A L'ARME! X+I, Berlin, August 10-12, 2023 (Part I)

By Paul Acquaro

Thinking back on past editions of A L'ARME!, it has typically been quite hot, and in a summer where extreme heat has reigned over southern Europe and the US, simple reasoning would suggest that the patterns of past years would hold true for mid-August in Berlin; however, how far from it. Seasonably cool and under blue skies with white fluffy clouds, the opening evening of A L'ARME! X+I was starting out under some ideal conditions.

Even though A L'ARME!'s curator Louis Rastig is himself a fine free improvising pianist himself, do not expect his festival to be some sort of a classic Free Jazz festival. I've made the mistake before of trying to squint real hard and see only what I wanted to see. True, in the beginning, there was more free jazz, even with some of the legends themselves like trombonist Conny Bauer, percussionist Sven Aki Johanssen and the late saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (to name a few) on the program, but as the years have gone on (we're now at the 11th edition, if you do the math), there is less free jazz to find on the program, however, there is still plenty of improvisation, and more so, the drive to create uncompromising, and often very loud, music.

According to Rastig, the main thing is that the performances and music are improvised. He hopes that it brings people around who are ready for something different, and hopefully bring in those who may not have been interested in improvisation before. In fact, a chance conversation with an older listener in the audience, revealed that Rastig was maybe onto something else as well... "I'm tired of free jazz," he said, "it's been done."

Personally, I still have a lot room for some fiery sax, plink-plonking guitar and time-addling percussion, but at this year's festival, I decided to stop squinting, put in my ear plugs (generously provided by the festival) and experience the music without trying to fit it into an older form. Here is what happened...


Thursday, August 10

Edwin van der Heide's lasers (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)

Of course the opening show was lasers and fog machines, how could it not? The Dutch sound and light artist Edwin van der Heide's work "Intersecting Planes" sculpts the air in the room into geometric shapes that goes tongue-and-groove with a soundtrack of deep, body rattling bass oscillations, electronic beats and unnerving drones. The lasers, changing with the music, create patterns of lines on the wall and prisms in the air, one moves through the performance space seeing forms that are not really there and hearing sounds with a palpable form.
 

No Plexus (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)

The set was followed by the Dutch duo No Plexus, comprised of Allison Wright and Brechtje van Dijk presenting their multimedia deconstruction of the somewhat maligned term 'Gen-Y' or 'Millennial.' The duo reprocesses the imagery and sounds that have been culturally tagged as Millennial and as the generation discussion, starting with the Boomers to the forgotten Generation X, Gen-Y and recent focal point Gen-Z, has become mainstream fodder, it seems quite the appropriate target for scrutiny by the arts. Wright and Brechtje can Dijk use fast cut video, pastiches of song genres from bossa-nova and lounge to electronics and torchy ballads, to deliver their critique. It was a neutron bomb of information, intriguing and intense.
 

Holistic Trio (Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix)

The third set of evening was a much different affair featuring essentially only acoustic instruments. Trio Holistic featured the interactions of Veslemøy Narvesen on drums, Kit Downes on organ and piano, and Ketija Ringa on flute, for the first time publicly. The music began quietly, with a suspenseful organ and some action from the high-hat. The flute then began tracing out some lithe structures and playing simple melodic snippets. Compared to the density of the previous duo's music, this was as ephemeral as the smoke that had been rising from the machines in the other music hall. Something however was building up, and as Downes switched from the organ to piano, it seemed to signal a change to a more kinetic sound. The trio however then wavered, retreating back to a quieter space, which lasted until Downes, back on organ, pulled out the stops, and towards the final moments, the group generated some welcome agitated energy.

Carl-Michael von Hausswolff (Photo by Juliane Schuetz)

The Saal, the same room as the previous show, boasted a stage set up in the middle of the room, screens above and spotlights from all sides. Sitting behind a table of devices, the controversial Swedish artist Carl-Michael von Hausswolff, under a wide brimmed hat and trenchcoat, manipulated waves of sound and static. Possibly more interesting as concept than as a live spectacle, the sounds that were extracted and shaped by the analog machines on stage ranged from dry and glitchy to liquidy and digestional.

Moe with Mette Rasmussen and Veslemøy Narvesen (Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix)

The first set of the night ended with the noise-rock of the Norwegian duo Moe with the addition of Veslemøy Narvesen on drums and Mette Rasmussen on saxophone. As the set began, my gut reaction was flight -  it was really loud. The earplugs were making it bearable, but group leader Guro Moe's electric bass and intense vocals and Håvard Skaset's guitar work nearly bested them. Then, Rasmussen came in and her wailing lines took the primordial crunch of the duo and elevated it to something else entirely. Narvesen, as loud now as she was restrained in the earlier set, added fascinating polyrhythm to the aggressive punk/metal pulse. They played as a quartet - not as a duo plus guests - each elevating the others work to create something intriguing and eviscerating. 

Finally, after an encore, I took my weary ears home to rest to prepare for the next two nights.

Read part 2 here.