Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Location: Animateka 2007, Kino Dvor, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Concert date: 07.12.2007
Attendance: 0
Ticket price: 4,00€
The phenomenon that is Moveknowledgement isn’t something you get served overnight. It takes dedication to the craft, a clearly charted path of aestheticization, and sticking to the red thread of movement. And if you add a spice that spoils your eyes to the red thread of what you hear – rich visuals – then that’s undoubtedly the key to total satisfaction for even the most demanding listener.
That’s more or less how I could kick off the story of Saturday’s gig, part of the Ljubljana-based international festival Animateka 2007, which turned the hall of Kino Dvor into a refuge for every fan of concert perfection in Slovenia. It had gotten properly cold outside, and if Saturday let you choose where to spend the end of the first half of the weekend, Ljubljana only offered two options – either airing yourself out under the open sky, where for a decent few euros they’d convince you their mulled wine was the strongest and by far the best (and of course the gorgeous view of the dreamily decorated center was priced in accordingly), or you picked up the Animateka program and went to check out what else the international creative circles keeping the cult of moving pictures alive had to offer.
I leaned toward the latter. Of course also because the Novo Mesto musical shamans I love – Moveknowledgement – were announced as a bonus. Kino Dvor was packed to the last corner. The second-to-last day of the well-attended Animateka program served up the jury and audience awards, and since I’m the type who doesn’t push into crowds when there’s no need, I decided to show up in the lobby around 11 pm with my dear company, my sweetheart and a friend. The gig was supposed to start in a good ten minutes, but we had to wait some more, since they were still fixing the last little things with sound and picture. How considerate! In the meantime, a small, almost unnoticeable puppet theater scene unfurled its curtain in the foyer, where figures folded from perfectly ordinary colored paper came alive before our eyes. First an egg, from which a bird hatched, then a cowboy shootout and a dog and more and more … I don’t count myself among the most patient waiters, so I wandered back into the lobby of the temple of pleasure and waited a good half hour more.
The doors finally open. The seats of Kino Dvor beckoned for occupation and the instruments set up in front of the stage were proof we’d come to the right place. There’s definitely going to be a gig! Not long after, Moveknowledgement sneak onto their spots in front of the packed hall. David Cvelbar sits down behind the drums, with Miha Šajina taking the keyboards on his right. Right after, Uroš Weinberger – Wein – picks up the guitar, and on the right side (from the audience’s view) Dejan Slak steps up to the bass amp. Center stage belongs to the vocal discourse of Miha Blažič – N’Toko. One more glance at the stage and you might have spotted the other two central figures of the evening’s spectacle – on the right, Mateja Rojc aka Small took her place behind the projectors and overhead projectors, and on the left, Simon Hudolin aka Dangerous stationed himself in front of his technical gear. Everything was set and ready to cut loose.
The lights go out. A dreamy, meditative stream of thoughts and rhythm called ‘A Barcode’ hums out of the speakers, one of the big favorites from the Novo Mesto crew’s latest album. The screen becomes a playground for passion and color combinations. Drops of paint spill over the edges, filling the void of white light with splashes of creative passion. The audio-visual assault on the unsuspecting was carefully planned. In the shade, or better – in the safe shelter of warm semi-darkness – the impulses of the sonic dialogue between drums, guitar, bass and gentle keyboards kept building. The surge of feelings and thoughts found its expression in form. N’Toko shifts into motion. The arrival of gods who will change the face of the present is announced. Fly on the wings of a wild beast! Images weave across the screen, in sync with the rhythm. The psychedelia of the moment makes up for the wait, and in a trance you could only surrender to the wizard’s spell and sink into dreams while wide awake. After the storm of the opening passion, the feeling doesn’t let up.
We arrive in the spheres of the new song ‘Orel’. Illusions of grandeur and aesthetic purism sneak onto the screen. I don’t know exactly when, but we crossed the threshold from statics into the realm of moving images. What we saw took the name Praznik, and it showed snippets from the past. Flags ahead of the Yugoslav holidays. People who were once the main bearers of an ideology that’s no more. Only an echo of thought remains. In the echo of something distant, monuments are raised to a time that won’t come back – ‘Monolith’ takes you back to the days of the record Sun Sun. To the days when the basic image of Moveknowledgement was quite different. Say, more naive in sound and look. The years laid down a patina of experience and evolved the sound. They’ve perhaps become a bit gloomier and more minimalist, but in the logic of less is more hides the main charm of musical eroticism, which foams the mind and invites you to dance the dub-rock way again and again. After the old stuff, something new.
‘Afrique’ brings a layer of guitar perfection. I think it’s redundant to add that Moveknowledgement are quite skilled at marrying Western logic with Eastern mysticism. On the screen, images from static photographs interweave with the dance of live bugs, cockroaches in a glass jar. Fascinating and horrifying. Trapped in space and time. Being trapped within the frame of what’s seen becomes almost claustrophobically closed. The point of what’s seen and heard keeps building. Small But Dangerous work as the visual extension of the band’s intuition. ‘I Am Zorr’ thus becomes a chance to jump to another level of dialogue. No stopping and no rest stop for the tired. The idea of the spectacle is continuous flow and movement. Test tubes with red liquid are also a fitting trick for the eye. Shadows and light are two principles of the same matter. Zorr is a nihilist and a menacing apparition. And in your third eye, a crater the size of the universe eats into your brain, one you’d want to suck everything into.
The imperative of the moment is a lot like the speech of some totalitarian dictator. ‘Listen To Nebukadnezar’ is a fitting articulation of this state of rapture, hidden euphoria and astral calm. If you don’t resist, you get a reward. A chocolate, and dessert after that. Images from greeting cards and snippets of the record’s interesting design sneak onto the screen, and at intervals the image of a statue of this long-dead tyrant explodes across it. Almost entranced, we don’t even notice that the new and the newest have been woven into the tapestry of the old. After ‘Kidz’R’Fresh’ we creep into the darkest corners of our subconscious and start pulsing to a salvo of sound called ‘Jungle’, and soon ‘Big Hood’ is here, after which you’re beamed out of the spheres of the mental trip and back into this-worldly reality. TENKS is written across the screen and a thunderous salvo of applause fills the vaults of the temple of film-buff culture. Or let’s rather say: the last refuge of artistry in Ljubljana. No Hollywood and no star glitter, but the authentic spirit of guerrilla and the organic bond between artist and artwork remain. Take something away and you’ve amputated life. No sales logic of global poisoning, with money outranking ideas. Moveknowledgement weave one last veil of sonic farewell. ‘Chemicals‘ is a playful goodbye and a promise that we’ll see each other again. On the overhead projectors, threads and keys line up across the screen. The secret of order and of all creation hides in chaos. How lovely and simple!
Small But Dangerous are an indestructible tandem who breathed with the band as if they’d always been one. The recipe for success is plain to see: they could spread the word about their work even more successfully among the masses by teaming up with Moveknowledgement. There was no way to voice criticism. Among the critics, a sickly-sweet scent of hushedness and meditative amputation of the sense for the imposed sentence wafted: “What if …” After the final moment of awakening, a perfect taste of delight stayed in the mouth and, in the mind, the awareness that the hunger for more would become a necessity. Moveknowledgement filled even the tiniest cracks in the stage with sound and there was nothing negative to say? What about the delay? That too is forgiven – thanks to the total euphoria that shot through my body and impaled me on the face of the world as someone who, besides existing, has passion, a smile and love. Glory to those who dare! SMALL BUT DANGEROUS + MOVEKNOWLEDGEMENT=EROTICA
Setlist
1. Barcode 2. Orel 3. Monolith 4. Afrique 5. I Am Zorr 6. Listen To Nebukadnezar 7. Kidz’R’Fresh 8. Jungle 9. Ta_Nov 10. Big Hood —ENCORE: 11. Chemicals
Photo gallery
