Translated material
Flow of blind energy
“Dom” has grown very “Long Arms”
This year, the Long Arms festival was unprecedented both in duration and in the composition of participants: ten days, several venues and two dozen participants from different countries. We must pay tribute to the musicians: on the anniversary of the death of the “House” boss, Nikolai Dmitriev, everyone who could responded. Another time, such a scale and quality of a program is unlikely to happen. Although I would like to be wrong and see such a fun music madness every year.On the first day, a famous duet from the Netherlands played - drummer Han Bennik and pianist Misha Mengelberg. The stooped old man Mengelberg, a Dutch Jew of Russian origin, performed in our country several years ago, and, oddly enough, somewhere in Siberia. Oddly enough - with some success. The Moscow audience was also captivated by his playing style: dissonant intervals, sudden transitions from topic to topic, unexpected lyricism and mocking retro. Hurricane Bennik drummed on the floor, split sticks and generally misbehaved in every way. Moreover, it is rhythmically perfect and meaningful. On the snare (leading) drum, Bennik knocks out, without repeating and in three measures, a wide variety of patterns and melodies, although the snare drum - with an indefinite height and resonating strings at the bottom - is least suitable for such fun.
On the same day, Japanese electronic artist KK Null and two European jazzmen, bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmüller, organized good “noise” - a wall of sound, “a flow of blind energy.” They were quite good, but... Firstly, this genre - noise - is still too difficult for everyone. Even for fans of avant-garde jazz, those who came to see Mengelberg simply ran away. Secondly, the command was not voiced in the best way. The sound engineer combined all the instruments into one, although the live rhythm section and sampler had to be heard separately.
Wednesday turned out to be a French and free jazz day. Marseillean Christian Brazier presented an original program - a solo on the double bass. In fact, he performs in Europe with his sextet and at “Hands” he played a solo program for the first time, by his own admission, for the first time. And he played someone else’s unusual instrument, and then complained: “In France I have a double bass, specially built for me. Terribly expensive. I can do whatever I want on it. And with this I was afraid.” However, Brazier held the audience well. It was indeed quite an interesting performance: the Marseillean played with chords, intervals and harmonics, used different mutes (sheets of paper and sticks), and interspersed noise pieces with very beautiful smooth passages.
In the second part, two Frenchmen from Bordeaux, drummer Didier Lasserre and saxophonist Sebastian Capasa, gave out wild fries - very energetic, completely seventies. The audience listened numbly, then with a flurry of applause pulled the duet out for an encore. As host Dmitry Ukhov said, “if you haven’t been to a Coltrane or Ayler concert... now consider that you have.”
Our celebrities performed in the third part - Sainkho Namchylak and the “Three O” cast, which turns twenty this year. The peers of perestroika played so cheerfully and mockingly that I immediately remembered how in those years they were shown either in “Around Laughter” or in “Vzglyad”. In one nightly entertainment program, the leader of the group, saxophonist Sergei Letov (now it’s hard to believe that such people were shown on TV just recently!), when asked where the name of the group came from, answered: “An encrypted quote from Joyce” (the character in “Ulysses” said that flute is a woman with three holes.) To which the presenter shouted: “If we talk about Joyce now, people will turn off the TV!” Well, now bearded men with Joycean quotes have moved to specially designated underground places.
Just in case, let us remind you that American composer Terry Riley will perform on Monday. Several years ago, he and several of our musicians performed his program composition “In C - In C major”. Now Riley will present a solo piano program.
And today, Friday, in the “House” are the wonderful American singer Shelley Hirsch and accordionist Pauline Oliveros.