NEXT 2014: Fifteen years of bold adventures
Fifteen years is a respectable age, especially when we are talking about a festival in the Slovak cultural space focused on experimental, improvised and other exploratory sonic approaches. Bratislava's NEXT has endured various unexpected cuts, that are impossible to avoid in our cultural environment, but has never relaxed from its specific, radical dramaturgy. Dramaturgy without artificial borders, always operating within various extremes, sometimes even faux-pas, which are a natural consequence of every experiment. NEXT has also been capable of fulfilling even the most demanding listening adventures and does not have any significant and fruitful competition in Slovakia. It is why the festival has always been lauded with strictly positive references, which is understandable on one side, on the other a fifteen year tradition can easily absorb any kind of critique.
A penchant for uncovering less known or unknown names on the scene, that have later succeeded on recognized labels setting the trends and the development of sonic experiments, is one of these positives. That is the case of Gábor Lázár (NEXT 2013 – new radical music from Hungary) and his critically acclaimed album I.L.S., released this year on Presto!?, which catapulted him to stand alongside the works of Lorenzo Senni, Evol, or Florian Hecker. Another example from last year are Valerio Tricoli's manipulations of a tape reel brought to perfection on his latest album Miseri Lares (2014, Pan), that should be included in the end of the year charts. A second distinct positive that everyone attending the sonic expedition guided by Rashad Becker can confirm, is a growing audience, a remarkably receptive crowd.
Newly introduced discussions, aptly enhancing the concerts, performances and installations by a didactic dimension, are also worth a mention. Multiple backgrounds and concepts of the artists were touched upon during these events, enabling the listeners to peek behind the sound structures and search for analogies in the oeuvres.
NEXT 2014 started off unconventionally in the dying space of Fuga. Only Anton Kaun managed to jerk her out of her deathbed spasm, a German noise performer going by the moniker Rumpeln. His physical expressions, a transition from static to dynamic enlivened by theatricality was a testament, that the “primitive” noise still holds its place in the contemporary hierarchy of various noise genres. Mason's suffering body still lives. Conversely, an approach to unexplored strategies was presented a day later in A4 by Myriam Bleau and her audiovisual project Soft Revolvers. The artists physicality intervenes even more explicitly in this opus, the process of creating a sonic show is literally live, based on the simple principle of rotation. Her manipulation of four spinning and flashing discs hints and the motion language of Djs, but unlike turntables, these discs are powered by hand (just like a teetotum toy). And so quiet passages or the sounds of rotating plastic on a wooden table, well known by every child, creep into algorithmic formulas. The boundaries between a functional game and sterile generativity is easily erased here. High expectations of the duo KTL were justified. Both gentlemen, whether Stephen O'Malley, whose name has to be said within the same breath as the magical formula Sunn O))) or Peter Rehberg, for whom the same applies with Editions Mego, are droning on various scenes since the 90's, and they know exactly when, where, why and how it should all sound. They are connected to a lifelong concept, attempting to be the loudest and the most intensive, simply to accentuate the physical properties of sound. Rehberg's static noise underbrush accumulates in the room, pierced inside out by O'Malley's harsh whizzing metal walls, reminiscent of slithering snakes leaving behind lingering in the ears until at least the next night. Everything depends on the atmosphere and the mood in front of the stage. Halfway through it seems as if the sound no longer has the space to flow and to imprint itself, a loop of it begins to stand still and the remainder a romantic terror stays hanging in the emptiness. Nevertheless, there is never enough of similar kinds of legendary drone projects in our zip code, and KTL contributed to NEXT with a necessary injection of life within this musical field.
Emptyset were supposed to be the salvation of Friday's punishment, Eduardo Raon. His “gentle” and “frenetic” stroking of the harp is maybe better suited to the city's Jazz festival, where this kind of obsession with an instrument would seem a lot more natural. Even an extensive description of the concept could not save it, it evaporated more and more with every single stroke. The salvation however did not arrive even in the form of Emptyset, despite their audiovisual attack lauded by superlatives in a number of reviews. An inflated set collapsed into itself, deflated and after a promising intro the specific sound of massive walls disappeared under the onslaught of more and more discharges. There was no variation allowing their trademark monstrous buzz to shine, moreover most parts followed the exact content of their studio albums, which effectively killed any moments of surprise or expectations of something yet unheard. Emptyset, their roots in dance music, are ranked among projects that visibly transcend the labels of dub and techno. We had the chances to see a few of them like Basic House or Roly Porter in A4 in the past. In this case it might be better for the organizers to look at an experiment from the dark side of pop culture references that retain an unconventional approach to their work.
Hammering the last nail into the coffins in the form of the festival derniere is something NEXT has been known for since the beginning. It is impossible to forget about Selvhenter and Thymolphthalein and the same can be said about Rashad Becker. In my humble opinion it was one of the most progressive, most bizarre and most transgressive experiences in the history of the festival (to be fair, I attended only six editions). It is clear from what has heard, that Becker is currently the ultimate sonic guru, meticulously working with sonic nuances following the example of microbiologists or nuclear chemists. A sonic archeologist and restorer in one person. This is how i imagine total control of sound, understanding of sound and the tweaking of conditions for an adventurous journey through constantly changing labyrinths all feel like. I said it before, that the way the crowd dived into these unpredictable depths is remarkable. It is unprecedented and pleasing at the same time.
Finally it is important to mention the solitary approach of the possibilities of the barytone saxophone of Georgy Bagdasarov and the analog set of Urbanfailure, that expertly filled the missing lively atmosphere of the festival.
Thanks to NEXT, for annually announcing more or less expected names, for trial and error reflected from various angles and most importantly for relentless regularity. Let's hope it stays in health for the next 15 years.
author ~ Jakub Juhás
photography ~ Jozef Čabo