Saturday night Sam, Noemi, and I met up outside the doors of the Ateneo of Madrid... those hallowed halls where literary luminaries gathered for tertulias that shaped the written words of the golden ages of Spain... It was really an impressive venue and I couldn't think of a better place to hold avant-garde and experimental concerts...
As the hostess said at the beginning... this would be a bit of a risky proposal for Madrid, but I can't express how happy I am that these acts are making an appearance in a city that has a reputation for an infertile music scene...
The first group to take the stage in the beautiful auditorium was En Busca del Pasto, Madrid's very own. They were an improv band that impressed me but didn't quite convince me. They had a lot of things going for them, but in the end it was a bit too much in that Euro-improv-jazz-electronic vein. That's not to say that there weren't some aurally brilliant moments, and the interpretative dancer was quite entertaining with all her dadaist charm.
They made use of several laptops (which only really did anything worthwhile once--a Fennesz or Tim Hecker-like moment of granulated ambience), a bass guitar, bowed cymbal and a floor tom, occasional electric guitar and vocals, and various ethnic noise-makers like a cluster of goat hooves, rainstick, bowl, cymbals, and the like.
Then after a brief intermission Tom Carter took the stage. The list of groups and artists Tom has played with is endless, but here are some highlights for me: Sky City, Badgerlore, Charalambides, Mudsuckers, Kyrgyz, Robert Horton, etc... His solo works are not always as dynamic in my opinion, but they are always interesting and even engrossing. I recommend Monument (on Kranky records) and Shepherd at Lexington for starters...
Sometimes Tom plays in a folky context, and sometimes it's more noise-oriented, but it's always psychedelic, experimental, and improvisational. This night was a dreamy psych drone work out that put a smile on my face and filled the darkened hall with layer upon layer of warm fuzzy tones.
The first thing he did was ask for the lights to be dimmed. He had two amps set up and started out setting the mood with a metal slide creating tinkling textures on a guitar tuned to an open major chord. He didn't just use the slide on the strings though, he was using it on the edge of the guitar body as well... something I think I'll have to try now;-)
This was abruptly cut short and he jumped into a full-fledged drone. He built up some lovely textures for a while with delays and loops and then began improvising some solos over droning pulses of distortion. The delay decay was the natural propeller between "themes" or "movements" and Tom continued the pattern of building up texture and then developing a bit of melody throughout his performance. He used the e-bow for some really climactic chord-flutters that reminded me of some of Robert Fripp's more abstract solos. Towards the end he incorporated the tremolo pedal for some very nice psych-ambient drone work. Overall it didn't get too loud and was more soothing than rocking. I'd say that some Fripp & Eno tracks wouldn't make bad comparisons actually... Someone started clapping early and a bunch of people joined in, while he was obviously not finished yet. That bothered me. I don't know if he was annoyed or not, but he finished off quickly after that, just letting a solo trickle off to nothing.
It was quite an impressive show, and I've been looking for some more of his solo albums since then. My friend Sam isn't as crazy about the drone as I am, but he was impressed with the depth and texture of Tom's guitar playing. After the show I went to ask Tom about his involvement on the latest Badgerlore album, and he was just telling me "Well, I took these steel strings, and--" when we were interrupted by someone with a phone call for him. So I didn't get to hear what he did on it, but it was something more "electronic" he had said earlier.... Badgerlore has to be my favorite thing he's involved in (free folk), followed by Kyrgyz (improv with a bit of folk and noise), Charalambides (free folk jams), and Mudsuckers (power electronics noise drone improv).
So I hope to be catching more similar artists at the Ateneo in the near future.... I've discovered a great new venue with an excellent program. (Brethren of the Free Spirit will be playing there in early April.... that's James Blackshaw and Jozef van Wissem)
Photo taken by Luis Diaz, lifted from visiones en 50 milimetros (the hostess of the show, I believe) :::::::
I'd like to see his other photos from the night....
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