Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Tim Story
Saturday, October 9th, 1999 at St. Mary's Church, Penn Campus

I may give up reflecting on these Gatherings here. By nature, I'm not really a writer and I simply can't find the adjectives. Anyway, here goes. A few facts first:

Tim Story, a familiar name to most, born in Philly, returns to Philly and makes his first live performance....ever. He joins European master Hans J. Roedelius who returns after offering Gatherers a simply marvelous performance at St Mary's just a month ago.

It rained softly on the way home.

Impressions: Roedelius took the stage first, playing a simple melody on his keyboard, soon inviting Tim to the stage. What transpired wasn't really expected, at least by this attendee. The best way I can describe the first set? Sorry, Tim. It was indeed "beguiling". Much less focused than I expected. I overheard Jeff Towne tell Roedelius during the intermission that this set was surely "mysterious".

The rest was pure magic. Will somebody please post the name of the viola player who accompanied the gentlemen on stage at the beginning of the second set? [Jovanina Pagano] Those that follow Tim's work know that he has incorporated some viola/cello type moments, and wonderfully so, into his pieces. Chuck Van Zyl's after the show speech, which reflected so well the emotion of the evening, and especially of the moment, mentioned that neither Hans or Tim had actually met the viola player until the day of the performance.

Back a little, now. The performance is almost over. The final notes are being played. Perhaps I've experience the most simplistic sublime live musical experience of my life. There's a lady sitting next to me. I don't know who she is, but she starts sobbing uncontrollably.

It's that beautiful.

The fewer than should have been there call Hans and Tim back to the stage. I hear Tim speak to Hans as they sit down to perform the encore...

"How can we top that?"

-- soma611, October 10th, 1999

--- Soma611@aol.com wrote:

> I may give up reflecting on these Gatherings here. By nature, I'm not really a writer and I simply can't find the adjectives.

I usually post a post-Gathering review within a few days to this list, the philly-ambient listbot, r.m.n and r.m.a, but this time I'm a little befuddled as to what to write.

> Impressions: Roedelius took the stage first, playing a simple melody on his keyboard, soon, inviting Tim to the stage. What transpired wasn't really expected, at least by this attendee. The best way I can describe the first set?

They kept throwing things at us left and right. The birdlike samples, creaky doors, mutated coyotes and what sounded like chains being rattled in the distance. I recognized the bit of Carmina Burana and what sounded like a sample of Rimsky or maybe Offenbach. For a moment I was saying to myself, "Faust?"

> I overheard Jeff Towne tell Roedelius during the intermission that this set was surely "mysterious".

Certainly I was getting a Halloween mood from parts of the first set.

> The rest was pure magic. Will somebody please post the name of the viola player who accompanied the gentlemen on stage at the beginning of the second set? [Jovanina Pagano]

It slipped my mind, too. Her name was not in the event mailer.

> Back a little, now. The performance is almost over. The final notes are being played. Perhaps I'm experience the most simplistic sublime live musical experience of my life.

I heard two themes during the second set, one was distinctly reminiscent of the work Rodelius did while still in Cluster with Eno. The second was a variation from one of Story's releases.

--Andy Wing, October 10th, 1999

Visit the Roedelius webpage at: www.starsend.org/roedelius.html
Visit the Tim Story webpage at: www.starsend.org/timstory.html