Klangbad: Avant-garde in the Meadows

This is two films on one DVD documenting performances at the second Klangbad festival, held outside the quiet German village of Scheer (where the Klangbad label is based) in 2005. The first film ‘Klangbad: Avant-garde in the Meadows’ is 85 minutes of performances from nine artists – I use the terms ‘performances’ and ‘artists’ advisedly – including the legendary Faust. The second film ‘Faust: live at Klangbad festival’ is 70 minutes of the Faust set from the same festival. The connection between the two films is one Hans Joachim Irmler, founder and current member of Faust, who runs the Klangbad record label and curates the festival. In 2005, the 3 day festival is small, with one stage set in a wood, people sleeping in tents or hammocks down by the stream, drinking German beer and eating sausages. There is a naiveness about it – of a bygone era – and of the performances themselves which vary widely. There’s the doleful (Death in Vegas-ish) electronica of duo Minit, the 60/70s politico-art proclamation from Jutta Koether, Steven Lobdell bangin’ a gong (or hubcap) through effects to create something trippy and transcendental, Cpt Howdy’s take on american garage rock, Circle’s mesmerising mishmash of groove and heavy/death metal with looks to match (bizarre), the country-like mix of reed organ, double-bass and slide guitar of Kamerflimmr Kollektief-Hausen, the acoustic folk of Scotland’s The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden, and the art-school act of Nista Nije Nista, that walks the line between playful and silly and irritating (think Native Hipsters’ ‘There Goes Concorde Again’) and when interviewed they all speak at once in their own languages without looking at each other, one points to the sky and says “Rainbow”. And there IS a rainbow in the sky. What a way to end the film. (Kev O SoundsXP)