Ensemble Rue du Nord (CH) : Anne Gillot, recorders / Laurent Bruttin, clarinets /
Jonas Kocher, accordion / John Menoud, electric guitar, electronics / Dragos Tara, doublebass /Benoît Moreau, piano, clarinet Vedran Tuce, bassclarinet
/ Dugagjin Muhaxheri, saxophon / Kaltrina Shala, flute /
Visar Kuçi, violin / Liburn Jupolli, piano / Lukatoyboy, electronics, toys
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``I mentioned animal collective in my previous post, and with last night's (improvised) performance there were moments (fraction of moments) that made me think this would be as close to Animal Collective as I would get. The performance - all improvised - by the Swiss-Balkan creative ensemble (looked more like everyone playing on their own, and then combining sounds) played instruments in ways that instruments themselves never thought they would be played. ODA theater never heard that much noise - ever. Prior to the performance, all I could think of is that this ensemble will be a mix of local/foreign musicians playing jazz, classical or traditional Albanian folk music, because we are so used to that. But last night's performance had us duped and just made our hearts stop, and it changed my frame of mind on musical performances in our small city. Our ears were blasted with electro acoustic music.
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Three tables that were stacked with wires, mixing tablets, more wires, laptops, and they had so many objects that reminded you of a working desk, or some sort of gadgets needed for a technical experiment - quite frankly i never thought i would see a set-up like this at ODA.
A middle-aged guy, wearing a pale-melon colored sweater and a t-shirt with a comic-book printed on it, really shattered all the atmosphere that was created in that stage by previous performers. He took the sounds he made with marbles, and other objects, and twisted them so much that he produced a noise that was nothing like I've heard before. All other performers were so unique characters but yet their sounds melded so well with each other - like having more than one epicenter of sound/focus. A woman played some sort of instruments made of wooden-boards and electronic wiring.

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It was unbelievable to see young local musicians play their instruments that way, and have their sounds improvised with other electronic screeches that were generated by other members. The sort of exploded and destroyed that pattern I've used to see them play... Librun is a piano-genius (heard him play a couple of times) , Kaltrina was good with the flute, and Visar just proved what a talented musician he really is (all-round). I never saw them placed in such a setting and "survive". Last night's performance was a shock really, a shock that distorted the perception of a musical reality created in previous performances.

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Hands down to Ilir Bajri for assisting in this. For me he is one of the performers that pushes the boundaries of music, and a wonderful guy that works so hard with these young talented local musicians/composers.
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Many people were laughing and others left in disbelief of what they were hearing. They missed are truly amazing performance that still makes me scratch my leg hard, and drive fast without looking in the rear-view mirror.

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