Istanbul utilises their large ensemble for creating music which fuses oriental Anatolian and Blakan influences. Murat Meric is a globe-trotting DJ and a vault of knowledge relating to the country’s rich musical tradition showcasing instrumental rock and unique local dance sounds.

African music has been coming remarkably strong lately as well. Record collectors, enthusiasts, anthropologists, and other lovers of great music have embraced the continent’s vast musical output.

A special focus at Flow this year will be on the Western Sahara and its neighbouring areas, such as the remarkably musical countries of Mali, Benin and Ghana. Acts at Flow feature the Western Saharan tuaregs Tamikrest, the musical crown jewel of Benin, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, and Ghanaian kologo artist Bola. An added shade in the musical palette of Africa at Flow will be provided by Shangaan Electro from Johannesburg, offering their take on the current African dance music.

On the design front, Flow will present the festival area entry installation, “Fountain“, designed by the award-winning Harri Koskinen / Friends of Industry Ltd, presented in co-operation with the architectural assembly related to the Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 program. Other design & art entries on the program are the festival’s Visual artist of the year Tuomas Aleksander Laitinen’s work “Passage“, and the unique Wastelands stage.

In addition, Flow has released this year’s Talks, Films and the first batch of on site restaurants. Once again the range of restaurants presented include the festival team’s favourite tastes in Helsinki cuisine.

With the new additions, the Flow web site also presents a newly functional Program page with options for customised browsing.

Festival restaurants already familiar to Flow visitors include Groteski, Juuri, Pipsa Hurmerinta, Tamarin, Sis. Deli, Ihana-Kahvila, New York Ninja, Ben & Jerry´s, Fredan Tori and Four Seasons. New restaurants catering at Flow are Shanghai Cowboy, Vegemesta, Ravintola Lämpö and Helkan Keittiö’s waffle bar. There are still a couple of additions to the Flow Festival restaurant scene 2012 to be announced later.

The Application form can be found here.

“Due to recording commitments, Death Grips will not be touring at the moment, and have cancelled all current dates”.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our audience.

New Finnish signings are the stars of Finnish indie rock French Films, the #1 soul pick Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators, the Nordic synth funk crafting Beverly Girls, and the Finnish electro veterans Pepe Deluxé.

More artists will be added to the bill during spring and early summer.

Flow will also host African groups Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou from Benin and Tamikrest from Mali.

The acclaimed Austrian artist Fennesz will perform as a part of The Other Sound concept, that showcases experimental music. More artists on The Other Sound program will be published later in the spring.

Other international additions to the line-up are Korallreven (SWE), Lindstrøm (NOR) and Africa Hitech (UK). New domestic artists are Huoratron, Burning Hearts and the unique trio Unela, comprising of saxophonist Jukka Perko, singer-songwriter Yona and producer Samuli Kosminen.

You can read more about all the artists here and about the tickets to this year’s festival here.

Nokia will also continue its co-operation with Flow as the Main Partner for the event. The ongoing partnerships with Brand Factory, Heineken, Jacob’s Creek, Helsingin Sanomat / NYT, Marimekko, Radio Helsinki and RGB continue also in 2012.

More new Flow Festival partners will be announced during the spring.