From July 31 to August 2, Bucharest will host the first edition of Stray Lights Festival, a new event dedicated to music that resists categorisation and embraces artistic exploration. The festival marks the partnership between the Stray Lights community, a catalyst for emerging talents whose work often exists beyond conventional genres, and Control Club. United by a shared commitment to creative freedom, they present a festival that shines a light on musicians who transform the fringes into spaces of innovation and discovery.

On September 16, past self make their Romanian debut at Control. The trio channels darkwave, post-punk, dream pop, and ethereal textures through a bilingual mix of Korean and English lyrics. Pulling visual cues from visual kei and sonic influences from bands like The Cure, Molchat Doma, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and The Horrors, their sound drifts between melancholy, haze, and cold dancefloor momentum.

Imarhan have always ripped up the rulebook, and they’re coming to enforce this on Saturday, November 7. Since 2006, the band has challenged preconceptions about the Tuareg desert blues sound known as assouf, popularised by the likes of Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar, by blending its ancient poetry and rhythms with funk, psych-rock and pan-African rhythms.

On Saturday, November 28, DELUXE arrive at Control with moustaches, boundless energy and an unwavering commitment to a good time. Funk, jazz, rock, pop and hip-hop all find their place in DELUXE's exuberant universe discovered by Chinese Man, and are transformed into high-energy songs designed to sweep audiences along.

On Thursday, November 26, Arab Strap arrive at Control for their first-ever show in Romania, bringing with them a new album due this September: Half-Told Tales. What began in 1995 as lo-fi intimacy, post-rock drift, and brutally personal storytelling has kept mutating ever since. Before and after the hiatus can feel like two different creatures, now caring even less about genre conventions.