Tag Archive: Ravenna


THE DESERT BLUES OF TINARIWEN

Filed under: Music, Politics — 1 Comment
April 18, 2012

TINARIWEN live at the Bronson Club, Ravenna 16th April 2012

There aren’t many live shows you can truly call spectacular but this the word that most accurately describes the mind-blowing ninety minute set Tinariwen played at this small, packed venue.

Dressed head to toe in desert robes (thawbs) the five performers both look and sound amazing.

While this is a band with good reason to sing the blues I was struck by how upbeat and joyous their music was.

NPR described their sound as “trance music with attitude” since while the vocals are plaintive and melancholy, the extraordinary guitar rhythms are hypnotic and energizing. It is electric blues is both familiar and singular – no Western band plays like this. Continue reading →

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REDHEAD ON A STREET WALL

Filed under: Italy, Modern Art, Photography — Leave a comment
March 24, 2012


I can never walk past some good street art (graffiti is too crude a word) without taking a photo and this is one great example from what would otherwise be an nondescript wall in Ravenna, Italy.

See my Flickr link for other shots from the same location.

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GROUPER SLEEP TRANSMISSIONS

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March 19, 2012

GROUPER   Almagià, Ravenna  17th March 2012 – Transmissions V Festival

Liz Harris (Grouper) buried in a sleepy haze.

This show was billed as a 6pm matinee performance by ‘Grouper Violet Replacement’  incorporating the title of Liz Harris’ new self released album as if this were her new extended stage name.

Violet Replacement  has the longest tracks she has recorded to date  – two tracks with a total playing time of 88 minutes 36 seconds.  The hard copy versions are released on two separate CDRs (I was disappointed that copies were not sale at the venue so have to be content with my MP3 downloads).

Cushions were provided at the venue to ensure that the audience absorbed the music either seated or lying.  With the subdued lighting, the atmosphere was more like a meditation session than a rock show.

Liz Harris has an appropriately Zen-like presence, calmly and impassively operating her stage tools (no visible laptop) in what I assume is a straight playback  of the longer of the new album  tracks called Sleep.  The only visuals are some muted white dots that swirl around like oversized fireflies.

A few of the 50 or so listeners took the title literally as an invitation for a late afternoon nap and the soporific quality is, I imagine, deliberate.

This is the kind of pure, soothing  and sedative ambient music that has the same cleansing and restorative effect as you experience after a good night’s slumber.

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APPLES IN THE DARK

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March 18, 2012

TIM HECKER + PAN•AMERICAN

Almagià, Ravenna  16th March 2012 – Transmissions V Festival

Mark Nelson and glowing Apple.

Of these two acts, Montreal’s Tim Hecker is the one I expected to like more.  I’m certainly more familiar with his recordings. But Hecker takes no consideration of the fact that he is working in front of a paying audience rather than in his own studio or bedroom. In the semi gloom with no visual backdrop, he’s just a man staring at his Macbook. Not only that but he looks like he’s rather be somewhere else. When setting up his equipment he is visibly, and justifiably, pissed off with the imbeciles who train the cameras on him without having the courtesy to turn off the flash.

When he begins a continuous 40 minute piece, it starts promisingly with digital bell-like effect but this morphs into anonymous and, for me, un-engaging sludge of beat-less computer generated sound waves. The subdued applause at the end indicated that I was not alone in being so underwhelmed. Hecker grabbed his backpack and exited stage front in the manner of John McEnroe after losing a match featuring several disputed line calls.

Robert Henke‘s interesting article – Live Performance in the Age of Super Computering contains a quote which is relevant in the light of Hecker’s ‘performance’ :  “What we see is that glowing apple in the darkness and a person doing something we cannot figure out even if we are very familiar with the available tools. This scenario is not only unsatisfying for the audience but also for the performing composer”. 

It is something of a relief to see real instruments alongside the laptop for the appearance of Pan•American. This is the solo project of Mark Nelson, guitarist with post-rock band Labradford from Richmond, Virginia . For this show he has a drummer to add some soft percussive support (the kind of understated drumming you could play at home without that wouldn’t disturb the neighbors).  Nelson alternates between computer and guitar and creates the kind of hazy ambience that is as different from the preceding act as a warm hug is from  a formal handshake. Enthusiastic applause follows.

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JAPANESE STORM HITS RAVENNA

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March 17, 2012

Keijo Haino at Transmissions V festival, Teatro Rasi, Ravenna

Any music aficionado’s list of artists to see before you die should include Keijo Haino (灰野敬二).

The show I witnessed at Teatro Rasi, Ravenna was the second time I have been fortunate enough to witness his mind-blowing performance art.

He remains a complete enigma and one of the few musicians you could truly describe as a one-off.

He doesn’t really sing but produces a series of high-pitched shrieks, screams, squeals together with more guttural grunts, some of which sound like death rattles.

Using delay pedals this range of sounds are multi-layered to punctuate what can best be described guitar abuse. The result is a perfect storm of electric blues, improvisation, avant-garde heavy metal and pure noise.

Haino seems indifferent to whether you like or loathe what he does so it feels redundant to even say if you think his music good or bad. this is simply a sonic adventure to experience and marvel at.

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