Dustin O'Halloran + Sleepindog feat Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid) @ State-X New Forms Festival Den Haag

Last Saturday was in Den Haag for the long awaited live concert from the Berlin based pianist/composer Dustin O'Halloran with the Dutch Lunapark strings quartet, as i expected the room was packed which wasn't a surprise at all because of Dustin's reputation and the increasing hype of the Modern Classical movement. As soon as the first piano strokes took place the only thing i could ear in the room beside the absolute silence was the drone sound from the air conditioned and waves of a light breeze touching my neck, can't really explain why but had this strange feeling that was on a deep dive submarine journey, from my seat i could gaze at the imaginary ocean that was made of the most beautiful and melancholic sounds swimming all over the room in between bursts of abstract smoke flying around the stage mixed with textures made of warm colors, this hypnotic experience was only interrupted by the loud applauses and Dustin explaining some facts behind some of his played songs

Dustin O'Halloran played a absolutely stunning and deeply contemplative set that included pieces from his latest album "Lumiere" and others from his extensive repertoire, most of them i knew them by heart and was quite mindblowing just to watch from such a short distance and was everything i ever dreamed/expected to be.

The concert was part of the Dag In De Branding (Festival voor Nieuwe Muziek) and State-X New Forms Festival in Den Haag and next year are already expected some major concerts that i'm looking really forward.

10 March Johann Johannsson + Hildur Gudnadottir
26 May Nils Frahm




The Afternoon continued with Sleepindog feat Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid), strangely the room was quite empty and he became more empty has the concert proceeded, in a stroke of luck it become seriously intimate with Chantal talking about the noises coming from the seat and Adam asking for a Whiskey, Dustin O'Halloran was so kind that brought him is own glass, all this prompted general laugh. Its true that there were some technical difficulties but they were overshadowed by the stunning mellow voice from Chantal Acda, the subtle arrangements that accompanied the performance are the core of the album "With Our Heads In The Clouds And Our Hearts In The Fields", Adam Wiltzie as usual superb ambience's taken from The Stars of the Lid compendiums with Chantal minimal pianos and guitar accords. The concert started with my favorite track from the album "Polish Love Song" and ended in a delicious improvised act when Chantal unplugged herself and sit down in the stage just inch from the few remaining spectators, this last minutes of the afternoon made all this trip to Den Haag even more worth it.

Thank you to the State-X New Forms Festival for including Audiopleasures in the guestlist.

Sebastiaan Bremer Surreal Photography

" Sebastiaan Bremer is renowned for transforming ordinary snapshots into grandly baroque and surreal tableaux by a careful process of retouching and enlargement. Since his first solo show, in 1994, he has exhibited in venues such as the Tate Gallery, London, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, and the Aldrich Museum, Connecticut. He has been based in the United States since 1992."

"Although Bremer has always been interested in photography, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that he began to draw directly on the surface of photographs. He has been inspired in part by nineteenth century spirit photography, and fin de Symbolists such as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and painter Odilon Redon, but his methods partake of advanced photographic techniques. Often he will begin with a simple snapshot of friends or family or familiar places, and after enlarging it far beyond conventional dimensions, he will begin altering and embellishing the image with India ink and photographic dye. He has often used the ink to produce fine patterns of lines reminiscent of cobwebs, or readings from seismographs. Photographic dyes also enable him to blur and mute some forms while accentuating others, and make some colors bloom while others recede into mysterious darkness. The result is an image that seems to literally vibrate with hidden consequence, as if the subject matter has sent cracks across the surface of the picture. Whilst Bremer’s choice of images inevitably grounds his work in his own biography, his imagery also makes reference to alchemy, art, and the occult, establishing unexpected connections between ordinary life, history, and the unconscious.

"Sebastiaan Bremer lives and works in New York. He studied at the Vrije Academie, The Hague, and Skowhegan School of Art and Sculpture, Maine. He has published two major catalogs: Monkey Brain (2003), and Avila (2006). His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among many others." Orange Alert

Rewire Festival Den Haag 05 November Review

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.

Rewire Festival for Contemporary Culture 4 and 5 November The Hague Netherlands

The city of Den Haag (The Hague) in the Netherlands welcomes the first edition of Rewire Festival that will place around the city unconventional locations like the former office building, a church and parts of the old power plant that reflects the spirit of the festival. With a excellent combination of contemporary art events like Abstract-Cinema, Audiovisuals, Installations, Exhibitions and a wide range of cutting-edge music selection like Dirty Beaches, Sylvain Chauveau, Nils Frahm & Anne Müller, oOoOO, Washed Out, Plaid, Holy Other, Machinefabriek & Peter Broderick, Tropics, Dorian Concept and Vondelpark only to name a few.

For more information please visit Rewire Festival

Nils Frahm - Felt

The wonderful label Erased Tapes has released the newest piece of art from the Berlin based pianist and composer Nils Frahm. I got more acquainted with the work of Nils Frahm last year with the his duo with Anne Muller excellent "Seven Fingers" exploring Modern Classical, IDM and sonic glitchy soundscapes with a lot of class.

"Felt" not altogether so different but explores the intimacy of a Modern Classical raw piano with a soft pop sensibility in a stunning and introspective way the use of space and silence like his predecessors Sylvain Chauveau and Rachel Grimes, guaranteed to be a wonderful soundtrack to gaze at Mark Rothko masterpieces.

Track nr. 2 "Less" is a absolute masterpiece exploring the subtleness of those elements together with microcosmic field recording ambients.

"Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper."

Nils Frahm - Felt (teaser) by erasedtapes

Nils Frahm & Anne Müller live at Rewire Festival + Sylvain Chauveau and Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek 5 November Den Haag

Sylvain Chauveau news, Bandcamp and Rewire Festival Den Haag 4 November

One of my favorite contemporaneous modern classical composers the French born and Brussels based Sylvain Chauveau as now most of his impressive discography on bandcamp, most of it for really bargain prices that you can decide to buy or not after listening and directly for the artist. A new album and several collaborations were already announced and more Sylvain Chauveau wonders should be out soon.



Sylvain Chauveau @ the Rewire Festival November 4 in Den Haag

Le Guess Who? and State-X New Forms 2011 Festivals in Holland

On the coming months two cities in Holland present then selfs has the coolest places to be, two great festival in Utrecht and The Hague with a fabulous line up literally for all tastes, Garage Rock, Electronic, Bedroom Pop, Experimental, Singer-Songwriter, Indie, Alternative, Punk Rock, Modern Classical, Synth-Wave, Electro, Gothic, Hip Hop that promises to be a real bang of massive cool bands.
So i take my hat off to the organization of this two brilliant events for bringing so much cutting edge and independent artists to Holland.


Le Guess Who?

A Winged Victory For The Sullen/ Pure X/ Sleep Over/ Zola Jesus / Roll the Dice/ Panda Bear / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / Bill Callahan / Gang Gang Dance / Suuns / John Maus / Low / Fool's Gold / Zomby / Givers / Akron/Family / My Brightest Diamond/ Shabazz Palaces / Nisennenmondai / Braids / Pinback / Pink Mountaintops... / Okkervil River / Com Truise / The Besnard Lakes / Tarwater / Puro Instinct / Om Unit /Slugabed / Cheveu / Bass Drum Of Death / Doshy / Bo Ningen / Richard Buckner / Dan Haywood's New Hawks / Holloy's / Still Corners / Oy Division / Pursuit Grooves / Babe Rainbow / Group Inerane / Socalled / Orchestra Of Spheres


State-X New Forms

Duchess Says/ Flying Lotus/ Black Lips/ Actress/ Buke and Gass/ The Dodos/ Sleepingdog/ Dustin O’Halloran/ High Places/ Jimmy Edgar/ Oy/ Objekt/ Sunburned Hand of the Man/ Baby Dee/ Tyondai Braxton and lots more