AmbientFestival / Cologne – Day Four: Lubomyr Melnyk, Ensemble-Son-et-Lumière & Hauschka

Great piano music has been a recurring theme of this year’s Ambientfestival “Zivilisation der Liebe” at St. Aposteln in Cologne, and the closing concert was no exception to this trend. Canadian musician Lubomyr Melnyk was the first to take a seat at the ivories with a compositional technique he refers to as ‘continuous music’. His approach was based around a constant flurry of notes covering the whole of the keyboard, from the very lowest rumbles to the highest twinkling pitches.

At times Melnyk’s playing produced a hazy minimalist shimmer, but while the emotive force of minimalist music often relies on an absolute ascetic purity, Melnyk brought rich Romantic colours to his immersive and expressive sound. Particularly effective was second piece “The Fountain”, which used a second piano pre-recorded during the soundcheck to enlarge the wall of sound still further. The gradual climb into the higher registers evoked a flock of birds lifting off into startled slow-motion flight, and the machine-gun clack of keys against keyboard only added to the breathtaking power and intensity of the work. Melnyk has developed and refined his approach to reach a level of sublime perfection, and the reverence reserved for him by those in the know deserves to be shared by a much wider audience.

Ensemble-Son-et-Lumière aims to bring together original contemporary music with video projection. Their performance at St. Aposteln made use of the basilica’s large pipe organ, as well as trumpet and percussion. At times the energy and grandiosity of the group’s single long-form piece resembled Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” arranged as an organ concerto; given that “Rite” is my least favourite work in the classical canon, this resemblance was somewhat unfortunate. However, nice percussion playing and great visuals saved the performance from being completely lost on me.

The final performance of the festival came courtesy of Düsseldorf-based musician Hauschka, whose extensively prepared piano and raft of electronics made for a pulsating, highly rhythmic sound. The influence of his background in dance music was clear, yet the transposition of techno beats and melodic riffs onto the piano seemed to bring out wider and more subtle variations in expressive detail, and the more driving pieces were interspersed with moments of haunting melancholy. Joining him for several numbers was Kai Angermann, whose prepared vibraphone and percussion brought depth, warmth, and a hint of groove-inflected syncopation to Hauschka’s often piercing and metronomically precise playing. For the encore Melnyk returned to the stage for an improvised trio that began somewhat hesitantly, but soon found its feet to bring the evening, and the festival, to a spellbinding close.

Inspired curation, a fantastic venue and well-engineered sound all helped to make this year’s Ambientfestival “Zivilisation der Liebe” a resounding success, and audiences were treated to some truly stunning performances. In making it possible to see so many great artists over a single weekend, the festival makes a vital contribution to the ambient and experimental music scene in Germany and beyond.

Lubomyr Melnyk will be playing a rare UK concert at Café Oto in London this Thursday 26th January at 8pm. For more info and tickets visit the Cafe OTO web site

- Review and photography by Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio

www.ambientfestival.de