Roger Eno/Lol Hammond and Roedelius
Thursday, August 26th, 1999 at St. Mary's Church, Penn Campus
Just returned from this evening's Gathering with Roedelius and Roger Eno. Remind me, next time, to bring a boat. My car had to swim half way home.
There really does seem to be a trend developing with space musicians. Back in March, during Jeff Pearce's performance of "Rain as a Metaphor", a massive cumulous disturbance occurred. Rain was actually dripping Chinese torturelike from St. Mary's rafters. Well, tonight's Roger Eno performance of "The Boatman" from his recent CD "Swimming" (I lie not) produced a
cloudburst that had Jeff's seeming like a soft drizzle in comparison.
The highlight of tonight's Gathering (in this Gatherer's opinion, anyway) was the performance of Hans Roedelius. He opened up the evening reciting a self composed poem before sitting at the keyboard and playing an all too brief, yet quietly expressive, set. He opened and closed with simple melodies, though the middle portion of his set was calmly obscure. One might be able to draw some comparisons to some of Roedelius and Roger Eno's musical styles,
but there sure is a contrast in performing styles. Roedelius on stage is nearly motionless, while Eno waves and flows constantly as he performs. After Hans, and an intermission during which we were treated to Roach's "Slow Heat", Eno performed five solo pieces on the keyboard. Then he invited Lol Hammond and...(forgive me, I forget the third performers name) to the stage. Here the music certainly took a left hand turn. We were treated to the
promised combination of contrasting styles of ambient music, with Roger's mellow keyboard collating, yet somehow mixing, with Hammond's more liberal, dance beat effects. For the most part, this combination worked. I'll leave any in depth impressions of Eno & Co. to others, as I've always preferred the more subtle, meditative, pretty stuff...
Looking forward already to the next announced Gathering, which includes a repeat performance by Roedelius (as tonight's certainly left me longing for more) and Tim Story. Its slated for early October. Bring an umbrella.
soma611, August 27st, 1999