A few weeks back when i heard about the Rewire Festival and knew that the French Born Belgium based composers Sylvain Chauveau was going to be present i knew i had to go, im such a big fan of his piano based works and was with so much expectations on the start of the evening.
Unfortunately there was no piano and was more a experimental drone with field recording micro sounds with some vocals, quite electro-acoustic orientated, the room and so still and so dark that had this filling that we were in some sort of sci-fi suspense triller and all the sounds and noises like door opening, people whispering, glass falling, chairs noises, ghostly shadows actually sounded orchestrated with was going on the stage.
You can imagine, one think is to listen home in your hi-fi set up and really grasp and enjoy Sylvain music the way it should be but generally was a very good experience and even if Sylvain was a bit upset with the loud reverbs and feed back during the concert i think is not reason enough to stop with the live performances because after all his work is in such high demand although he stooped playing piano.
The second concert was by Machinefabriek & Peter Broderick or machines vs man and it was the first attempt to interpret live their 2009 album collaboration "Blank Grey Canvas Sky". During the sound check it sounded awkward and they decided to move to a 100% improvisation piece and im very glad they did, it was so overwhelming to actually see and understand the structure of their creative process, while Rotterdam's Rutger Zuydervelt or Machinefabriek arsenal of dense and sonic noises the American multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick was creating all sorts of layered melodies with the violin, guitar, piano, being a human beat box and even more awesome using a saw to create sounds like it was a violin, even more impressive were Peter body movements during the improvisation that gave the impression that he was part of the music itself, so much dedication and passion to make and take all the most beautiful sounds and then building them together layer by layer, just stunning.
For Nils Frahm & Anne Müller the room was packed and i must say that it was wonderful to see so much interest on the modern classical genre.
They played two separated pieces that sounded quite improvised but actually they have some melodies from their 2010 album 7 fingers and them from there they continue because on Anne Müller words "Nils always needs a lot of space to improvisation".
I was sitting in the back and couldn't see anything but was lucky enough to have spotted a side show on the right side wall, the shadows of Nils and Anna moving to the incredible gorgeous music that was coming out of their instruments. Nils what a stage magnetism and the way they combined from moments of pure minimal Piano/Cello glorious ambients to absolute ragging battle in a complete controlled hysteria, UAU.
After the first piece was over the room simply erupted on applause and an emotional Peter Broderick jumped on stage to congratulate them, that was so beautiful. Nils Frahm & Anne Müller was probably my favorite ever Piano/Cello concert and not only they are exceptional musicians but also super cool, happy and charming persons as well.
After the concert i ask them for a few minutes to take a picture and we talked a bit about Nils new album, "Felt" is out on Erased Tapes and Nils couldn't be more satisfied with the reviews, Anne is also very busy with various projects and collecting sounds and ideas for her debut lp
After the Modern Classical came the dark electronics commonly known as "Drag" or "Witch House". The program started with Manchester's Holy Other that i knew from name but not his music. An apocalyptic vision of muncks murmurs, dense bass and post-dubstep beats were the predominant of his performance but not much could be expected from a guy hiding is face with a black cloth probably pretending to be death itself.
oOoOO probably one of the most strange names you'll ever come across but despite that little detail San Francisco based Chris Dexter Greenspan is on the front row of the "Witch-House" scene and his a regular on my playlists , last night appeared with a backing singer that gave a R&B touch and his performance becomes altogether more charming than the lone ranger behind the laptop, his music moves inside a darker hip hop party in a industrial area and its steamy, hot and sexy, well done !!!!
Thank you very much to the Rewire Festival for including Audiopleasures in the press list and success with preparing the 2012 edition.
