MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live shows

Maybe, in a couple of years - if you allow me to be uncharacteristically optimistic for a moment -, when we'll look back on 2021 in regards of live music, we'll be able to say that it was the first of two transitional years of things going back to normal.

It took me more than two thirds of it though, to visit a show again - seated and with masks, when you wanted to move, but a great show nonetheless. Until then pre-recorded session streams and actual live internet broadcasts had to suffice - and they sometimes reached an incredible level of quality.

And just like in "real" life there's no way to ignore Roadburn, because Roadburn Redux not only gifted us incredible live performances like a monumental set from Neptunian Maximalism and the incredibly moving commissioned piece "This Shame Should Not Be Mine" from Gold, or amazing prepared streams from Steve von Till, Nadja, Knoll and many more, but it also became a true collective experience through social media and its own website.

The most memorable other streams were Voivod's two Hybercube Sessions, in which they performed their classic albums "Nothingface" and "Dimension Hatröss" in full with stellar performances and an absolutely jaw-dropping sound quality. In 2020 I was still too sceptical, so I missed the first of those three sessions, but I really hope those will see a Blu Ray release or something similar in the future.

Technically a rather standard TV session, yet musically so spectacular that it would be a crime not to honour it here, was Magma's ARTE performance of "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh".

It's simple unbelievable how on top of their game the French legends still weave their zeuhl magic!

All this can of course never be a full substitute of the real experience, but if shows aren't possible, I'll gladly take it!

Luckily - and who knows how long it will last? -, after nineteen long months without "real" live music, there was finally a silver lining on the horizon in September and I began to make up for lost time. At least enough to justify a top 7 list... (no extra category for festival shows though, because I've only been to one of those)

TOP 7 LIVE SHOWS 2021:

1. FRA DET ONDE - Musikhuset Dexter, Odense
   
   

   

   The best things in life are for free. Like this show of the Norwegian avant-garde free jazz trio Fra Det Onde, mixed and manipulated live on stage by Emil Nikolaisen. Their unbelievable jams presented music at its most adventurous and free-spirited. I had an absolute blast witnessing this - undoubtly one of my best life choices of this year to add this stop to my Denmark trip at short notice.
   
   
   
2. DOOL - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   After two years of pandemic delay Dool finally were granted the opportunity to play a proper release show for their second full-length album "Summerland", and the enthusiasm to be back on stage after that forced hiatus was the extra spice on top of an already ass-kicking masterclass in the dark side of rock'n'roll.
   
   
   
3. ARTHUR BROWN - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   Yes, it was Him, the true "God of Hellfire"! Like many other attendees of the Prophecy Fest I've never really considered seeing Arthur Brown live. I didn't even know that the 79 years young psychedelic proto hard rock pioneer was even still around. And boy, how he was - what a crazy great show!
   
      
   
   
4. MYRKUR - Musikhuset Aarhus
   
   

   

   Even though this wasn't my first Folkesange show, Myrkur's performance in the Symphonic hall of Aarhus still felt like a new magical revelation, as Amalie Bruun and her singers, drummers and string players seem to have grown a deeper connection to the beauty, but also the elementary otherworldy power of her acoustic material.
   
   
   
5. E-L-R - Prophecy Fest, Balve Cave
   
   
   
   Sludgy and post-metallic doom, which hypnotized through its slowly building repetition and above all the dreamlike harmonic vocals of both frontwomen, made the performance of the Swiss trio another truly mesmerizing experience!
   
   
   
6. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - Skt. Lukas Kirke, Aarhus
   
   
   
   Nothing to see at this show, as Anna and her bandmates played the pipe organ far above and behind the heads of the audience. So this concert was just about closing your eyes and wandering through the ancient haunted sound mazes of "All Thoughs Fly" in your imagination. A quite different, yet all the more memorable kind of show.
   
   
   
7. BADA - Hafenklang, Hamburg
   
   
   
   Call it drone, call it noise, call it purposely chaotic fun or majestic super heavy psych! It's all fine. What matters is that this Swedish group, which includes several members of Anna von Hausswolff's live band - including herself on keys -, is a mammothly morphing catalyst of decibel worshipping catharsis.

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live shows

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live albums

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 non-album releases

MUSIC 2021: TOP 21 albums

Danske Nætter (4/4) • FRA DET ONDE feat. EMIL NIKOLAISEN live at Musikhuset Dexter, Odense (Nov 19th 2021)

 

Fra Det Onde feat. Emil Nikolaisen

ALL FOUR PARTS OF MY DENMARK DIARY:

Danske Nætter (1/4) • SOEN and OCEAN HOARSE live in club Train, Århus (Nov 16th 2021)

Danske Nætter (2/4) • ANNA VON HAUSWOLFF live in Skt. Lukas Kirke, Århus (Nov 17th 2021)
Danske Nætter (3/4) • MYRKUR live in the Symfonisk Sal of Musikhuset Aarhus, Århus (Nov 18th 2021)
Danske Nætter (4/4) • FRA DET ONDE feat. EMIL NIKOLAISEN live at Musikhuset Dexter, Odense (Nov 19th 2021)

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After the relief of finally having figured out how the shower in my bathroom worked and eating those under-spiced scrambled eggs for the last time (hotel breakfasts are among the things which really suffer when you have diabetes), the day had a couple of unpleasant surprises in store for me. After checking out as late as possible I was on the middle of my over 20 minutes walk to the car (free parking is hard to find in Århus), when the holder of my shoulder strap broke and my travel bag smashed to the ground. After I got everything into my car I took a look at the near sailing harbour, where I discovered that the sole of my - not very old! - shoe was beginning to detach. Fuck.

Well, at least I was going to make a little detour and visit another Danish city anyway. So why not buy a couple of new shoes?

I think it was on Tuesday, between my personal church secession, buying provisions and packing, when I was first becoming aware of the Norwegian jazz trio Fra Det Onde having a gig in Odense. And since I absolutely love their debut EP, the idea of maybe adding this as another extra stop, didn't leave my head from then on. It meant maybe an hour of driving more, but then it was announced that the show was for free and it became an absolute no-brainer to go there.

And as soon as I arrived in Odense, karma was on my side again. If you just google for "free parking odense" you are shown one very specific street with maybe a dozen free parking lots at the wayside. I didn't even get there, because the last crossing was blocked by a construction site, but just before it there were a couple of free spaces, too. Not bad for the centre of the fourth biggest city of Denmark (Århus being the second biggest by the way).

 

Unfortunately I missed almost all of the good daylight for taking photographs, while I was driving, shoe-shopping and dining, so this was yet another day on which I didn't should many frames on film at all. So my main concern was just to take it easy and relax, until my mind and body were ready for the final show of this diversified week.

The Musikhuset Dexter is a cozy cool blues and jazz club, which didn't seem to even have a stage - until the middle wall of the room was folded together and a lot more little round tables plus the platform for the musicians appeared.
I took a front-row seat and noticed that the setup alone told you that this show was going to be a little different. Not only the drumkit was unorthodox and showcased drummer Olaf Olsen's complete trust in his cymbal stands, but what madman staples his bass gear like an upside-down pyramid?
Also a Rickenbacker bass isn't exactly the most common association which comes up when you think about jazz.

But when the show, which was split into two seperate sets with an intermission, started, it very quickly became undeniable, that there's a lot more insanity going on with Fra Det Onde than the eye can see.

Imagine an extremely free free jazz trio - drums, electric bass and trumpet, which most of time plays beyond the edge of what most people would perceive as "still music" and is mainly held together by very pronounced bass lines, while the drums just wildly swoosh around them (there's not much leading kick, which the miniature bass drum could provide anyway) and the trumpet floats and storms above both of them.

But now also imagine that those guys are just the marionettes of Emil Nikolaisen, the puppet master who live-mixes everything on stage, while manipulating the signals heavily and also adding synths here and there. It was a brilliant unhinged mess!
The long jams had moments of drone, sections of complete tohubohu, but also of unexpected smooth clarity. It was complete commitment to a creative headspace beyond any conventions, performed in a breathtaking, stunning and extremely entertaining matter.

It felt a little like applying the whole process of creating Miles Davis' electric phase albums in the mixing room to a live situation. And it also occured to me that Anna von Hausswolff's pipe organ show on Wednesday had an astonishingly similar concept, also with three players, whose signals were altered by a fourth man. What a specific coincidence!

Don't let my words be diminished by the fact that my live music year only started in September, but yes - Fra Det Onde played my favorite show of the year!

After this whirlwind the ride home was a good occasion to slow down with some funeral doom. I so seldom sit in the car long enough to listen to the whole Bell Witch "Mirror Reaper" song / album.

Afterwards I crossed the border with Clipping., refueled with Emma Ruth Rundle, and that was it. My four shows in a row November vacation. Because why not?

Tak Danmark!

MUSIC 2020: my favorite live albums and EPs

Oh no, yet another end-of-the-year list category which makes me cry inside! Well, let's be grateful that at least we have the conserved memories of times when music was performed live in front of an audience, ok?

I've already covered quite a bunch of live releases in my recommended streams and favorite downloads, but now it's time to get physical with some actually touchable records.

But first let's warm up with a ranking of the best short albums / long singles (or whatever your preferred definition of an EP is) of 2020!

TOP 7 EPs:

1. VOIVOD - The End Of Dormancy
   
   
   

   With two recordings of a modified version of an already known song (studio and live) plus the live performance of a "Nothingface" classic that's been played at most shows of the last thirty years, this EP clearly doesn't win this ranking by quantity of new original material. But the vintage movie style brass treatment of "The End of Dormancy" from "The Wake", which is already one of the greatest musical journeys in Voivod's history is just just too perfectly executed. More of that jazz please!
   
   
   
2. -S- - Zabijanie Czasu I
   
   
   

   This I, Voidhanger Records release could already have been included in my favorite downloads, but since a CD version of this EP exists, I'm letting it co-lead the field here. Sporting bass, drums, vocals and clarinet this Polish group calls its style "Dark Occvult Funk", which is an astonishingly apt description of the weird mix of jazz, contemporary classic, punk, post rock and extreme metal on display on this twenty-six-minutes-track. Sick shit!
     
   
   
3. ZEAL AND ARDOR - Wake Of A Nation
   
   
   
   Powerful. That's the description you get if you want to sum up the whole message, concept and musical realization of this EP in just one word. While the songwriting and performances of Manuel Gagneux' black metal meets blues meets gospel meets electronic etc. project keeps getting more refined and mature with each release, "Wake Of A Nation" also dials up the honesty and urgency by stepping away from the alternative history of its predecessors and reacting directly to racist police violence and the direct thematization of events concerning the Black Experience like the syphilis experiments of Tuskegee.
   
   
   
4. MONO & A.A.WILLIAMS - Exit In Darkness
   
   
   

   Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
   The combination of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist A.A. Williams and Japanese post rock monumentalists Mono proved to be a meeting of minds and souls that could hardly have resulted in something more beautiful than this 10" EP. The calm patience and deep substantial emotion of these two tracks is a peaceful dream we didn't know we would need so badly, back in January, when "Exit In Darkness" came out.
   
   
   
5. THE END - Nedresa
   
   
   

   Even being a little bit more accessible and straightforward than on their debut album, The End keep establishing themselves as an extra-weird, unique brand of avant-garde jazz/prog/noise fusion on this two-track 10" EP. While almost guaranteed by the involvement of saxophon animal Mats Gustafsson, it's mostly due to Sofia Jernberg's as eclectic as technically impressive vocal performance that the Swedish quintet's music explodes with delightful insanity.  
   
   
   
6. FRA DET ONDE - feat. the Legendary Emil Nikolaisen
   
   
   

   Is this a blizzard or a firestorm? One thing's for sure: Whatever this Norwegian electric free jazz fusion trio unleashes with drums, bass and trumpet here, is guaranteed  to kick you out of your shoes if you don't brace yourself. Yet another proof that the psych and kraut label El Paraiso Records always kills the most, when its releases are going full jazz.
   
   
   
   
7. LOUISE LEMÓN - Devil
   
   
   

   Within 2020's turmoil the gothic-ish soul of Louise Lemón somehow feels like a blissful caring hug, probably even in moments when it's not even supposed to do that. But the Swedish singer's warm voice and the seemingly simple beauty of her songs is just a too irresistable island for the heart to rest a while. Most times I listen to this I immediately repeat the whole EP at least once.
   
   
   
   
   

TOP 6 LIVE ALBUMS:

1. TRIPTYKON with the METROPOLE ORKEST - Requiem (Live At Roadburn 2019)
   
   
   
   "What Triptykon have achieved here is highly remarkable and should be the universally accepted benchmark for artistic integrity and adventurous courage in any future metal / orchestra production from whoever, regardless of budget or subgenre." 
   This conclusion of my review still stands. It was a long journey from Celtic Frost's "Into The Pandemonium" to the completion of this piece for Roadburn Festival 2019, but there's no doubt that it was entirely worth the wait. In my book this is one of the most essential live recordings ever made from any metal band. Definitely worth the deluxe artbook version with vinyl, CD, DVD, bonus 7" and more extras. 
   
   
   
2. LAIBACH - Bremenmarsch: Live at Schlachthof 12.10.1987
   
   
   
   There are already plenty of Laibach live bootlegs and a couple of official releases from the 1980s around, so one could have assumed that the market for that is pretty much saturated. But who would have thought that a performance from the golden "Opus Dei" / "Macbeth" times of this phenomenal sound quality could be unearthed from the Radio Bremen archives?
   But not only the production is great here. The  show itself - with extra musicians from a theater performance the day before - is punishingly ferocious and at the same time creative and playful as fuck. Essential!
   
   

   

   Also very much worth to be honorably mentioned here is another Laibach live album, which digs even deeper into the Slovenians' past. As far as I know "Underground", a special Vier Personen performance of early years classics like "Boji", Siemens" or "Smrt Za Smrt" inside a mining tunnel in 2012, isn't available on its own though, but remains one of several good reasons to purchase the gargantuan "Laibach Revisited" box. 
   
   
   
3. ZOLA JESUS - Live At Roadburn 2018
   
   
   
   Capturing one of the most significant shows of the in my book probably strongest Roadburn edition so far and pressed on some of the most beautiful vinyl editions of 2020, this double album is a treasure inside and outside.
   Even if me experiencing it in the flesh from the center of the first row might make me a bit biased, I dare to say that the special energy of this performance for both audience and Zola Jesus herself can be felt in every moment of "Live At Roadburn 2018".
   
   
   
   
4. SENYAWA & STEPHEN O'MALLEY - Bima Makti
   
   
   
   Does this fully count as a live album? Because I suppose it's based on a live show and improved with overdubs afterwards? But who truly cares about these technicalities, when there is such a stunning gathering of ethnic and metallic drone mastership? With flutes, elements of Gamelan music and the weird vocal wanderings of Rully Shabara the Indonesian duo and the Sunn O))) guitarist  find a unique, rich, storytelling and spiritually deep tone that makes "Bima Sakti" a timeless genre masterpiece.
   
   
   
   
5. MYTHIC SUNSHIP - Changing Shapes - Live At Roadburn
   
   
   

   Recorded not only at the same festival, but also at the exact same time as Triptykon's "Requiem" the only thing the two performances clearly have in common is that they could both be descrived as monolithic in their own distinct ways. Danish fuzz wizards Mythic Sunship teamed up with "Another Shape Of Psychedelic Music" guest saxophonist Søren Skov again to recreate the feeling of said double album without sticking to the script of its songs - and boy, recreate they did! A seemless fusion of heavy psych rock with free jazz elements. 
   
   
   
   
6. KONSTRUKT & OTOMO YOSHIHIDE - Eastern Saga: Live At Tusk
   
   
   
   I think by now it's safe to say that any cooperative record the Turkish experimental free jazzers Konstrukt unleash into the wild via Karlrecords can be expected to kill it.
   This time it's a festival show they played together with Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide in the UK in 2018, which shows no willingness to let either your body nor your mind rest. With two six-string players and two drummers the oriental and blatantly jazzier aspects are sometimes forced to take a backseat in favor of raw noise rock power, but as a whole these two improvisations make a very cohesive - and with all its inherent craziness still relatively accessible - avant-garde music record.
   
   
   

FRA DET ONDE - feat. the Legendary Emil Nikolaisen

Shortly after (or in my case purchased together with) the Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt Duo's wild melange of jazz, kraut rock, folk and electro on "The Discipline Of Assent" El Paraiso Records follows up with another session recording, which is absolutely on fire.

It's a rather short affair spinning on 45 rpm, but fuck yeah, what a jam...

FRA DET ONDE - feat. the Legendary Emil Nikolaisen (LP) (2020)

At first it seems almost unbelievable that aforementioned fire was lit surrounded by a truly Norwegian outer temperature of minus sixteen degrees Celsius.
On the other hand thinking about it a little bit longer, the need to shake off the bone-chilling cold could be a critical explanation for the relentless drive of this recording.

But don't let yourself be fooled by the powerful rawness of the drums and the thickly snarling Rickenbacker bass sound into believing that this EP has a rock music ratio even remotely comparable to the Rude / Skøtt release!

No, at it's core ninety percent of this is pure jazz! Or electric free jazz, if you want to be more specific.

And the trio of Olaf Olsen (drums), Rune Nergaard (bass) and trumpeter Erik Kimestad Pedersen plays it hard and fast and passionate, but without stepping over into hard rock territory, even though the musical backgrounds to pull that off are there. Fra Det Onde however stay very much true to the spirit of the later, "harder accessible" works of the John Coltrane Quartet and its music-historical spawn.

The production is extremely hands-on in openly affecting the music through excentric mixing choices and tickling the equipment to resound and moan. It's hard to grasp what exactly is happening here, but it is of such important that producer Emil Nikolaisen's name is in the freaking title of the EP.

The overall result at the same time exudes a traditional familiarity and an adventurous modern excitement. I can easily see myself spinning this gem back to back with the likes of Miles' "Dark Magus" oder Trane's "Meditations" without being let down in the slightest.

Or in other words: This free jazz fusion blizzard is a complete ripper!