NORDIC AUDIO MODERN 2005 (festival's report).

Being in a very first light, “Nordic Audio Modern” unambiguously promised the forthcoming benefit of Lina Baby Doll – still three projects over one night is quite challenging. More over, the adherence of such famous as Con-Dom or The Grey Wolves finally assured me to set out and to drag my bones to “Vault“ bunker on Saturday. Though I couldn’t say I’m magnetized by the aura of such places, still I have to admit that this place is perfect at least for “Nordic Audio Modern“. 

My fest visitation was late. I chanced to come on the drive of the first British project of that night – The Grey Wolves. Crowded mass was definitely more interesting in porno films on screen than in the performance of The Grey Wolves. The Grey Wolves picked out the wide range of porno action – from sadomasochism to the group orgies, for the different sexual tastes to be satisfied:) Concerning my taste, I wasn’t deeply impressed by the performance of The Grey Wolves – sound aspect seemed to be too chaotic and things they were striving to express remained unclear to me. Perhaps, such chaos is what they call the style of performance – they are labeled as industrial punks to some purpose after all. The impression wasn’t repaired even by candies at the end of performance. The problem should be that performers were the first who played at the gig and it required too more efforts to instantly switch my brains from the surrounding of “subačiovkė“ (name of local area which is full of crimes) to The Grey Wolves.

Another leader of the marathon – Janitor. Actually, I was anxious about how the drink-expert Lina should manage to stand at least three of his project, but as he appeared on the stage with Janitor, it was evident that the creator of Deutsch Nepal, kindly saying, wasn’t a friend of abstinence. It is tricky to say something wise about the performance of Janitor – having in mind that the whole Lina’s show lasted only several minutes. Those reckoning on something similar to the records of Janitor albums should be pretty astonished. The actual picture was as following: Lina and his guitar creeping by the ground, surrounded by the crowd of photographers and film-makers like some kind of rock star (this crowd was obviously annoying most attendees of the fest and spoiled the atmosphere pretty well), forgivingly smiling faces and the performance terminates just started. “Lina should end his career as an artist“, – said McKaras, and he was probably right.

Then the time had come, at least in my view, for the culmination of this festival – Con-Dom. I’m not sure if I would listen to such music at home, but there, in the festival, Con-Dom managed to embody the absolute power. Comparing with The Grey Wolves, during the performance of Con-Dom everything seemed to be serious, evaluated and intended to express some meaning. By the time when M. Dando was entering the hall and shouting his message directly to the faces or splashing the paint on them, this was definitely not another common standard provocation of power electronics. Impressive was not only the action of M. Dando (though it is mostly underlined somehow), but also the musical aspect of Con-Dom. The sound was clear (how strange soever it may seem in describing the power electronics music), precisely accurate and at the same time carrying the huge load and lying it on the brains with the enormous power. White-black video conception combined this action even more into the one integrated whole and by the end of the performance everyone felt the massive load of power persistent in the atmosphere.

Frozen Faces. In my list of festival favorites they stand in the second place after Con-Dom. At least this night Lina’s incarnation to Frozen Faces seemed to me much more interesting than Deutsch Nepal, perhaps due to the debut of this project on our scene. Anxious psychedelic sound loops, deep rhythm, according to most attendees, comparable to some most disturbing, psychedelic works of Deutsch Nepal. It would be weird at least if Lina’s show wasn’t the same as with Frozen Faces. Action No 2 – Lina’s doing a strip. Thumb in stripping meanwhile the sound walls were sequentially turning and looped images on the theme of Frozen Faces album were reversing. Lina never reached the final point in stripping. He sat on the floor. Frozen Faces came to the end. And I ran to purchase the vinyl of Frozen faces, which used to play over and over again for a few days.

Latvian Traur Zot was definitely not the most expected project of the festival still my expectations were absolutely surpassed. It seemed so naturally about the electronic dose of German school from Latvia and Traur Zot approved this expectation. Having started from the dark noise ambient, Traut Zot flow was rising gradually and persistently to slowly effusing hard rhythm that reminded somewhat the works under the Ant-Zen label. I expected for everything to transform to the hard industrial rhythm machine, but everything just stopped. At the end, Traur Zot was likely to deliver one more experiment, but they failed. Anyway, though with a bit lack of originality, the performance of Traur Zot was really good (in my view) and as I happened to hear, for some it was even one of the best performances during the fest.

Deutsch Nepal. Break before Deutsch Nepal was too dragged and considering Lina’s liking for not only drinking, but also for sudden disappearing, the question was about his appearance on the stage in general. More over, when Lina was noticed slipping outside in a quick step. Yet no – shaky but still knowing his task Lina appeared on the stage. For a short time. After a while, he as purposely strode away. Lashisha ran after him. It seemed that at this time, target of Lina was just WC. Lina was standing on the stage again holding the bottle of beer, though I could swear that previously he hasn’t got it. This actually makes no wonder as I never happened to see Lina clear-headed during Deutsch Nepal. Deutsch Nepal made the contrasting impression on me at that time. It was powerful and furious, as usual. I saw the performance of Deutsch Nepal four times and I was always strongly affected. Still the latter was the lightest performance of Deutsch Nepal concerning its impact among those arranged in Lithuania, except one part where “The Bird of Steel“ began – this Deutsch Nepal program has been already performed for a few times and despite of generating different senses every time it’s played, I still seek to hear something new. Having watched Deutsch Nepal, I recalled the first time I saw him at Gotik Treffen festival in Germany few years ago – Lina was spinning among the equipment changing the cassettes on by one, but the more times I saw him the more he acted as a frontman. The vocal side of Deustch Nepal is obviously getting more important. Even if Sigis from Goetheanum, who has nothing much common with the industrial culture, delivered his respect to Lina as to the vocalist, this should mean something. Lina couldn’t manage without excess and this time – his microphone fell on the floor, Lina lifted it slowly, as if it would happened almost every day. This is so common to Deutsch Nepal – one minute you are delighting in the solemn sense of music, another one, Lina easily dispels all this magic.

Hazard. To gig after Deustch Nepal is not very fat part. More over if you are not keen on making high performances, but simply setting the sound constructions using the PC. Yet more when already 6 projects were performed and when it was almost three o’clock at night. Perhaps these were the reasons why I was so impassive to the performance of Hazard. Music quantity was definitely overrun and my brains could be refreshed only by some shocking senses. Hazard didn’t ensure them. As during the any other drink, the time comes to slowly roll away – either to go home or to get drunk gradually. This time, the first option was selected.

Written by Audrius Ožalas, translated by Ruta Muller, 2005-07-20