[Dajana] As already announced at the end of last year's wonderful edition of PHOBOS FESTIVAL (live report here), we are able to experience another Night Of Dark Ambient Music. Once again, four bands enchanted the audience in the :: Immanuel Church :: in Wuppertal, with organizer Martin Stürtzer opening the evening himself with his project PHELIOS.
[BRT] I had already heard a lot about the PHOBOS FESTIVAL, but until now it had never worked out to attend one of those editions. This changed on this weekend.
When it comes to Ambient, I might be a bit more knowledgeable about the Krautrock context, the Berlin School, Düsseldorf and Brian Eno than I am about dark Ambient, where I own and appreciate at least one or two records by Lustmord, Lamia Vox or Kammarheit. Musical descriptions are one thing, but there is little or no stage action to be expected here, so I at least try to describe the video projections or put my own images that arise into words.
[Dajana] Yes, exactly! As you usually keep your eyes closed anyway to absorb and enjoy the music even more intensely, it's best to just let your mind wander and describe what the music conjures up.
In beautiful fall weather and late summer temperatures, we headed into the Wupper valley. After an acrobatic search for a parking space and some delicious Indian food, we let ourselves be absorbed by this old wooden church.
:: pics :: Impressions ::
[Dajana] Unfortunately, the evening opened with very, very sad news. :: PETER BJÄRGÖ :: and his wife Cecilia, who were already present, received the devastating news of their daughter's death and immediately boarded the next plane back to Sweden.
Our heartfelt condolences to Peter and Ia and the Bjärgö family for this terrible loss and endless love and strength for this difficult time.
PETER BJÄRGÖ is no stranger to the NH. Known as Peter Pettersson before his marriage, he was revered by the NH crew in the early 2000s for his musical works on Arcana and especially Sophia. Herbstwerk and The Seduction Of Madness were up and down here at the time. Peter is still very active today and releases albums with great regularity, the latest, The Translucency Of Mind's Decay, in 2021.
[Dajana] Martin himself was so saddened by this news that he could hardly put it into words and preferred to make music.
:: pics :: PHELIOS ::
[Dajana] There's not much more to say about :: PHELIOS ::, I think. If you're even remotely into ambient music, you can't get past Martin Stürtzer and PHELIOS ;) Martin is a creative restless spirit who can't seem to sit still for a second without composing - his musical output is immense.
[BRT] Of all the artists present that evening, PHELIOS' music was the most “straight” and easy to consume. There were individual tracks here that flowed into one another but were always in flow. Dissonances were kept within limits; it got loud when longer percussion passages dominated the soundscape. The images included decaying fantasy landscapes, barren deserts, underground tombs and swirling astral spirals. At least with PHELIOS, there are no uniform images, but there are still suitable ones.
The images in my head, or in my imagination, were more like a probe traveling over cold ice planets or the scree rings of Saturn. The whole show wasn't quite as gloomy live as it was on tape.
[Dajana] In fact, four of the songs were from the brand new album Obsidian Forest, which will be released on November 1st, but which you could already buy here that evening. The other three tracks were much older, such as Hibernation from the 2013 Gates Of Atlantis album.
A really nice set! And, as the church is made of wood inside, it acts like a large resonating body. At a certain volume (and especially when a lot of drums & percussion or drony sounds are involved) the wood starts to vibrate and you can feel the sound collages). Anyone who has ever been to a concert in Amsterdam at Paradiso knows what I mean ;)
Band: Martin Stürtzer
Setlist: Pillars Of Night, The Serpent, Hibernation, Stasis Device, Opalescent Void, Stargazer, Voices Of Dawn Video » here «
:: pics :: INADE ::
[Dajana] After Fjernlys (Knut Enderlein's solo project) last year, now :: INADE ::, the main band of Knut Enderlein & Rene Lehmann, the guys behind the Loki Foundation. As with all their projects, there is little information, only music.
[BRT] And INADE were much more dissonant and dynamic. Individual speech passages, lots of theremin (an electronic violin and a wind instrument - Dajana), more noise, and actually only one composition. Visually, there was significantly less landscape, but more strobe, wafting starry nebulae, flickering fractals, indefinable glowing branches and the head of a cyborg towards the end. Musically more powerful, more exciting but also a little less for the imagination in the visual area. I hadn't heard it before, but I really liked it.
Band: Knut Enderlein & Rene Lehmann
Video » here «
:: pics :: EX.ORDER ::
[BRT] To fill the gap left by Peter Bjärgö, Knut Enderlein and Rene Lehmann stepped in and played a second, rather short set under the moniker :: EX.ORDER ::.
[Dajana] This was actually once Rene Lehmann's solo project, but is now a duo with Knut.
[BRT] Musically, it was clearly in the death industrial area. Sparse beats met rather unstructured noise, quite dynamic, quite exciting but hard stuff. The sometimes quite disturbing images from American prisons or mass brawls matched this. Lots of flickering, short strobe-like images, sometimes quite tiring for the eyes. Here too, it felt like there was only one longer track without much repetition. An exciting change of pace in this context, but rather unsuitable for listening to at home...
[Dajana] Yes, the visuals went hand in hand with the music. Violence, war, fire, murder and manslaughter, but also demonstrations. For what? Against what? A very gloomy, dystopian world was presented. Wait... dystopian? If you look around the world at the moment, we are already there. EX.ORDER thus presented a reflection of the here and now.
[BRT] Yeah, somehow a soundtrack to the daily news...
Band: Knut Enderlein & Rene Lehmann
:: pics :: VESTIGIAL ::
[Dajana] The Italian project :: VESTIGIAL :: was completely unknown to me until now. Hardly surprising, as there is only one full-length released to date, Translucent Communion, from 2008, and two EPs from 2009. Since then, there has been nothing new.
But... the (very long) wait has come to an end :) After 25 years there will finally be a new album. It's called Descending Vastness and was supposed to enrich the merch this evening. Unfortunately, there were delays at the pressing plant, so we'll have to wait until December. But the audience was already rewarded with new material. Five of the seven tracks were coming from Descending Vastness.
Incidentally, VESTIGIAL spent months working on the visuals for tonight's show. I think it was worth the effort, because the music harmonized wonderfully with the visual sequences and created a great atmosphere.
[BRT] The best flow and the most compact atmosphere of the evening came from the Italian artist VESTIGIAL. Here there were straight, mostly cold synth pads, sparse beats, not too harsh drones and only a few dynamics. The images were mostly gray, black and white and often consisted of abstract landscapes, planets, statues or upside-down urban backdrops. Ash rain or barren snowy landscapes would also have fitted well here.
Band: Vestigal
Setlist: Through The Milions Points Of Time, Elemental Thesis, Vastness, Anthropic Uncreation, Set Sun To Flames, Pale Statues Of Nowhere (taken from Kalpamantra compilation), Last Extinction Prayer (Aeon), Do You Hear The Earth Cry?
[Dajana] What’s left to be said? Once again a marvelous evening of excellent music! Thank you PHOBOS, thank you Immanuel Church! ♥ ♥ ♥
See you next year on October 18, 2025, with SVARTSINN and SPHÄRE SECHS - the first two bands announced for the next edition :)
[BRT] I can only agree with that. I'd love to come back again too... Or keep my eyes open for similar events. Churches are certainly a great place for this kind of music, but I can also imagine empty factory halls or a planetarium. Either way, it is the music that stimulates the imagination. More of it, please!
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