Mr Holzer live at Tesla, Berlin 6. july 2007
The Klosterstrasse in Berlin is somehow situated in a Dutch backyard. Rem Koolhaas' creation that resulted in the Embassy to the Royal House of the Netherlands blocks the view to the Spree. But that is alright. According to international standards in the world of architecture the building is wellworth a visit. The area is Dutch enough to provide it with a feeling of homecoming, and immediately linked to that a soothing, almost romantic sense of expatriotism. Translated in radio language the Embassy could be considered a transmitter; I picked up waves, and transformed them into images.
The building where Tesla is to be found looks very noble. A flight of stairs lead to a small bordess. In this way the original habitants upon leaving their home maintained their elevated position, before descending on street level. In fact street level music is hard to be found once you have entered the building. But we like to be civilised every once and a while. This particular evenining Tesla promised to catapult me up into space.
Whoever built the Tesla building must have done it in a moment of Hallelujah. As soon as you open the big wooden doors there lies a shiny field in front of you,that makes one control the dark side of his shoes first. Then looking up from the poo-less zone an almost transparent hall promises to transcend the visitor. Earthly life vanishes, and celestial waves of silk dresses reach the ears. That's what Jesus felt shortly before he tripped of on his ascension.
Little would He have known that two mileniums later Mr. Holzer would have taken his place. Because there he was surrounded by little radio's that sung like dogs waiting for supper. I had come to see him perform. I am allowed to say " Hi Derek" to him, and so I did. Derek welcomed me back in Berlin. After some chitchatting I left him with the waining radio's. A few hours later I saw him perform in the cosy club space
I had seen Mr. Holzer perform at the first and second edition of the das kleine field recordings festival in Berlin. There his set up was little more than a laptop and a black box with buttons. The visual aspect of such a laptop performance was Derek handling those buttons while looking deep into the computer screen. What did he see beyond the sounds we heard? On some moments he completely relaxed and looked over the heads of the audience,scrutinising a far away horizon that only in his imagination must have had appeared behind our ears. At one point he looked intensely satisfied. I am sure he had heard some voices.
The building where Tesla is to be found looks very noble. A flight of stairs lead to a small bordess. In this way the original habitants upon leaving their home maintained their elevated position, before descending on street level. In fact street level music is hard to be found once you have entered the building. But we like to be civilised every once and a while. This particular evenining Tesla promised to catapult me up into space.
Whoever built the Tesla building must have done it in a moment of Hallelujah. As soon as you open the big wooden doors there lies a shiny field in front of you,that makes one control the dark side of his shoes first. Then looking up from the poo-less zone an almost transparent hall promises to transcend the visitor. Earthly life vanishes, and celestial waves of silk dresses reach the ears. That's what Jesus felt shortly before he tripped of on his ascension.
Little would He have known that two mileniums later Mr. Holzer would have taken his place. Because there he was surrounded by little radio's that sung like dogs waiting for supper. I had come to see him perform. I am allowed to say " Hi Derek" to him, and so I did. Derek welcomed me back in Berlin. After some chitchatting I left him with the waining radio's. A few hours later I saw him perform in the cosy club space
I had seen Mr. Holzer perform at the first and second edition of the das kleine field recordings festival in Berlin. There his set up was little more than a laptop and a black box with buttons. The visual aspect of such a laptop performance was Derek handling those buttons while looking deep into the computer screen. What did he see beyond the sounds we heard? On some moments he completely relaxed and looked over the heads of the audience,scrutinising a far away horizon that only in his imagination must have had appeared behind our ears. At one point he looked intensely satisfied. I am sure he had heard some voices.
picture by carsten stabenowIt needs radio knowledge to understand the attraction of distant voices that travel on waves invisible for us mortals. The set up in Tesla filled a table for four. From the last soundchecking echoos on I understood that I was about to enter a different sonic environment. Low frequencies he asked, and while the technician went for the low frequencies I observed the loudspeakers in each corner. Small loudspeakers with low frequencies are like tiny girls with big boobs, one tends to forget about loudspeakers once they come in sight.
Then the concert started: the artist very concentrated on his sounds, long wavey low sounds appeared out of a deep rumbling. I thought of the stretched version of the fifth of Beethoven: and heard the stretched out bimbomming of church bells. I liked the image, and was ready to flow with it. A wooden church in North American light in the midst of a green immaculate world. But no. Other equipment asked for attention, and Derek went tripping over it: crackling sounds filled the air. Such is the boy's dream of the secret world of radio: some times those crackles and whistles could make sense: a voice might call out from the very heart of it
The whole concert through the sounds meandered between one story and an other. I listened with a longing heart, wanted to hear theimage of the summer morning church bells again. For the firsttime since long I regretted that a concert finished. To be continued, I guess.