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| Crowd (above) Roof Deck (below) (photos by Juliane Schuetz
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By Paul Acquaro
Read part 1 here.
Friday, August 11
The crowd at the Radialsystem was impressive. On Friday evening, at 7 p.m., the A'LARME! crowd spilled out onto the ample patio space overlooking the the Spree, the river that cuts through the middle of Berlin as well as the side-yard. The bar inside, as well as the one outside, had lines and a patio space on the third floor of the former sewage pumping station, turned stunning performance space, featured a natural wine bar and videos of performances from previous festivals. Of course, I found myself headed periodically to the merchandise table - actually more the pop-up record store of Gerhard Busse's
No Mans Land mail-order shop.
As far as I could tell, this years edition of A'LARME did not have an explicitly stated theme, however, there seemed to be several that tacitly snaked through the varied programming. One of which was expressed by bassoonist Joy Guidry, who addresses themes of discrimination and self acceptance in the face of prejudice and hatred. Guidry's 2022 album, Radical Acceptance, opens with the track 'Just Because I Have a Dick Doesn't Mean I'm a Man,' which lays out with acerbic wit and directness their feelings, and the show that kicked off Friday's concerts set this sentiment to a soundtrack that was both confrontational as well as uplifting. The performance was heartfelt as Guidry challenged the audience to consider injustices by asking the question: "How do you live in a world where...". The music included free jazz interludes, a lovely spiritual folk melody 'Down in the Valley' which stretched into an extended musical exploration, and some bassoon playing from Guidry, which at times leaned experimental and other times sentimental. I would have loved hearing even more of the instrument, a rarity outside of classical music.
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| Florian Walter and Jan Klare (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)
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'Meat.Karaoke.Quality.Time.' What does it mean? For the audience gathered around the stage in the Saal, it meant a mix of humans, electronic instruments, and an AI named "Ï€∆∞m∫" collaborating in real-time, in some possible future. Saxophonists
Florian Walter and
Jan Klare took to the EWI (the electronic wind instrument, a synthesizer controller played by blowing into it like a horn) and
Karl-F. Degenhardt played the 'sensory drums,' which, to my understanding, is a way to use the drums as a synthesizer controller. The fourth member was the AI, developed by Canadian programmer Mike McCormack. The self-learning algorithm added yet another elements of chance and randomness to the human made electronic music from the stage, and the affect, considering also the digital landscapes above the stage and the cosmic rain gear worn by the musicians, was something out of joint dream from Ray Kurzweil and George Lucas - the Singularity Band playing the late set at the Mos Eisley Cantina. Intriguing and haunting.
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| Claire Rousay (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)
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Claire Rousay was on last year's program, slated to play drums in woodwindist Ken Vandermark's group with Macie Stewart, before a car accident changed these plans. This year, Rousay made it to Berlin but no longer playing drums, and rather focusing on electronics and vocals. Like say William Eggelston's photography of mid-century America, Rousay's sample sources too are of the everyday - for Eggelston it was shapes and colors of societal artifacts, for Rousay it is the sounds. She mixes samples of audio, like "stopwatches, lawnmowers, field recordings, voice messages" to make sonic pictures. It was interesting, but I was not convinced interesting enough to stand in the very crowded Saal until I noticed that behind her laptop, she was holding an electric guitar. Soon enough, she struck a chord and began singing a wistful melody. It was not a memorable melody or unusual chord progression, but along with the auto-tuned vocals and brittle, crinkly electronics it was quite affective.
The next performance was quite weird. The crowd was still assembling in the larger concert hall, but were keeping the main floor generally open, while
SUM's performance may have had already begun. A tall, lightly clad Pablo GÄ«w, standing to the right side of the hall, began moving slowly, deliberately towards a trumpet lying on the floor next to blanket full of electronics. As he reached the instrument, Kelvin Kilonzo appeared on the floor. Creating a beat through the trumpet though his breath and re-processing by the electronics, GÄ«w created a pulsating soundscape that took over the room. Kilonzo simply moved through the space, and the combination of the sound oscillations and the flowing movements together made for a disorientating effect.
The last set of the night by 1 Above Minus Underground was unlike anything ... or maybe, it was a bit everything ... I've ever hear before. The sheer amount of gadgetry on the stage was mindboggling. In fact, it seemed to be more a set-up spectacle than music, but either way, it certainly screamed improvisation. The first portion of the performance featured Victoria Shen making sound using the contents from one of the tables and her body - from a light-up portable record player to a bow that she used to play her hair (she was well mic'd). She was eventually joined by second electronics player, a singer, and drummer Lukas Koenig, who drumming and conception was at the heart of the project. Finally, vocalist Elvin Brandhi joined, providing even more exotic sounds to the textured, rhythmic event. The vast amount of tools and people on the stage certainly made a never before heard collage of sound, fury and permanently altered epiglottises.
Here's the whole group:
Lukas Koenig (AT) — Drums, Synthesizer; Dälek (US) — Vocals; Victoria Shen (US) — Needle Nails, Electronics; Rojin Sharafi (IR/AT) — Vocals, Electronics; Elvin Brandhi (UK) — Vocals; Nik Hummer (AT) — Modular Synthesizer
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Saturday, August 12th
I begin with a confession: I missed Jasper Stadhouders' Polyband set. Previous obligations got in the way and I missed what was later described to me by an audience member as "just wow." The guitarist and bassist's free jazz big band concept, in existence since 2015 and comprised of mostly Dutch musicians, operates via the following formula: "lots of volume, lots of rhythm, lots of tonality, lots of repetition – and then, a single, minimal change for a massive impact." Obviously, from the people I spoke with and my spies in the audience, it had it's intended effects: there was some messiness, some obviousness, and some magic to the performance. As I entered Radialsystem, I did hear the group's final three notes - and they did sound good!
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| Claire Rousay and Julia Reidy (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)
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The evening's second set was the pairing of Australian guitarist
Julia Reidy with
Claire Rousay. The stage featured two electronics set ups, facing each other and the set began with Reidy plucking the guitar and then reprocessing the sound. Quiet, bubbling electronics and a slowly emerging soundscape ensued. Slight vocalizations from Rousay mixed with Reidy's open, sweeping arpeggios. As the two progressed, it felt like we were moving between rooms of a mystical house through doors made of hanging musical beads, each room was similar, but at the same time, a unique discovery. It became hard to distinguish who was making what sound at some points, except of course when Rousay's gentle vocals entered the space. Together, they layered up sounds of sampled talking, to swirling guitar tones, and bass beats until reaching a satisfying end.
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| Thomas Ankersmit (Photo by Juliane Schuetz) |
The Serge Modular analog synthesizer, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, was developed by Serge Tcherepnin, then a professor at CalArts in the early 1970s. He idea was to develop a synthesizer that was an affordable alternative to the more expensive Buchla synthesizers. He was successful and ended up leaving CalArts to pursue building his instruments exclusively. Thomas Ankersmit, about six years younger than the instrument, has today become one of its leading player. His set, however, may have contained the most confrontational sound that I've ever encountered in a concert setting. The set began interestingly with a series of explosions that seemed to come from different distances and locations and which felt frighteningly realistic. However, a prolonged, high frequency pitch drove me - and several others - from the hall. After the piercing tone subsided, I returned to hear some other and more listenable tonal elements.
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| Kassa Overall (Photo by Juliane Schuetz) |
Kassa Overall leads a powerful band with a slick delivery style that was both somewhat at odds with the grittier feel of many of the performances at the festival, but also provided probably the most accessible route to jazz of the performances. It was also a fun show. The music incorporates hip-hop and rap with jazz rather flawlessly. Overall, the drummer and MC, along with percussionist Bendji Allonce, leads the charge in creating dense, layered, driving percussive grooves. Pianist Ian Finkelstein provides McCoy Tyner like suspension and bassist Giulio Xavier Cetto offers a solid but agile grounding. Tomoki Sanders, son of Pharoah Sanders, adds colorful sax solos, ranging from saccharine smooth- to eviscerating free-jazz, and exudes an irrepressible energy on stage (as well as running through the audience!). What seemed on paper to be a somewhat off-brand headliner, was quite an invigorating and inspired set.
The final set, RÊVE PARTI, by Eve Risser on prepared piano and kick-drum, with live-electronics player Adrian Bourget, provided the after-concert dance party music, but I had wandered off into the Berlin night by then. Reflecting on the festival a few days later, I can say that my initial impulse to let the festival simply be itself worked out quite well. Sure, there were some acts that I do not feel the need to see again but many more discoveries that opened up my ears to something unexpected and new. What more can you ask for? Without challenge, it would be boring and there is nothing boring about this festival. So, looking forward to A L'ARME! X+II!
