Review: Underwater dialogue - Festival Jazzkaar

ADDRESS: Pärnu maantee 30-5, Tallinn 10141

PHONE: +372 666 0030

EMAIL: info(ät)jazzkaar.ee

19/04/2014 Review: Underwater dialogue

News Mihaela Barac

The 25th Jazzkaar festival was officially opened on Friday, 18th of April, with the concert of Ülo Krigul‘s „Lend nr JK025” at the Tallinn Seaplane Harbour. 

 

The whole show felt like a long breath. The public stood still and patient for an experience of experimental, abstract music that took you either higher than the roofs or kept you quiet and serene on the ground. It was all about being involved with what was happening with the artists and their music. To understand and feel it, the public had to open all their senses and let themselves flow with the sound waves.

 

At the start, the audience was led into an enigmatic 100-metre long path through a narrow, dark corridor built specially for the show. On the way in, the spectator could already feel the atmosphere and the vibes of the music. Once there, the first impact was Ülo himself playing the piano, somehow far from the other musicians, welcoming the visitors. After a long view of the amazing space, one could only stop gazing at the room and start following the music and thus end up looking for a place to stay and enjoy the sounds. 

 

The ”orchestra” slowly started letting the audience into a underwater dialogue. Everything was an important part of the experience, physically and mentally. The surroundings played their own role. The Maritime museum made the event an architectural exploration as well. It was the perfect scene for this evening. It gave the public a great acoustic sound that made them feel like moving into a “cosmic mood”, as the viewers declared after. Being present was not enough. One had to enhance his full brain sensitivity and full body awareness. The show had as much auditive and visual impact. The projections on the back wall and the special light effects emphasized necessary points of music, making the spectator more vulnerable. It was this kind of music that only gains from live performance. The listener has to be constantly present in this game of sounds.

 

One of the most beautiful things was the constant communication between the musicians on the stage. They seemed like a group of children that discovered something so amazing that they need to do it again and again. They were in harmony with themselves and with what they were doing. Even though there were points of the concert where sound vibrations were in conflict – like the background music and the music from the stage – but in the end everything was brought to balance and serenity again. 

 

The concert made you think about everything and nothing at the same time. In the end, the people felt kind of dazed or euphoric and dizzy. Some said it was too short, ending at the point were their mind was just taking wings.  Then again, maybe it was meant to be like that – to give us freedom to fly high and then leave on your own, finishing this experience on a wave. The concert left you happy and sad, confused and serene, all at the same time. The concert made you stop thinking of your life, to just be in the moment.

 

Ülo Krigul „Lend nr JK025”

 

April 18 at Seaplane Harbor

 

Ülo Krigul – prepared piano, harmonium, live electronics

Kadri Voorand – Vocals

Kaia Karjatse  – gong

Simon Aimla – saxophones

Mart Taniel – prepared piano, electronics and visual solutions

Peedu Kass- bass

Reigo Ahven – percussion

Tammo Sumera – sound engineer