WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN 2004 (festival's report)

I had no plans to visit the 13th international festival of the gothic subculture "Wave Gotik Treffen". To be precise - all the circumstances in these latter months were very inauspicious for my trip to Leipzig. But when a week was left to the festival, everything turned upside down, and I realized that it is a sure impropriety to miss the biggest gothic event in the world and to loose the opportunity to present my impressions to "Autarkeia" propaganda readers. The rather that plenty of "industrial-ambient" and "neo-folk" music concerts were included in the program of the 13th "Wave Gotik Treffen".

In a sunny Wednesday afternoon we got into a luxurious 16 year old "Audi 100", popularly ranked as a cult, (the old one caused no troubles during all the trip) and started for the South, for the expansive European Union, that we probably must identify as our new homeland. On the frontier, that had to stop existing after we entered the European Union, a drunk Polish customs officer insistently demanding a bribe reasserted that the new homeland is not a country of freedom, but a hydra with multiple tentacles, having the only purpose - to exhaust and to despoil. Poland itself made no impression, as usually. The only thing worth mentioning is that Polish roads are an ideal place to feel like a hero of the movie "Mad Max": never-ending queues of trucks, extreme diving among them, and certainly accidents with plastic bags full of meat lying on the road.

After 16 hours of stress we came to Leipzig. For me Leipzig is one of the coziest European cities, because of its' particularly tolerant inhabitants and graffiti nearly on every building. It would be nice to live in a city where every wall is an expression of personal fantasy. Besides, I heard that the local authorities do not care where young people drink beer. We reached "Agra" - the central coordination seat of the festival, where organizers and quests were gearing up for the event, and integrated into that process that took our Thursday afternoon and evening, and Friday morning. It was worth preparing for, because the 13th "Wave Gotik Treffen", although very different from the 12th, didn't yield to the latter in the scope. Several separate coordination centers, responsible for absolutely different organizational fields, had to perform a fairly superb job to make the festival pass without failures. Around 150 bands came to Leipzig from various countries of the world, and it was the duty of the organizers to guarantee them normal existence, meeting Western standards. Five times more journalists were hunting for the bands and recording their shows. Concerts took place in nineteen different cultural complexes around Leipzig, and all the events were incessantly watched on and order maintained by various emergency offices: police, ambulance, fire brigade, the office of eliminating the after-effects of disasters, and a huge army of professional guards. The festival lasted five days and concerts were taking place in all nineteen objects simultaneously. In fact, I haven't mentioned 19000 goths, that the festival was dedicated for, raging all those five days and nights. This black sea of creatures serving the goddess of fashion were consuming food and drinks, were washing and decorating themselves, were dancing, making love, voiding. I am sure that all Leipzig was immersed in that orgy. The organizers of the festival not only professionally guaranteed normal living conditions and intercommunication for all the quests, but also fulfilled various aesthetic needs of the guests. At the traditional fair of the festival one could purchase nearly everything that is related to the aesthetics of the gothic subculture: clothing, bijouterie, perfumes, various visual attributes and a lot of music records. The music that one could directly get acquainted with in different halls of Leipzig during the festival. It was impossible to visit all nineteen objects where the concerts were taking place, but perhaps there was no need to do strive for that.

After having received all the festival information, I made a strict list of the concerts to be visited. I gave priority to the music that is close to the interests of "Autarkeia" and is assigned to the "industrial" subculture. On Friday, May 28, there were no such concerts, so driven by the nostalgia for my teenage years, I visited the "ParkBuhne" hall, where the legendary British "doom metal" band MY DYING BRIDE were to finish the evening concert. I saw the live show of this band 11 years ago in Copenhagen. Then it impressed me greatly and presented the highest aesthetic satisfaction. I have to remark, that although this band was undergoing great metamorphoses, it still plays in a very persuasive and relevant way even now. MY DYING BRIDE presented the tracks from various stages of their creative work they all were united by specific stylistic features characteristic to the band. Powerful deep and slow guitar reefs accompanied by the synthesizer, that had replaced Martin's violin, and Aaron's fatal poesy full of sorrow and pain, together with all his scenic image and behaviour didn't look old-fashioned and not actual. Although the show of the band took place in the open air and started before dark, the lights and smoke gave specific charm to the performance. Aaron, dressed in snow white and with his hands smeared with blood red paint, was like a prophet that finds no answer and doubts the existence of God. And when he started roaring, it looked like an evil spirit incarnated into the prophet and expressed itself with seizures of madness. I notice, that although lately the roaring of metal band vocalists at least make me smile, Aaron's manipulations with voice didn't seem trivial. I even had a suspicion that this vocalist followed the example of industrialists and used some electronic effects to change the voice, which is the feature of a reasonable man. What sense does roaring make, if a voice can be changed by the machine?

After the concert, when I came back to the complex of "Agra", where we set up our camp, I heard several tracks of SUICIDE COMMANDO, but they didn't impress me much. Hard EBM perhaps suits better with a hearing distorted by drugs than with a belly stuffed with sausages and beer, which I chose to be my guide that Friday evening. Exhaustion and the Friday evening ended up in a sleeping bag, and Saturday started in an ice-cold shower, which made the organism to mobilize for a serious activity. On Saturday and two other days I had to take part in the concerts that I chose as more relevant. Summarizing the concerts that I took part in, it would probably be clearer to classify them according to the style, but not to the day of the concert. I defined three stylistic groups to reveal my impressions more easily. I would assign "neo-folk" concerts to the first group. Unlike last year, this year the organizers of the festival paid more attention to this trend of the "industrial" subculture, and even two concerts took place in the "Haus Leipzig" hall, that is notorious for its' bad acoustics. My choice to spend the Saturday evening at the concert in this hall was determined by several factors. For one thing - project HEKATE, that is going to play at the festival "Mėnuo Juodaragis" in Lithuania, had to play in "Haus Leipzig". Although I had heard some records of HEKATE, it was still interesting to hear what can one expect from these Austrians in a live show. And for another thing - SPIRITUAL FRONT, the "neofolk" project of Italian cultural terrorism and one of the treasures of the release company OLD EVROPA CAFÉ, triggered even greater interest.

I was seriously minded to contemplate music when I came to the concert at the very beginning and was instantly punished for being so punctual. The guards by the door announced that HEKATE didn't arrive and the concert would start an hour latter. As I had no wish to wait for the concert inside, I left for the city with my camera to hunt for exotic sights. When I came back in several hours, the concert had already started. The project MONDGLANZ was playing on the stage. It took me five minutes to realized that I don't believe in that, what was happening on the stage, and I lost my mood completely. The vocalist was singing in German and I didn't understand a word but his expressions and behaviour on the stage, as well as their scenography and music, arose very controversial associations. One moment all the members of the project were standing as militarized "jugend" - still and with their hands joint on the back - every track began in that way, and the other moment the vocalist was dancing without coordination to very strange rock music. The vocalist was proclaiming some truth as a prophet with a solemn face of a moralist and threatening with a raised finger, then he was weirdly smiling, scampering and stamping with his leg. And all this eclectic mummery was performed according to rock music similar to traditional German pop music. I couldn't make out, if that was a serious show or a mockery of "neo-folk". I was able to watch three or four tracks of MONDGLANZ and they managed to damp down my spirits more than my girlfriend usually does. I hoped so much that the next band, that was DWELLING, would clear my spirits. A bunch of musicians and two female singers climbed up the stage. DWELLING were playing very tender "neo-folk", and the sweet voices of the singers reminded even of "ethereal", but I realized that moment very clearly that the only thing that could relieve my fury raised by MONDGLANZ was the most extreme "power electronics" or a good fighting. I left the hall. A biker disappointed in DWELLING left the hall with me. We took some beer, agreed that the name SMELLING would suit DWELLING much better and were discussing for at least an hour about the degenerating "neo-folk" scene and a precipice between the pioneers of the style and their successors. As the discussion was interesting and catchy, we didn't notice when SPIRITUAL FRONT started playing.

When I entered the hall and caught the first chords, I realized that it was something new and very gripping. First of all my attention was attracted by unusual "neo-folk" sound and different notional stresses. And the instruments: synthesizer, a set of drums, an electric and acoustic guitars, and the scenic image of the guys: black suits, hats and white ties, reminding more of Italian mafia than of romantics celebrating the past. The impression was reinforced by the video projection showing the movie "Boxer" with inimitable De Niro. I couldn't hear all the texts, although the vocalist was pronouncing clearly enough. Alas, they didn't correspond to the "neo-folk" spirit as well. The texts were abrasive, cynical and soaked in the wisdom of life that could shock someone more than eulogize. I would assign them more to the ideology of "cultural terrorism" then to "neo-folk". One song of those Italians (probably called "Don't Kiss the Girls") impressed me particularly. When it started, in a video projection a girl was about to have oral sex with a man. The spirit of the project is obviously the vocalist. I found that audacious guy with a powerful and loud voice a very charismatic personality. Between the tracks he was willingly telling jokes to the audience, but when he was singing, he seemed to be extremely concentrated, solemn and very persuasive. I liked the comb of his head that made him look similar to a taxi driver played by De Niro. Listening to SPIRITUAL FRONT and watching them, I experienced great enthusiasm. There was no more bitterness for dedicating the evening to "Haus Leipzig". Though another Italian project ARGINE didn't impress me so much, I was glad that I hadn't lost the evening in vain. "Neo-folk" concert prompted to contemplate the current status of the "neo-folk" scene, and the second concert confirmed my hypotheses absolutely. It seems that traditional "neo-folk", played with acoustic guitars, got exhausted as well as the bands playing that style of music, and they started seeking for another sound to express their ideology. MONDGLANZ, SPIRITUAL FRONT, ARGINE and KNIFELADDER, SCIVIAS that played the next day, sounded totally differently than in their records and earlier shows. Bands leave traditional "neo-folk" sound for rock music or even "industrial" or "ambient" sound culture. With such contemplations I reached my sleeping bag and fell asleep, because the next day promised even more.

Sunday at "Wave Gotik Treffen" was surely the main day of the festival for the fans of the "industrial" music style. "Werk II hale A" hall was dedicated to the projects of the Swedish "Cold Meat Industry" release mafia. This year the Swedes presented to the audience several bands that had participated last year: DEUTSCH NEPAL, COPH NIA, IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES. Other - SKIN AREA, ATRIUM CARCERI, SEPHIROTH, SANCTUM didn't play last year. Besides, IRM loonies, that make performances quite rarely, had to take part at the concert too. In order not to miss interesting merchandise, that is swept from the stalls at the CMI fair long before the beginning of the concert, I was one of the first at the "Werk II" hall. But the Swedish snakes didn't bring the intriguing merchandise, so I spent my money for beer. Soon the show started. Traditionally FETISH 23 that make video installations for the CMI mafia are at the beginning. A guy was mixing images to hard, Swedish-specific "industrial-ambient" sounds. As well as the aesthetics of sound, CMI video aesthetics has its' particular style, that the others could not imitate even if they wanted to. Awful naturalism of nature, images of wastelands and places abandoned by civilization combined with decaying and perishing symbols of religion and cult create particularly suggestive and shocking atmosphere. I remember the pictures how human corpses are utilized in the East especially well. They are chopped into pieces with a big knife and fed to a hungry army of vultures. Video lasted more than half an hour, and after a short break the project called SKIN AREA, that had joint CMI mafia family not long ago, started their show. Unless I am mistaken, the joint company of the members of IRM and BLOT are playing in the project. SKIN AREA started the marathon of the concert with a great improvisation in the styles of "noise" and "power electronics". One guy was beating a drum, and the other two were loading a prepared track with various sounds distorted by special effects. I was especially impressed by the black and white video. It demonstrated the reality of life of hens - remorseless fight for food and other peculiarities of the behaviour of domestic birds that are bred for food. Particularly impressive was a horrible sight where a healthy hen was cruelly persecuting another hen that had only one leg and mercilessly striking its head. SKIN AREA exactly evaluated the length of the show. It was quite short. That is why the message didn't loose its significance. Another project made listeners sink into deep "ambient". ATRIUM CARCERI is also one of the most recent members of the CMI mafia. For me personally the music of that project sounds much better in a CD than live. Besides, a Venetian mask didn't suit the performer at all.

Not only the old fans were waiting for the show of the third artist. I heard that a lot of people came to hear the legend alive and they were surely shocked. The creator of the project DEUTSCH NEPAL Lina Baby Doll had consumed plenty of beer before the show and took some bottles on the stage. The show began. The hall was full, but this year not so many people were watching the show in comparison with the last year. That was a great advantage for one could take photos of the artists from various positions. Lina was playing his program that was savouring of alcoholic delirium. It's psychedelic core was compound of the tracks from the albums " A Silent Siege" and "The City of Stone", but they were presented from a new point of view as usually. Lina manipulates with two microphones and an effect of delay/reverb, which provides his vocals with charm of fatal agony. Whole behaviour of the genius testified the fatigue of life. I should notice that the music of Lina becomes more and more fatal. Besides, DEUTSCH NEPAL was demonstrating a new video. All the projection constituted of five static images that were changing. Each image was made of two symmetrical and similar objects next to each other, usually terrifying psychedelic collages. A crucifix from human fingers, a plant made from the parts of a human body, huge blossoms reminding more of horrible creatures from dreams resembled for me dark medieval paintings of Bosch. It is stupid that most of the audience stressed that the artist was drunk as usually. Is it so difficult to realize that inebriety is the essence of Lina's sincerity that makes DEUTSCH NEPAL to be what it is?

If the show of DEUTSCH NEPAL could be described as an unpredictably scary, irrationally shamanistic attempt of brutally controlled sound, then the project called SEPHIROTH, that played afterwards, was totally inverse. I hadn't seen the project live when I read that it was perhaps the most technical CMI project, especially precise when playing live. Ulf Soderberg's show confirmed that. If Lina was an evil shaman who poisoined the audience with his darkest hallucinations, then Ulf was a doctor who healed the listeners with his particularly deep "ambient", powerful, northern, optimistic "tribal" rhythm. I was in thrall by the accuracy how Udo controls his equipment and uses it to manipulate the audience. This artist received a lot of applause during his performance, and he obviously deserved that. Beyond doubt it is also the most beautiful and dreamy project of the CMI scene this year. His show was an entire remarkably fascinating moment of refreshing music, the impact of which was reinforced by the impressive video, where images of nature were tastefully complemented by sacral symbols. SEPHIROTH were followed by no weaker project called COPH NIA. The author of the latter project creates very magnificent and mystical atmosphere. Subtle "industrial" rhythmic background appended to powerful live rhythms of drums, and Alderon's mystical texts declared psychedelic truths, that are comprehensible only to prophets. Video takes a special place in the aesthetics of COPH NIA. Psychedelic combinations of colours, cabalistic pentagrams, even images of the kingdom of the weird dwarf from D.Lynch's serial "Twin Peaks" left no one indifferent. With no doubt, SEPHIROTH and COPH NIA were the core of the festival.

Another project named SANCTUM presented a bunch of their new tracks. The show of the band was pompous. During the show the audience were raging perhaps most of all, but the music didn't catch me. I hardly accept the construction of compositions that is typical for metal bands, and SANCTUM like that kind of composition so much. Besides that, the vocalists use no effects for distorting the voice. I also missed singing female vocalists. Owing to them some old band's tracks had extraordinary witching charm. In a middle of the show I left the hall and spent some time drinking beer and watching P.Andersson's (RAISON D'ETRE) performance at the CMI fair, where he demonstrated the perfect way to pack a CD. Peter took his trousers off and squeezed the CD deep in his backside. The trick was successful, and some girl bought the CD. Peter commented that success lies in the smell obtained by the CD. I came back to the hall when IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES were smashing the room of the factory, where "Werk II" was set up, with extremely powerful press. I don't know how to describe the music of the project more precisely. I had an impression that no one had ever created more powerful rhythm. IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES are more times superior live than in their records, and they belong to these CMI projects that don't need video. Although it wasn't imposing, the show didn't loose its' charm and power.

CMI evening was finished by one of the most distinct "power electronics" projects in the world, that make live performances quite rarely - IRM. The project is famous for theatricalized performances, that usually accompany their shows. At the festival "Wave Gotik Treffen" the guys also made a bloody show. There is no need to say that IRM performance was without video projection. While one guy was creating musical background at various electronic boxes, the other one brought a portable refrigerator full of birds' blood (the stink of blood spread in the hall; therefore, the female part of the audience considerably decreased), and spattered all the stage with blood. The guy was rolling in the red liquid for quite a long time, and was perfectly screaming to the microphone. The voice was distorted using the effect, characteristic only to IRM. The culmination of the show was at the end, when the vocalist was repeating the name "Sebastian" many times as a mantra, and the name perhaps had to remind of the noted Christian martyr. IRM show was faultless, but the illumination was rather poor.

After the show all the lights in the hall were turned on. I painfully realized that the main concert of the festival had finished. That fact terribly disintegrated the mood, created by the CMI bands, and I left the hall bursting with anger. How not to become angry when your favourite drugs end up? I left the hall considering suicide, but unexpectedly I met the guys from STEINKLANG INDUSTRIES, an Austrian release company. We drank some mead and I cheered up a little. Latter on I was taken to "Agra" where some glasses of absent returned my spiritual stability… the next morning. Having realized that the main pleasure had finished and I would have to suffer abstention for a long time, as CMI bands don't play live in the provincial Baltic states often, I started waiting for the apologists of the psychedelics - COIL, that had to crown the concert of the Monday evening at the "Haus Leipzig" hall. I have found strange that COIL were the culmination of the show of "neo-folk" bands. But as I saw later, stylistic difference was more than obvious.

On Monday I tried my best to be on time at the concert, and this time I was presented with a great show. KNIFELADDER started the concert, and although the stylistics of this band is characterized as "neo-folk", I found it closer to the "industrial" style. I hadn't heard any records of KNIFELADDER earlier, but their live show was strikingly attractive. Dozens of harsh samples, bass guitar heavily filtered through various effects, and powerful and diverse drum rhythms that the vocalist was beating almost tirelessly. The vocalist's way of singing was also very interesting, reminding of a mad Indian screaming his war songs in ecstasy. Sometimes the vocalist started a track with shamanistic vocal manipulations. The band had no video, but they didn't need one to reinforce their songs, that were driving to savage trance. KNIFELADDER were singing about an unadorned, real world: ferocious and perversive with violence as it's main feature. The spirits of the music somewhat reminded of uncompromising BOYD RICE or even BRAINBOMS' masterpieces of cultural terrorism. I would call KNIFELADDER the main discovery of the festival, so I made up my mind to find the band's records.

After a break, a weirdly dressed triplet appeared on the stage. Strangely, although tastefully looking archaic uniforms asked me a riddle, where is this band from, because I had never been too much interested in SCIVIAS. At the beginning I supposed that they were Austrian, Swiss or Italian, but according to the style of music, that was particularly unconventional and original "industrial ambient", and to the sparse words, that the vocalist pronounced, I could not identify their Hungarian nationality. The music was absolutely atmospheric, and although it seemed for me at the beginning, that the vocalist beats a drum quite sluggishly in comparison with KNIFELADDER, the spirit of the tracks immersed me easily. The sound was particularly imposing when the bass-player put his guitar aside and started blowing some exotic horn, thus creating especially interesting and archaic mood. SCIVIAS were my second discovery from "neo-folk" scene, and I became completely sure that "neo-folk" bands of the new generation abandon traditional sound with an acoustic guitar as it's main instrument. The Hungarian show was finished with a very expressive track, during which the musician broke nearly all released strings of a bass guitar. At the end, SCIVIAS freezed as statues with their hands joint on the back, in their exotic uniforms, and "ambient" sounds ended the last expressive track. SCIVIAS were followed by two more "neo-folk" bands - NAEVUS and FORSETI. These propagate traditional "neo-folk", and because of exhaustion or after the Hungarian "industrial" I got bored of calm music and left the hall.

Just after the show of FORSETI, I reserved a place right by the stage in the very middle in order to see the psychedelic theater of COIL well enough. COIL's preparations were twice as long as of any other project. There was awfully hot in the hall and I experienced great discomfort feeling sweat flowing down my body. Only guys from COIL's filming group made my waiting seem shorter. Their exotic clothing, tattoos, paunee combs on their heads left no doubts about their sexual orientation. The third member of the COIL's crew, preparing the stage for the concert, reinforced the impression. The hands blue with tattoos, a cap that was popular among gangsters in fifties on a bald head, a white scarf waving from a pocket almost to the ground - everything pointed that they are PEDERASTS. Pederasts with the first capital letter, that are naturally as they are, that belong to that specific subculture and boldly demonstrate attributes of that different culture. An acquaitance of mine standing by me gave a very accurate notice that they are the heroes of J.Genet and it is impossible to confuse their dependence. Those creatures deserve respect for being real. They are not bisexuals inspired by fashion of the times, career, disappointment in female sex, and other reasons. They are another kind of people, marked with another kind of nature. After a long break, having brought mountains of electronic equipment, powerful "Apple" notebooks, and other exotic instruments, COIL started with the themes from the album "Music to Play in the Dark". A video installation was showed using three projectors, two of them imitated snow on the side walls of the hall, and the third one demonstrated kaleidoscopic ornaments, that are characteristic only to the aesthetics of COIL, obviously symbolizing reality distorted by LSD. Both P.Cristopherson and a member of THIGPAULSANDRA, whose name I don't remember, perfectly accompanied each other with various effects, and a guy in the middle of the hall was playing perhaps the most exotic instrument at the festival - a huge electronic xylophone. COIL's vocalist J.Balance came up the stage the last. Dressed in a very strange suit, with long hair and mustache (I couldn't identify, if their were affixed or his own), dancing without coordination as a mad king, J.Balance started singing. Madman John's dances followed every song. Sometimes they were like of a ballet dancer, and sometimes like of a mental patient, whose limbs suddenly refuse to obey him. He was drawing threads out of his worn-out white suit, reminding of a straitjacket, and playing with them. Sometimes J.Balance fell on the ground and was convulsing and panting unintelligible words. But the truth was coming from the lips of a madman. One of the tracks, that made some "neo-folk" fans dressed in military uniforms evacuate from the hall, sounded something like: "I am a pederastic boy". J.Balance accompanied himself with miniature stringed instrument, the sound of which suited insanity emanating from his eyes very well. A burst of applause followed the track from the repertoire of the well known CURRENT 93 called "All the Pretty Horses". Astonishing psychedelic videos supplemented cold electronic compositions. In Leipzig, as well as in Köningsberg, COIL placed the main stress in the last track of the show. The last track was the longest, the most aggressive, expressing insane and merciless truth of  "ignorance". J.Balance was screaming to the audience about children. The text was something like: "Do you know what is your children??? Do you know what do they need???" I don't remember the text in detail, but the track was laced with crushing spirit of agnosticism, and when it was finished, the audience showered COIL with applause not for their professionalism, that was beyond doubt whether or no, but for the end of the attack of existential horror. "Neo-folk" concert finished with gloomy psychedelic visions. The audience invited COIL for a bis, but they didn't show up the stage.

When I left "Haus-Leipzig", it was raining. The rain refreshed me a bit from exhaustion that accumulated during five days at the festival. I just entered a room at a hotel and fell asleep, because the other day a 16 hours long journey home was waiting for us. On Tuesday afternoon we left Leipzig, and drove into Poland after a few hours. Polish ways are infinite "Mad Max". Somewhere emergency services were cutting a brand-new "Mercedes Benz", and sacks with bloody contents were lying besides, somewhere a dead horse was lying among wrecks of an automobile. And never-ending trucks, mercilessly threatening to smash your car to smithereens. There was enough of stress not to sleep for a whole journey. When we came to Lithuania, even corrupt policemen, hiding by the road and hunting for money, didn't irritate us. Back in Vilnius I was tortured for quite a long time by that great cultural contrast, that I experienced comparing my impressions of the thirteenth "Wave Gotik Treffen" and pitiable mass events in Lithuania.

Written by Lashisha, translated by Alwyda, 2004-07-23