3 Seconds of Air, Theobaldus Chapel Brecht 20/06/09

So goeStajer arranged us an invitation for the album presentation (The flight of Song, out on Tonefloat) of 3 seconds of air. 3 seconds of air is a side project of Dirk Serries, an ambient/drone musician who's been active since the eighties and has gained quite a reputation worldwide. First as Vidna Obmana and since a couple of years with Fear Falls Burning, switching from (mainly) synths and electronics to (seriously treated) guitar works. With 3 seconds of air he and his guitar team up with Paul Van Den Berg (guitar) and Martina Verhoeven (bass). The album was recorded in a small chapel on the countryside and it's the place where the concert is happening. When we arrive, we're greeted by Serries himself and we quickly order some Oxfam Beer. Goestajer chooses the blond stuff, I try the brown one. A bit sweet perhaps but very smooth and it goes down quite easily. Before the concert there's some sort of speech from a dude, explaining the history of Brecht and the chapel throughout the centuries. He makes a bit of a confusing impression and has some difficulties with structuring his story - maybe he had already a few drinks. Oh well, somebody should bootleg this & release it as some sort of satanic spoken word performance or something.

When the three musicians start their set, things get quiet except for the birds outside who, at this time of hour, are still making a lot of racket. Especially a blackbird is doing his best and manages to interfere nicely with the soft drifting guitar sounds. 3 seconds of air is all about ambient, the dreamy stuff. The two guitar players, each one of them using lots of effects/pedals, produce lovely sounds that whirl and float through the chapel. This nice tapestry of sound is sparsely but effectively supported by the dry bass that carries the soundscapes very slowly through time & space. The first track has some vague melancholic feeling. Some of the Kranky stuff comes to mind (Stars of the Lid, Windy & Carl). The second track is a bit more voluminous with moments but it certainly stays firmly on the ambient side. In the third and last track my mind starts to drift off, maybe it has something to do with the bloody church chairs that just are not comfy to sit in. In the finale I manage to pick up with the music again and when the sounds finally drift away the three musicians are thanked with a warm applause. GoeStajer and I continue our enthusiastic exploration of the Oxfam beer and after lots of silly nonsense talk and half-drunkish laughter we leave the place, piss in the bushes and drive home well saturated.

Preferred drinks for listening to the cd at home: White wine.

Jaki Liebeziet & Burnt Friedman, A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Nijdrop 15/05/09

A Hawk & A Hacksaw is a band from New Mexico. The poor dudes must have been confused arriving here in the middle of nowhere (of Flanders in fact) playing in an nearly empty old warehouse. Nevertheless, they have the right attitude and can't be bothered. 'We're here now anyway, so we play what we've got' is the attitude for this sort of occasions. With accordion, mandolin (or is that a bouzouki?), accordion (this guy also sings and has a sort of floor tom at his foot), violin, trumpet and tuba they play the sort of folk music that's heavily influenced by Balkan music with perhaps some hints of mariachi here and there. They manage to create a good atmosphere, automatically I think of some Kusturica movie scenes: weddings, drunk funerals, family parties etc... throw in a dog with three legs, cats eating from the table, a lost goat and you know what I mean. All in all, I liked the set and it made me thirsty. One advantage of a low turn-out at concerts is that you seem to own the place: no waiting at the bar, no endless trying to get the bartender/bastard's attention, no pushing your way through the audience and spilling beer etc...

Fortunately a bit more people have arrived when Jaki Liebezeit & Burnt Friedman kick of their set but the turn-out is still very disappointing. Where is everybody? Seeing Liebezeit drumming is some experience. Seated before (and a bit higher than) his four toms and three cymbals (and some well placed mics) - no footwork - he starts without hesitation hitting rhythms that he changes slowly, but never is there one hit out of place or out of rhythm. If you follow his hands and sticks it becomes mesmerising, he's like a human beat box. Sometimes in the beginning of each track you think that it mustn't be that difficult to follow him but his timing, attack and volume is perfect and damn, he subtly adds quite some variation. Liebezeit is in the music business since the middle of the sixties, starting in the German free jazz scene (see Manfred Schoof and even Brotzmann) before he played with Can and now, forty years later he's still going strong. Respect! Burnt Friedman is very complementary to what Liebezeit does. He contributes to the rhythms with lots of nice bleeping sounds (lots of lovely steel drum-like sounds) while at the same time weaving very beautiful sound blankets through the rhythmic patterns. Sometimes hints of melodies shine through, some dubby bas feelings show up and at one time he even used some acid house sounds in the mix. The duo works nicely towards some impressive climaxes to which the audience reacts very enthusiastic. They even come back to do an encore. I already saw them a couple of years ago (with a guitar player who wasn't that good) but this time I experienced it as much better. I must admit that at that time the beer flow had been going goddamn fast for a while, so maybe that element had something to do with it.

When experiencing the duo's high quality & highly recommendable chill out studio Cd's at home (first two Secret Rhythms volumes are wonderful, haven't heard third installment yet) I wouldn't recommend beer in plastic cups like I digested that night but I would suggest some nice dry white wine. And before the thousands of readers of this blog start to regard me as some sort of wine snob: I don't mean sipping on a glass like some sort of upper class idiot, while you most probably don't know anything about it but just swallow the stuff like a big boy and at least empty the goddamn bottle would ya?