Dear Reader, as mentioned in the review of the first two days, ArcTanGent 2026 was busy for team LOUD WOMEN (me). After a strong start, Friday kept delivering exceptional music from an incredibly versatile array of artists, but the emerging theme of my day was that of lightness and pause.
I started the day gently, with moksha, a new spiritual emo and math rock collective spearheaded by Sam Chetan-Welsh, whose band Ithaca we sent off last year, and featuring gorgeous vocals by Holly Chetan-Welsh, to an accompaniment of a 7-strong band. At the start of their set, at mid-day on Friday, the crowd gathered at the main stage were invited to take deep breaths and join the band in meditation – and when I looked around me, it became obvious how much it was needed. ArcTanGent can be an intense experience – all of a sudden you’re surrounded by a few thousand people who share your passion for music that evades genre categorisations and is difficult to explain to the uninitiated, yet for us on that field it’s our common language. For four days we live and breathe this music, we turn up to watch the first band at 11am, we go to bed late at night full of big emotions – just to do it all again the following day. ArcTanGent is a marathon, not a sprint. It turned out that gentle breathing exercises guided by spiritual humans with beautiful voices, set to a backdrop of a gorgeous blend of emo and math sounds was just what we needed to reset and refuel before going again.
From the gentle awakening, I darted to the Bixler stage to catch Bristol’s No Violet – and hear Ellie Godwin’s vocals again (her other band Sans Froid played on the Wednesday, and her third band Peach missed this year’s edition, but is equally tremendous). No Violet offered their brand of brooding post punk with soaring vocals to an incredible reception. Their guitars were full of fuzz, and the energy would seamlessly weave between emotional sweetness and feral release, just like ArcTanGent likes it.
Every once in a while a band comes along that proverbially does what it says on the tin – and in the realm of ArcTanGent this was the case with Night Swimming, who sounded just like that – as if you took a dip under the moonlit sky on a deserted beach, just you and the gentle sound of waves crashing against the shore. Gloriously ethereal, shoegazy and dream popy, they provided another moment to exhale on Friday afternoon. With Meg Jones’s vocals delicate as a whisper, I found myself drift blissfully away to the soundscape the band was painting. If you are partial to some Beach House and Slowdive, you need them on your radar – and they have a string of UK and EU dates coming up in November, which presents the perfect opportunity.
With a name that suggests a much heavier vibe, the Japanese shoegaze / post hardcore trio Mass Of The Fermenting Dreggs took to the Main Stage next, to the crowd’s absolute delight. They visit the UK infrequently, but their fanbase is fiercely loyal and they came out in force to see them return to Fernhill Farm four years since their ArcTanGent debut. Despite the language barrier (the lyrics accompanying their catchy, mathy melodies are largely in Japanese), the Main Stage audience was singing along to every word and tracks like ‘Aoi, Koi, Daidaiiro No Hi’ got the packed dancing and jumping. While highly energetic, they were another breath of fresh air in a line up that can serve up really heavy and challenging music, and I welcomed that lightness as I prepared for the day to close.
I needed that energetic break because the day was only getting heavier. Lili Refrain was one of the last minute additions to the line up, and delivered a mesmerising and cathartic set. A multi-instrumentalist, she masterfully looped her voice, percussion instruments, guitars and electronics to create a layered, hypnotic sound – experimental, primal, and yet minimalist in its approach. It was one of those performances that words can never do much justice, but the looped drum beat pierced my soul and I feel like a piece of that performance will stay with me forever.
One of the bands I was personally most looking forward to – and another late addition to the line up – were Norwich-based duo Kulk, who have since released their newest album Choosing To Die, a heavy, brutal, intensely personal doom record that explores themes of human suffering. While the sound is simply assaulting, there are glimmers of hope. ‘To Take Life’ is a track that celebrates community – we never walk alone and it does indeed take a village. On ‘Ache’ the band were joined by IAN’s cellist Hannah Asprey and the mournful cello complimented the sound perfectly. As someone who has been grieving for the past few months, I resonated with Kulk’s music deeply. They filled PX3 with a wall of a beautifully crafted doom. They are currently touring the album with IAN, so catch them live while you can.
I ended my Friday with Witch Fever, who delivered a gloriously goth-infused punk set, witchy, confrontational and feral. With a hypnotic stage presence, the quartet commanded the PX3 crowd with ease and encouraged many circle pits. Their songs hit hard: full of rage, resistance and conviction. Their sound also landed perfectly at ArcTanGent, bridging the goth witchiness of Chelsea Wolfe and the sharp metal edges of Svalbard, ending my Friday on a high. It also seems that every time LOUD WOMEN report on Witch Fever, they are playing bigger and bigger stages, which is incredibly satisfying, as they deserve all the hype.
On ArcTanGent’s Saturday I completely overachieved – but it was the day packed to the absolute brim, so stay tuned for the final update from the last ArcTanGent at Fernhill Farm.