Live Performance Reviews - RIO Festival Carmaux Sep 2010

Festival Review,

dedicated to Parisian Metro Line 6 which ows me 105 Euros!!!

(the pics are low resolution, you will find better pics on the Traverses Magazine website or below)

Friday 17/09

Early start to catch the train Paris Toulouse at 7:55. There were some problems on my metro line recently and I’ve took the metro well in advance to be sure to be on time....that’s what I thought at least. The metro was a bit late, no big deal, but after two stations we were stuck for 5 minutes and then two stations later again for 5 minutes and so on and finally when I arrived on the platform the train was still there, but the doors already closed and then the train was leaving slowly Paris Montparnasse station with a couple of angry passengers who missed the train like me remaining on the platform.

Well, I went to the ticket counter and tried to change it, but it w as one of these cheap tickets I bought already 4 months ago and no way to get it changed. So I had to buy a real expensive ticket and over the top had to change 3 times. Anyway one hour later I was on direction RIO and the second train from Bordeaux to Toulouse was rather empty and I got a good nap to leave my frustration behind. No more problems from then on and I arrived just in time in Carmaux to catch the navette to the festival space. There were far less people in the bus compared to last year, which was confirmed once arriving on the festival ground.

Checking into the auberge and off to the first concert at 7 PM where I met Hugues ‘Sean Trane’ in the lobby of the concert hall.

Cap Decouverte

Maison De La Musique

Genevieve Foccroulle plays Anthony Braxton (Piano solo)

Not an easy start for a “rock” festival and I would have preferred to have heard her interview before the concert. Genevieve Foccroulle a Belgian classical trained pianist first met Anthony Braxton in Brussels in 2003 and at his request she worked on the complete recording of Braxton’s piano compositions between 2004 and 2007. She presented one of these compositions during this concert. It was a monoblock of about one hour consisting of small independent units that can be played in any given order decided by the interpret. The pieces consisted mainly on rhythm and textures with predefined dynamics. As she explained later on she is used to play all acoustic and the amplified miked sound of the piano was not very nuanced, making the composition sometimes a bit dull to hear, with most of the subtleties drowned by the amp system. Anyway an interesting and daring opener for a RIO festival, even so the audience reacted only with polite applause.

A short break followed by the interview with Genevieve Foccroulle(all interviews were animated and translated by Aymeric Leroy) which was highly interesting and she gave infos about the music and the circumstances of her work with Anthony Braxton.

Saying hello to Marcello and the other guys from Yugen who had like last year a stand in the lobby to present the AltoRock label and I bought right away the new Picchio Dal Pozzo live record, (recorded together with Yugen) which is excellent BTW. The record was on presale during the RIO festival, so you have to wait a little…. and off for the second concert:

Caspar Brötzmann Massaker

son of Peter Brötzmann , the famous Free Jazz veteran who was going to play on Saturday he played in a classic rock trio format (Caspar Brötzmann : guitar, Danny Arnold Lommen :batterie, Eduardo Delgado Lopez : bass ) mainly, rhythm and textures (and absence of melodies) even so a different sonic experience then GF solo piano concert a similar approach. Bass and drums deliver a martial angular rhythmic over which Caspar Brötzmann lays his overtone and feedback saturated textures. Again as for the first concert, once you get used to the complete absence of melodic material you can immerse into the fascinating sound world of the trio. I had a quite long chat with Caspar Brötzmann the next morning where I got some insight on his music. Being a guitar player myself I was intrigued by the fact that Caspar Brötzmann plays a left-handed Stratocaster as a right-hander without changing the strings which makes him play the guitar upside down. He explained to me that he discovered some twenty years ago by chance that he got better control over overtones that way and played since then a left-handed strato. He is a very sensitive musician and even so the apparent influence pointed to Hendrix his main influence was Jimmy Page and Led Zep. The controversial comments I heard after the concert showed clearly how difficult it is for a lot of fans to miss melodic material.

Small break and interview with Caspar Brötzmann, Aymeric Leroy who was animating and translating all interviews had some trouble to get Caspar Brötzmann to speak. He wasn’t in a very good shape either and kind of excused himself preferring to let speak his music for him.

I met Victor ‘Victor 77’ and his father from Barcelona for the third time during the RIO and said also hello to Remi Leclerc (Miriodor drummer on the Miriodor stand).

After a backed potato with ham and sour cream (BTW the food quality has much improved compared to the last two festivals) back to the concert room for the last concert:

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

This was kind of the first real RIO band this evening and even so one of the band members arrived just an hour before the concert it was a great show. The theatrical aspects of the show like costums, make-up, futuristic ballet go well together with their music a mixture of AvantProg and Death Metal (the Cookie monster vocals are an acquired taste even so the lyrics are far more sophisticated thenb the average DM band), BTW their concert reminded me The Jerseyband I saw in march in concert with a similar musical approach and a similar stage show.

Interview with SGM by Aymeric Leroy

SGM stand, best looking T-Shirt BTW

Saturday 18/09

A look out the window and even so bad weather was announced the sky looked quite clear and finally the sun came out and stayed for the day. At 11 AM projection of the film Romantic Warriors at the auberge. An interesting 90 min long documentary about Prog with the main accent on the US prog scene including detailed portraits of Orion Studios, Cuneiform Records, ProgDay and Nearfest and featuring performances and interviews with Cheer Accident, Phideaux, DFA,Masquera Di Cera, Deluge Grander and others. Interesting but a little too long for my taste. BTW the DVD is on sale.

After an interview with SGM the concert schedule started with the French band:

Aquaserge ( a French Pun "A Quoi Sers Je" = What Am I Good For) 3:30 PM

I quite liked their first record and was a little disappointed of their show, a mixture of Canterbury, Psychedelic and Westcoast featuring two drummers. Good ideas, but too retro and musically not very challenging. They create a nice retro atmosphere and won the medal for the best 70’s haircuts. Time for a beer and then:

Thierry Zaboitzeff 5:30PM

Former Art Zoyd musician presented a solo show. Heaving been spoiled by last year’s fantastic Charles Hayward solo concert I was quite curious…and disappointed. TZ played a couple of Art Zoyd tracks and his own material, moving somewhere between AvantProg, World and New Age. My disappointment doesn’t came so much from the musical materiel itself but from the sounds he choose and the way he fiddled knobs nearly all the time changing between guitar, bass a homemade cello type instrument and samplers. His performance was a bit stiff and he was too concentrated on his equipment to let loose and give the music some bite.

Peter Brötzmann, 8:30 PM

Father of Caspar, godfather of German Free Jazz and one of the major musicians of European improvised music, aged 69, delivered with his band Full Blast just that: a slap in the face. Peter BROETZMANN on saxophones, Marino PLIAKAS on Electric bass, Michael WERTMUELLER on drums and Mars WILLIAMS on saxophones with a special mention for Wertmüller’s drumming a perfect mix of sublitite and energy. While on record this kind of music can be slightly irritating it comes really lo live in concert. One hour of pure energy and no compromise: no melody, no harmony, no bass line, no rhythm pattern, just a flow of dense sound and 4 musicians listening to each other and creating instant sound.

Unlike his son, father Brötzmann wasn’t the most eloquent musician, but I must say that he looked exhausted after the concert. Time for another backed Potato and:

Gong 11PM

While the concert attendance wasn’t too great until now, the room was packed for Gong. Having seen them already last year in Paris for a disappointing concert I was wondering if the band would be more dynamique. Daevid Allan was in great form, playing the pothead pixie, so were Hillage and Giraudy, and the whole set got more energy then the one I saw in Paris. They played their “greatest hits” plus a few songs from the new record, but the whole atmosphere felt too retro and a bit dusty, the songs from the new record don’t reveal a change in mood and for me personally Gong’s psychedelia (space whisper included) sounds just dated.

The interview took place at 1:30PM and to say it shortly was hilarious. In a certain way I preferred the Gong interview to their concert. After the Brötzmann family, Aymeric Leroy was more than glad to have the Pothead Pixies as interview partners. Despite the late hour everybody was sheered and Daevid transformed every question into a hilarious solo show, including funny vocals and dialogues with a handpuppett of the mastrrheadpixie he had brought along.

Sunday 20/09

After a short night and a breakfast in the sun, (the weather got better and better) a second documentary was shown in the auberge, presenting the history of the Transparencies association who organizes now for over 20 years musical events in the area with the presence of artistical director Michel Besset.

Michel Besset, Roger Trigaux, on the right Daniel Dennis

Time to take a sunbath on this beautiful late summer day followed by a lunch with Hugues and then heading for the interview with the Art Bears Cutler and Frith, followed at 2PM by the first Sunday concert by:

Fred Bear, Chris Bear, Aymeric Leroy

Miriodor

Bernard Falaise with his new guitar

Bernard Falaise the guitar player had bad luck when he discovered that his Gibson SG had suffered badly from transport and the neck was broken. After some bitter tears Michel Besset went with him to a music shop and came back with a semi body Gibson, but as he told us later he had some trouble getting his usual control over the guitar and could’ quit manage to get his sound.

But this has nevertheless had no major influence on the excellent concert. Miriodor has not only released a couple of Prog masterworks but are also a great live band with lots of counterpoint galore, that sounds fascinatingingly easy when they play it, but believe me these guys can play!!!!! In terms of pure musicality it was my favourite concert. They should have played a bit later for my taste; the hall was only half full for their show.

Another sunbath on the lawn of the Maison de la musique and back in for:

Rational Diet from Belorussia,

I had had a chat with drummer Nikolay Semitko and he was quite nervous to play in such a big venue and he feared some problems with the sound check, but finally everything went fine and even so the band was under rehearsed (especially the singer who had intonation problems) they presented a nice concert with poetic passages.

Last rays of a beautiful sunset and welcome to:

Jannick Top’s Infernal Machina:stage is litten up in dark red and once on stage Jannick whispers with his soft bass voice, “less light please”…and drums and bass start to roar in Zeuhl fashion, soon joined by Klaus Blasquiz and Natalia Ermilova on vocals, Aurore Crevelier on piano and Jim Grandcamp on guitar. Fascinating start with the grounding Zeuhl bass of Jannick the great drumming of Jon Grandcamp, the deep voice of Klaus the high pitched Bulgarian style singing of Natalia Ermilova and the piano patterns of Aurore Crevelier (a part of the female voices and piano patterns were pre-recorded and some of the audience members seemed to feel “cheated” or at unease with this procedure). During the interview Jannick and Klaus explained both the way their music was build up and why they choose pre-recorded material) But after 15 minutes or so I must say that I got a little bored. There was no real development in the themes or secondary themes that would have added some variety.

Anyway an interesting concert followed by an interview of Jannick and Klaus who are very nice and smart and responded in a very polite and informative way to the sometimes slightly agressive audience questions.

One more coffee and time for the:

Parkins,Frith,Krause,Cutler,Slipp,Kihlstetd

Art Bears Songbook closing the festival and featuring the original threesome of Dagmar Krause (vocals) , who had replaced the seriously ill Jewlia Eisenberg in the last minute, Chris Cutler (drums) Fred Frith (bass, guitar and violin) plus Zeena Parkins (keyb), Carla Kihlstetd (Voc, violin) and Kristin Slipp (Vocals).

The band was on residence during five days and seen the result, they worked like hell to present this highly complex music. Apart from one or two false starts, giving way to some funny interludes, the band was very tight. (interesting parallel to the Kew Rhone project revival two years ago with Lisa Hermann, where the band was seriously under rehearsed They played two long medleys, the first one with songs from Hopes And Fears and Winter Songs and the second one from The World As It Is Today.

It’s awesome to see so much talent and beauty on stage. Dagmar’s voice, spoken or sung gave me goose-pimples right from the start and the concert was extraordinary. You felt a great complicity between all musicians, especially between the 3 singers and the concert was for me the highlight of the festival.

A standing ovation, an encore and it was the end of another great RIO festival.

Michel Besset came then on stage and presented the crew and announced next year’s festival with a RIO big band formed by Present/Univers Zero/Aranis as headliner.

Looking forward to RIO 4 next year!