Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Venue: Auditorium della cultura friulana / Gorizia / Italy
Concert date: 18.04.2008
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: 15,00€
This time the Rockline trio, always a sucker for the weirdest musical experiments from parallel dimensions, hit the road to Gorizia. Waiting for us there was a meeting with three legendary veterans of highly experimental music playing under the name Brainville 3, who, even after more than forty years, still haven’t thrown in the towel when it comes to making seriously avant-garde and innovative music. Brainville is a special experimental project in which three prog rock “grandpas” came together for their modern-day space experiments, and they still command enormous respect among everyone who likes their music, let’s say, a little more adventurous. The indestructible 71-year-old guitarist/vocalist/sound manipulator Daevid Allen discovered parallel musical universes with Gong in his prime, bassist Hugh Hopper, as one of the most important members of Soft Machine, shaped the development of the Canterbury prog rock genre and later of jazz rock fusion, while drummer Chris Cutler was once a member of the avant-garde rock outfit Henry Cow, one of the founders of the Rock In Opposition movement. The great drumming oddball Cutler replaced the late Pip Pyle (ex-Gong, Hatfield And The North) in the lineup two years ago. The number three thus marks the third version of Brainville, which started out as a quartet (the first lineup also included the cult keyboardist and producer Mark Kramer, best known for his work with John Zorn and plenty of other improvising musicians).
So we were in for one of those gigs where constant improvisation, the unpredictability of the high avant-garde and the fusion of the three different musical energies of the individual players (in this case space rock, avant-garde rock and jazz rock fusion) were the stars of the night. During the stage preparations, the organizers made the best possible musical choice with the King Crimson classic “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, whose sounds kept us happy right up until the legendary greybeards walked on stage. The stage gear, meanwhile, was provided by the cult Slovenian band Avtomobili.
After some impatient waiting, Hopper and Cutler strolled onto the stage together and took their positions behind their instruments. They started off with long, complex rhythmic improvisations. Cutler proved he’s an incredible drummer, a real master of the craft. Besides his phenomenal speed and dynamics and his constant stick swapping (he often had a spare one ready between his teeth), he wowed the crowd above all with his unconventional, avant-garde jazz approach, where astonishing technical chops and wit went hand in hand. Now and then he even hit the side speakers with his sticks. And often it felt like he was about to blow his drum kit apart in all four directions. Hopper stuck to his recognizable jazz-rooted technique and, on top of being superbly tight, showed off a nice dose of melodic sense. This time he was careful not to break a string, unlike at our last encounter with Soft Machine Legacy three years ago in Udine. Their highly experimental performance, one where you had to completely switch off the rational way of listening with your ears and surrender to the flow of improvisation in a dark atmosphere, eventually hit the mark and created a deep ambient
By then some people in the crowd had started wondering where Daevid Allen, the oldest and biggest oddball of the three, had got stuck. After a while he finally wandered onto the stage in his obligatory circus top hat, with a notebook for lyrics and instructions for his many sound experiments, and a bottle of beer in his other hand (he wasn’t drunk, because he didn’t need to be, since he’s in some special spiritual state, let’s call it his own world, pretty much all the time). Looking at a man of venerable age dressed in clothes that recalled some circus ringmaster (he probably sees himself as the musical director of a big circus show too), it was impossible to keep a straight face. His arrival signaled that everything up to then had only been a warm-up and that the Brainville 3 show was now starting for real. Allen announced a proper eccentric space odyssey through complex, avant-garde space rock structures, where the influences and styles of all three musicians flowed together, and above all, totally free improvisation.
Allen is an extraordinary oddball, whether you’re talking about his singing, his playing of a neckless guitar (using extras like a metal slide), or his mixing of recorded sound samples and recording them live on the spot (he spent almost more time hunched over on the floor than standing upright). Although he’s a rather average guitarist and as such often sounded slightly out of tune, he impressed all the more with his near-constant manipulation of sound samples and assorted extra effects, which helped build fantastic soundscapes for the nonstop rhythmic improvisations. The second chapter was his extravagant, theatrical way of singing, which was more or less a recital of assorted aphorisms, from political and social satires to inner feelings. He had to lean on his notebook for this more than once, which is perfectly understandable at his age. Allen’s absurd vocal performance was at times almost comical, and even more often downright grotesque (in a good way). It undoubtedly shocked a good chunk of the congregation, who weren’t prepared for it or didn’t know his past work well enough to brace themselves for the eccentric show of an old psychedelic wizard. These vocal bits only popped up in the gaps between the long improvisations, though. Even though some people didn’t find his traditionally “stoned” stage act all that entertaining, I personally had a great time the whole way through, both during his short vocal excursions and his experiments with sound samples, where he confirmed his reputation as one of the pioneers of that technique. For someone who believes in the existence of a fourth dimension and once wrote about flying teapots, he still came across as grounded enough to chat with the audience nicely and without any trouble. Over the course of the whole show, in which they played six pieces of epic length, Brainville 3 presented their current album “Trial By Headline”. One of the pieces was also dedicated to Didier Malherbe, the former Gong saxophonist and flautist.
This odd bunch of grey pilgrims wowed us with their space improvisations and lulled us into a trance so often that their set was over in the blink of an eye. Personally, I’d expected exactly something like what the trio delivered that night, a total explosion of high avant-garde fusion that you have to listen to with all your senses and not just your ears to truly feel the energy charge of each improvisation. It was an extra treat to realize that these “forefathers” are still hungry for new challenges and enjoy themselves on stage just as much as they did forty years ago. The sound was also top-notch the whole time, so I’ve got no special complaints there. Fans of serious technical chops definitely had a blast, especially with the thrilling rhythmic performances of Hopper and above all Cutler. Allen, on the other hand, with his eccentric, almost provocative approach, was no easy pill to swallow for the taste of most of the paying crowd. Especially for those who expected a calm, easygoing, melody-soaked show from a group of older gentlemen. Personally, the only thing I missed was a bit more British humor, since I like this kind of avant-garde performance even more when it comes with a fitting dose of good humor, whereas Brainville 3 often lingered in fairly gloomy ambient spheres. The reunion with three old friends, and here I mainly mean Allen and Hopper as former members of early versions of Soft Machine, went (as expected) down highly avant-garde paths and satisfied everyone present with just the right dose of unique Brainville 3 fusion. Another get-together with these elder statesmen of prog rock would be more than welcome in the future.
Text: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Rok Podgrajšek
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