June 20, 2010

Paolo Angeli's Sponde di Passione live at Moers Festival 2010

Paolo Angeli's project Sponde di Passione was mostly serving folk-based drone structures and adding a lot of visual food. There were black-and-white photos projected onto a big screen behind the musicians, photos of Good Friday ceremonies in (southern?) Italy. And there was a trapeze artist which for the first time made correct use of the Moers Festival circus tent by offering acrobatics. The little program booklet announced that the acrobat and the musicians were meant to influence each other, and the musicians on stage where really watching what she was doing high up there under the tent's roof. Yet I couldn't really figure out any mutual influence between them. (Which doesn't mean that there was none, I just didn't perceive it.) Short before the concert, while watching the preparations for the multimedia performance, I chatted a bit with a stranger and we remembered the 2001 or 2002 concert of the Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra with their many dancers and the giant dragon floating over the audience's heads. (We had a little controversy - while he found everything of that gig "spectacular" and great, I admitted that the show was, but that the music was a bit too much based on repetitive riffs.) So, we were asking ourselves, can we expect a show like that? Well, after the concert had started, this guy left after a while. I later met him again and he told me he couldn't stand these Christian photos. I replied that I didn't have any specific reactions to these photos: "I grew up in a protestant household, so these catholic processions are just strange to me, not touching me in any way, neither negative nor positive."

Takumi Fukushima's singing was maybe a bit harmless but nice. I knew some of her singing from Rale. The best moment though was when she left the tracks of harmlessness and suddenly burst into singing traditional japanese drama, alternating between female and pretended male voice. That might well have been the best moment of the whole concert, which was a little bit boring on the whole, because there was too few instrumental development. After I had seen the high number of sounds that Angeli could get out of his instrument in the duet with Jon Rose, the performance here on the main stage was a bit one-dimensional (or maybe it was the sound mix that was not detailed enough?). Drone music doesn't work so well if it is folk-based. (Lutz Eitel calls it "orotund sonorities" and up to now I've been too lazy to check the dictionary what "orotund" means.)

Paolo Angeli's MySpace site and the one for the Angeli and Fukushima duet.

As already mentioned in the morning session review, Takumi exchanged some smile with my wife as well. That certainly earns her a big bonus point.



10 comments:

ayu1234 said...

hmm, it seemed to me that the descending of the acrobats artist looked like the dead Christ with his suffering. if this has a little bit of truth, then, it fit to their religious theme. what do you say?

Spring Day said...

Yes, there were definitely religious associations linked with the acrobat, I think so too. If we associate her with the dead Christ then it is interesting to ask the gender question: Does the gender of Jesus matter? What if Jesus had been a woman? Did the Romans crucify women as well, or was this punishment reserved for men? Could a woman embody God's love for mankind just like a man could? Or even better?
Yet, as the acrobat didn't have her arms spread out when descending, she could also be a "fallen angel" (lucifer?) in a Christian context.

ayu1234 said...

yes, you are obviously more familiar with the christian concepts than I do. hehe. nevertheless, I do not regret for not armed myself enough with religious knowledge. :-)

Spring Day said...

Oh, that's only because you don't read your daily buddhist wisdom newsletters anymore

Musiklabor-Netzwerk said...

Ihre Eindrücke vom Moers Festival sind spannend zu lesen. Da werden einige Konzerte wieder lebendig. Und gerade bei diesem Konzert mit der Artistin und dem Film wurden an den verschiedenen Positionen sicher sehr unterschiedliche Aspekte wahrgenommen. Ich bedanke mich für Ihre Worte und die Vernetzung.

Musiklabor-Netzwerk said...

We take a CD after the concert with Takumi Fukushima, it's called 'Volapük. Where is Tamashii?' (2003, Inoui Production/Orchêstra). I think it was a good choice: innovativ a n d nice music.

Spring Day said...

Der Dank ist ganz meinerseits, für die schönen Fotos auf Ihrer Seite. Unsere Fotos sind leider nichts geworden, deshalb muss ich zur Kompensation so viel Worte drum machen...
Die Volapük-CD kenne ich, die ist wirklich toll. Und wie schon im Artikel angedeutet, die tschechisch-polnisch-japanisch-vietnamesische Band "Rale", bei der Fukushima auch mitwirkt, höre ich auch gerne.

Spring Day said...

Auf der Seite des Rale-Labels gibt es auch ein Lied zum kostenlosen Download (Klick auf die Achtelnoten rechts in der Spalte "free").

ayu1234 said...

ah, by the way, I have got something interesting from Umberto Eco, so note it down here;

Book--Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge

Pencils--Portable Erasable-Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus

Spring Day said...

Then what is BLOG? Bad language organization gear?