Konfrontationen 2002 (2002 Jul 19-21) http://www.konfrontationen.at/konfrontationen2002/ General comments: My first time to this festival. Found it definitely worthwhile. For some reason I expected the audience to be a bit more diverse, but it seemed most people were from local or neighboring regions. Not surprising in retrospect, of course, but this was my first European music festival, so I had harbored some misconceptions about how many far-flung listeners would attend. Outside of the concerts, there's wasn't much to do - I mostly read (Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON) at the campsite during the day. The worst parts: having a sudden savage storm upturn my tent and getting everything inside wet, and my decision (based on Hans Falb's statement that there was often a sort of next-day after-party) to stay through Tue morning (there's only one flight [morning] back to Athens per day from Vienna). Half of Tuesday I spent completely alone. :) I did get some reading done... FRI === Veryan Weston (p, harpsichord) / Jon Rose (vln) Unfortunately, I got to the festival late, and only saw the encore to this, where they played some amusing renditions of some famous waltzes/standards (old melodies so familiar I couldn't place them). I quite enjoyed these two short bits, so regret missing the performance. I was told it was an hour of improv, with 4-5 breaks. -- Thomas Kaufmann's Coincidence thomas kaufmann: altosax wolfgang reisinger: drums andy manndorff: guitar achim tang: bass A modern/contemporary/out jazz quartet with loose compositions. I didn't find it too exciting - I thought they'd have been more interesting with more structure. The guitarist was a decent soloist, but I didn't like his comping much. It all reminded me a bit of an inferior Bobby Zankel gig (who I do like). -- quintetAvant lionel marchetti: tape recorder jerome noetinger: tape recorder jean pallandre: tape recorder marc pichelin: analog synthesizer laurent sassi: mix on speakers An electro-acoustic improv/noise performance - I enjoyed it, nicely varied. Unfortunately, on this first day of travel, I was kinda beat, so my actual memory of the concert is fuzzy, so can't relay details. I wasn't blown away, though my faltering attention didn't help, I'm sure. -- Die Like a Dog peter brötzmann: sax paul lovens: selected drums conny bauer: trombone william parker: bass I have the Kondo quartet on record, and heard the Campbell version live, so this was a pleasant change (for variety's sake). Expectedly good, I thought, with the bonus of Bauer's trombone making it easier to comp (low, long tones, mostly) while Brotzmann played (I like when horn players comp when other horns solo, but it seems unfortunately uncommon overall, and the lower the instrument, the easier/more likely it appears to be that they will do so...). SAT -- Executive Ensemble -:executing the music of steve reich:- martin brandlmayr: orgel, mikrophon arnold haberl: orgel, cello, mikrophon gerlinde fritz: orgel, mikrophon oliver stotz: orgel, mikrophon, computer günther castanetti: maracas, mikrophon Pieces: Pendulum Music, Cello Phase, 4 Organs, Slow Motion This was a nice set in the afternoon in an alternate venue of performances of early (late-60s-ish) Steve Reich pieces. "Pendulum Music" was 4 mikes suspended from the ceiling over 4 speakers playing single, different tones. The mikes are pulled away and released around the same time, and the piece lasts until the mikes stop swinging and the sound is roughly static. Nice effect. Cello Phase and Slow Motion were solo performances with tape, they were ok. "4 Organs" was really nice - a simple figure played by one, with 3 others hitting big chords at the end of the figure (and a steady maracas beat). The tempo and spacing of the figures gradually increasing and gaining a sort of aural portent. -- assif tsahar: sax peter kowald: bass paul lovens: selected drums Pretty run-of-the-mill free jazz. Didn't interest me much - Kowald and Lovens are pretty consistently listenable, but Tsahar didn't play anything that grabbed me. -- john russell: guitar roger turner: percussion A wonderful, inventive, humorous free improv by an longtime duo. Lots of fun. -- MIMEO - music in movement electronic orchestra keith rowe: guitar electronics kaffe matthews: computer jerome noetinger: electroacoustic devices peter rehberg: computer phil durrant: software granular samplers and treatments thomas lehn: analogue synthesizer christian fennesz: computer rafael toral: guitar with analogue modular system markus wettstein: amplified metal garbage marcus schmickler: digital synthesizer, computer gert jan prins: electronics, FM modulation, radio cor fuhler: piano A mixed performance, with some good parts and some boring and/or unsuccessful parts. Jon Abbey was right in bemoaning the fact they only got a normal set's length - it's really kind of useless for a group like MIMEO, which is a festival in itself, basically. One downer for me was the lack of volume-dynamics - the whole performance was fairly monochromatically loud. I expected (especially based on recordings) a lot more variation in volume. (Phil Durrant later told me that much of that on record is due to the mix - he told me the Caravaggio concert was even more monochromatic and loud. Kudos to Marcus Schmickler on what I now more fully appreciate as a masterful mixing job [on THE HANDS OF CARAVAGGIO].) It started rather piecemeal and not so together, but it got into a bit of a groove (not the tempo kind) after 20 minutes or so. Then it varied in interest. As a listener, I bounced between listening to the music as a whole, and trying (against my egoless-seeking will! :) to identify who was responsible for what. I like the way Phil said it - looking for who's to blame. Members I talked to afterwards said they'd lobbied for an all-day set, and that Hans Falb was agreeable, but evidently sponsors balked at an electronics-only day. I think they definitely could have compromised and let MIMEO have an afternoon at Kleylehof, not interfering with the evening's concerts, but still giving the group time to stretch out and do different things. Oh well. 4 Walls: phil minton: voice luc ex: bass veryan weston: piano michael vatcher: percussion Ah, perfect timing - some tunes. But in a highly off-the-wall fashion, as one might expect with this group. 4 Walls is the post-Tom Cora (rip) band Roof. Pretty wild and wooly songs, including a couple Ho Chi Minh poems set to Minton/Weston music. Good stuff. SUN: bob ostertag: computer pierre hébert: visuals Another afternoon set in the alternate Kleylehof venue. Started off very promisingly with Ostertag fastiduously opening and drinking a can of Coke (which he was tacitly recording and revealed a few minutes later as seeds for his laptop machinations). Meanwhile, Hebert used a very cool kind of 'live animation' video system, where he would paint on this white board viewed by a camera hooked up to a computer. He would draw a stickish figure, capture the image, immediately wipe it clear and draw another, slowly building up frame by frame, and replaying them in sequence as he went along, gradually forming an animation, right there. Very cool. This was all interrupted by repeated and frequent crashes of Ostertag's laptop, to the point they stopped and said they'd restart in half an hour. I believe his light pen was causing the problems. In any event, I elected to head back to nap, so that I would repeat the previous night's drowsiness. I heard the eventual performance was excellent, and I believe that based on what I saw initially. -- L.E.O. cordula boesze: flute günther albrecht: synth-sax chris burn: piano paul skrepek: drums seppo gründler: extended guitar, electronics uli fussenegger: g3 A not bad new-musicy improv performance by "locals", along with Chris Burn - had a workshop feel to it. -- braaxtaal jaap blonk: voice rob daenen: synthesizer theo bodewes: percussion, electronic drums The surprise concert of the festival for me. Space Pop Madness, Pure and Simple, from the 8th Dimension, Gong Show(TM) Edition. It was Totally Fucked Up, and I loved it. What a blast - completely kooky blippy synths, plunky/cheesy electronic drums, and Blonk's wacked-out vocals and facial expressions. I'm quite sure some portion of the audience (purists, Serious Folks, etc) hated it, but it was fab. I'd never heard them before - I'll need to get one of their records, for sure. -- chris burn: piano john butcher: sax rhodri davies: harp john edwards: bass A really solid, masterful improv set. No matter how often I hear or see Butcher, I come away newly impressed. Everyone sounded fantastic, though. The players were quite happy with the set afterwards, too. And finally, someone who didn't give into the audience for a useless encore. Strings - real and virtual REAL: jon rose: violin phil durrant: violin rhodri davies: harp john edwards: bass luc ex: bass arnold haberl: cello (guests - John Russell - gtr + Paul Lovens - saw) VIRTUAL: bob ostertag: computer phil durrant: electronics An enjoyable but not particularly notable tag-team improv finish. Players would come up in subsets to play for some short time, interacting with one or both of the Ostertag/Durrant computers. Durrant stayed up there most of the time, using live samples, afaik. Ostertag used pre-recorded material, so only came up there when playing. The sequence ended with the walk-on duo of John Russell and Paul Lovens (the latter on saw). The encore was nice - a staggered single played note from all.