| |
|
 |
 |
 | |
Kotra |
Club Transmediale Going Eastwards
[2003-02-11]
CLUB TRANSMEDIALE (January 31 - February 9), the musical offshoot of this year?s Berlin international media art festival Transmediale (already 16th edition!), was of course, again dedicated to the freshest tendencies in experimental electronic music production with such acts as Pan Sonic, Jan Jelinek, Thomas Brinkmann or Akufen. Nevertheless, there was one more element that made Tamizdat?s presence at the festival a real must. Besides the overall festival theme "Play Global!", Club Transmediale.03 drew special attention to the new electronic music emerging from the Eastern European countries, shouting "Go East!" as the motto for this portion of the festival. The Maria am Ufer venue of rough concrete (read: Berlin Style) housed a perfectly suitable 2-scene, quayside club near Ost-Bahnhof and as such served as host to a wide variety of artists hailing from 6 post-communist countries (namely Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia and Yugoslavia). Why there were no musicians from the Czech and Slovak Republics or from Hungary remains unclear, but, regardless, the program was sufficiently loaded.
One of the key persons responsible for the Eastern European hue of Club Transmediale.03 is the charming Austrian journalist, Susanna Niedermayr, a specialist in this eastern electronic territory. As the author of the book In the East: New Music Territories in Europe (written in cooperation with Christian Scheib), she hosted/took part in several conferences/discussions/presentations linked to the "Go East!" theme and thus largely contributed to the attendant western journalists? and spectators? awareness of the electronic music scenes in the aforementioned countries. The discussion attended by Wojtek Kucharczyk of Poland?s Mik.Musik CD-R label, Goran Simonoski of the Belgradeyard Soundsystem (YU), and a musician from Croatia Bojan Mandic was particularly interesting, because listeners received first-hand information regarding the state of electronic music in all three of these countries. While Kucharczyk complained about the [un]availability of the most up-to-date music-making technologies and limited purchasing power in Poland, the participants from former Yugoslavia pointed out their local media?s disinterest in electronic music and tried to justify the massive availability of bootleg recordings. In addition, they also highlighted their fruitful mutual cooperation, which has been a promising example of successful post-war cultural border crossing for a few years now.
But back to the sounds? Even though music is global and should respect no frontiers, I divided the Club Transmediale.03 show reviews/snipets in a perhaps old-fashioned but ? at least from the Tamizdat point of view ?understandable way: East v. West.
Highlights ? East
MOLR DRAMMAZ (Mik.Musik, PL)
This Polish two-piece refreshed the Lounge scene with a rare pumping band-like performance. Their mix of non-stop wall of electronic motives and live drumming very much stood out from the other, mostly un-easy listening, experimental sets. In their case the prevalent element was not the process or sound stream manipulation, but pure energy. Based on the action-reaction principle (with the drummer first absorbing the flow of electronics and subsequently adding his ever-developing rhythms), the performance consisted of semi-improvised repetitive instrumentals blooming into drum?n?bass and varied breakbeat patterns, which, in irregularly structured waves, got very close to a sort of tribal experience. Unlike, for example, the laptop/guitar improvisation provided by Ekkehard Ehlers and Josef Suchy the next day, this combination of acoustic and digital worked really well.
8 ROLEK (Mik.Musik, PL)
Beats no longer needed. Post-Autechre abstraction quite frankly rules the world of electronica nowadays and you can gather its fruits in Poland. If you accepted the slowness and equipped yourself with open ears, you could have witnessed some colorful melodic sketches worth diving into? what a pity the people chatting at the bar didn?t notice?
EU (Pause2, Cheburec, RU)
Although far from being newcomers (with several albums and compilation appearances), this was the duo from St. Petersburg?s first show outside of Russia. Obeying a non-existing dress code, their looks suggested a conservative feeling of good-boy-manners and this was the impression given by the music production itself as well. But hey, we are talking about some 4 or 5 years ?delay? here ? Eu simply ignores all the noise- and glitch-infected experimental electronic trends and sticks to their highly moving melodies. Imagine classic Warp stuff ? no deconstruction, no aggressive sonic bursts. Their songs built up pleasant ambient soundscapes and carefully performed structures, as opposed to many other, more random-oriented sets, this definitely had a great deal to do with real composing.
KOTRA (Nexsound, UA)
The Ukrainian one man project, Kotra, presented an overwhelming sonic massacre and it could have been the ultimate Club transmediale.03 show? if only he ended his performance after 20 of the scheduled minutes. But he didn?t. He went on terrorizing the listeners for the whole hour and, in the end, a member of the festival staff had to tell him to stop. At the very beginning, Kotra gave us some ultra high frequencies and our instincts told us to start searching for earplugs, but his sonic spectrum consisting of little particles of rough glitchy electronics soon became complete. Yes, the sounds hurt listeners? ears and yes, they could have produced what some people may call "discomfort" (but hey, he is the messiah of the disagreeable!). However, the ever-changing flow, bizarre rhythm patterns, and illogical squeaks possessed a powerful drive which no-one else at the festival even attempted to provide. In fact, his highly demanding production was very carefully structured, his sound layers came off strikingly crystal clear and the way he used the quadrophonic system was totally unique. Moreover, the set was accompanied by excellent, wildly blinking minimalist visuals (by Akuvido) linked to the music with extraordinarily powerful results. So, even though it hurt (a lot), it might have been exactly the ultra-modern and ultra-noisy, heavy, robotic, brainwash that the experimental freaks freak for. If only he had given up the stage after 20 minutes just like Fennesz does, because the second half of his show became more and more unbearable with each minute and the initial impression was spoilt. Beware though, Kotra is the man to watch!
GAMEBOYZZ ORCHESTRA PROJECT by KUNSTBANDE SLA (PL)
To tell the truth, this is one of those cases where the music-making process was more interesting than what we could actually hear. Everyone who said that a set of Gameboy consoles couldn?t produce listenable and relatively ?intelligent? music must have kept their mouths shut after this performance. Six people sitting in comfortable sofas in an almost-circle formation, each of them with a Gameboy in hand, plus one guy doing the manipulation at a mixing desk is all you need for wicked retro dancefloor tracks based on the repetition of basic, if a bit too synthetic (obviously) sounds put together. Watching those young people with their little toys, you got the rhythms, you got the massive noises and you got the visual entertainment too. "Lowtech music for hightech people," they say. Well, what we say is "Amen to good fun!"
BELGRADEYARD SOUNDSYSTEM (YU)
DJ-ing only sessions of this collective from the capital of Serbia proved that colorful adventurous experimental sets may be heard not only in the deepest underground of Western Europe?s or North America?s smokey clubs but also in this part of the Balkans. They easily covered everything from Mego-style roughness and clicks&cuts to dubby techno etc. Even though this progressiveness was not that remarkable within the context of the festival, their determination to follow the newest musical developments in their conditions deserves much appreciation.
COH/TELCOH (Raster Noton, Mego, RU)
COH /son/ is a Russian musician currently living in Sweden. While his much awaited solo performance ended up as a strange and not very inspiring post-EBM 4/4 rhythm selection, the collaboration with Dutch duo Telco (together as TELCOH) did score high results. Their ambient, laptop abstraction built on quietness and stillness, the evolution of tracks together with perfectly corresponding, and mesmerizing visuals managed to keep the listeners attentive and we bet that at least half of them were truly grateful.
Highlights ? West
RADIAN (Thrill Jockey, Mego, AT)
Message for everyone who thinks the recent Rec.Extern album on Thrill Jockey by the Austrian outfit Radian is too quiet and boring: go to see them live! Although the material was drawn almost exclusively from this record, the club?s great sound system and inventive images on numerous screens showed them in a completely different light. Never seen a drummer use his kit in that way (tickling, polishing?), never seen a bassist getting such strange sounds from his instrument. One thing is for sure, they create new musical forms ? they slowly build up on the initial fragmented, complicated track basis and when it?s almost there? it stops and goes back to minimal electronic patterns.
POLE (~Scape, DE)
Stefan Betke, known for his murmur-dirty, dubby compositions, changed his direction a bit and presented a clear 21st century take on reggae. Despite his bizarre rhythm patterns, the stable live reggae tone was there and, believe it or not, Pole got the whole house dancing. Amusing and hyper-funky set.
F.S.BLUMM (Staubgold, DE)
One wouldn?t expect minimal acoustic guitar compositions at a festival like Transmediale. Blumm, however, used electronics a bit too and his peaceful thrumming functioned as a tender balm. Simple, quiet melodies close to the definition of beauty.
PAN SONIC (Novamute, FIN)
So these are the avant-garde stars? Many other festival participants owe a lot to Pan(a)sonic?s first visionary albums, but today? The duo presented a heavy mass of noise in Merzbow style, no pulsating rhythms, no separate sound manipulations, apparently, they?re going hardcore? but we don?t want the stars to go the easy way!
And which way will the Club Transmediale.04 go? Well, we?ll just have to wait and see?
Hynek Dedecius
|
|
|
|
|
