Dispatch one from Elektra should fittingly start with FEED from Kurt Hentschlager. This is the third and finally year of the presentation of this sold out crowd pleaser. It’s really an experience unlike any other. It starts with a piece of video music made of low pulses and writhing three dimensional polysexual beings which lasts maybe slightly longer than you think it should, and then the room fills with fog and you are plunged into completely immersive strobing sound and visual show. It is quite difficult to describe. I took some cell phone photos just to be able to, at least have a measurement of difference between how my brain translated the experience and how my brilliant 2mp cell phone would. Actually, I think it is the nicest photo my phone has ever taken, but still pails in comparison to the complex interplay of dissolving shapes and colors forced through my retinas and splattered onto the walls of my brain.
…and here is a cheap reference to what my brain perceived in color and form.
FEED is a fascinating work that exemplifies the current tendencies towards excessive spectacle in cultural production. It is an onslaught of pulsating sensation prefaced with even with legal wavers and warnings about epilepsy and heart conditions. What is a delightful counter point to it’s excess is its simplicity. It is the most basic elements of vision tuned elegantly to a brutal volume where the process of perception is freed and you feel as if you crawled inside a 16 year olds first experiment with video feedback – complete with all it’s raw and powerful innocence.
My first Elektra touch down however, was with Artengine’s favorite electro-acoustic magician – Louis Dufort. The presentation was of a work from Louis, as well as Francisco Lopez and Felix-Antoin Morin. It was a very nice varied program of three works in a small multi-use space at the conservatory. To those who have not had the experience of such rich audio presentation as this, if you can imagine the richest of horror and action films with no visual, no dialog and no score, only foley . . . in complete darkness then this is close. A treat for the ears.
Tags: Elektra, FEED, Festival, Field Trip, Montréal, New Music