INSTAL 09 line up so far

[NotReallyDamo]

I cannot recall his name off the top of my head, but the guy back in 2005 (i think) that basically did what The Wire quite funnily called a 'drum lab'. It was terrible, just some guy rattling out tedious drum fills for 45 mins. Yet the audience was going nuts.

FWIW this was Tom Bruno from the NY free jazz group Test, and yes it was rubbish. I walked out - only time I can remember doing so at a gig of this sort - but didn't get the impression the rest of the audience loved it. Funnily enough I wasn't keen on the Connors/Licht set you referred to either, but apparently that was just me.

[jkudler]

there isn't anything wrong with that new london thread.

m

i was speaking subjectively, for myself. sorry if that was unclear.

-jesse

[Dustin Hurt]

i found it - http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/programme/Work ... eries.shtm

don't ross lambert and matt milton post here? or have? i like the little bit of matt's stuff i've heard a lot.

i met matt that night - super nice guy - gave me some wasabi peas - and stood out in his quartet - some nice bow on bow action.

[Richard Pinnell]

i found it - http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/programme/Work ... eries.shtm

don't ross lambert and matt milton post here? or have? i like the little bit of matt's stuff i've heard a lot.

i met matt that night - super nice guy - gave me some wasabi peas - and stood out in his quartet - some nice bow on bow action.

Really weirdly I am eating wasabi peas right now. I've never had them before either. Odd.

[Dustin Hurt]

It was good to spend a little time with you up in Scotland Dustin, enjoy Berlin!

Yeah - you too Richard. Glad I decided I was in the mood for a coffee.

You'll also be glad to know the place I'm staying in London is only 100m from a Greggs...

[Richard Pinnell]

It was good to spend a little time with you up in Scotland Dustin, enjoy Berlin!

Yeah - you too Richard. Glad I decided I was in the mood for a coffee.

You'll also be glad to know the place I'm staying in London is only 100m from a Greggs...

Ha!!

[krakow]

I came here hoping to get a different perspective on the festival, as I found it quite difficult this year and not neccesarily to my tastes, and so I'm pleased to see this thread and the Watchful Ear blog linked to therein, as I was interested to try and get more of a handle on what I'd seen/heard.

I'm kind of wary of getting ripped to shreds, or of upsetting people (myself included) or of being branded or thought of as an unappreciative maximalist pleb., depending on quite what I say, so I'm going to be pretty cautious.

To give some context perhaps, I'll say that personally I enjoyed all the organ events on the Friday night, particularly the duo piece and Hermann Nitsch's cosmic-sounding performance. On the Saturday I liked Tetsuo Kogawa's radio manipulations, Steve McCaffery's 'Carnival' reading, Joan La Barbara (particularly Rothko), KI (Mico, Tamio Shiraishi & Fritz Welch) and the Ali Robertson, Euan Currie & Fritz Welch show in the Studio Theatre. On the Sunday the Feral Choir was a lot of fun and very impressive (though I wasn't singing), I found Seymour Wright totally absorbing, enjoyed the sounds Rolf Julius made (though agree with what someone mentioned about it seeming more like an installation type thing than a performance piece) and liked Filament apart from the Sachiko M solo section, which did nothing for me.

I don't know if it boils down to me wanting something more maximal, given those tastes, but I really did/do find the more minimal performances for the most part very difficult to understand. In particular I'll talk briefly about Sean Meehan & Taku Unami on the Sunday. I didn't get any sense of them listening to and reacting with each other, nor of the reasoning behind what they did and didn't do. The handclaps, drum manipulations, rice grain oscillations etc. appeared to come at random to me and so I found it very hard going and didn't enjoy it. I'd like to think that I'm open to different musics and sounds but I'm sorry to say I just didn't get this at all.

Another performance that I found very disappointing was Nikos Veliotis' Cello Powder, which to me boiled down to too much concept, not enough music. The drones were totally uninteresting and the cello destruction uninspiring. Better on paper than in reality. I though this was more of a problem last year, but did resurface here again (see also Michael Pisaro's An Unrhymed Chord).

I've been to several Instal festivals and other Arika events before, and totally love that they exist and am in awe of what they put on and how wonderfully they do it, but... I remember in the past that going to these things used to change my life; I'd always hear at least something, and often many things, that totally blew me away and introduced me to at the very least a new artist if not a whole stream of music I'd never considered before... and I certainly didn't get that this year. How much of that is purely personal, I'm not sure.

P.S. I do want to address the photography issues at some point, but don't have the mind to right now.

[mudd]

unappreciative maximalist pleb?

nice review, though, thanks.

m

[jon abbey]

krakow, I wasn't there, but the one thing I'd say is that in my experience, that superminimalism tends to work better either listening by yourself at home or in a small room live with maybe 50 people tops. so if you're still curious, you might want to try a few DLs, I'm sure people here would be happy to give you pointers if you wanted.

[cheapmachines]

I'm kind of wary of getting ripped to shreds, or of upsetting people (myself included) or of being branded or thought of as an unappreciative maximalist pleb., depending on quite what I say, so I'm going to be pretty cautious.

Post away mate, that's what I say. We're all friends here... sort of...

I'd be pretty disappointed if anyone took you (or anyone else) completely apart for a well observed and honestly written opinion.