michael rotherI'm not really a fan of reformations, but when i found out Harmonia were playing i was more than excited and knew I'd kick myself if I missed this, their first show in 30 years. I was a bit dubious when i arrived at the venue kind a mix between the Barbican and some JG Ballard styles, but fuck it, you're hardly gonna see em darnk old building now, eh?
Imagine my surprise though when the "tasteful" projections seem to invert this situation running against the once searing ecstasy rainbows of old with some crappy black and white photos bouncing around like a screen saver which stank so much of a "now and then" comparison it was painful! I mean, who wants to see pictures of them anyway? Their music is about outer consciousness mind expanding next level head fuck trips, not some dour bank ad shit! (Yes - there were apple mac icons nestled in the corner of the grey on grey Harmonia text crawling along the screen like some sad procession). This was some serious cruise control. Anything resembling the once primal thud hazed out bliss was quashed with mac program sounding demos dropped over it no doubt to "modernize" the sound. Who cares: DONT FUCK WITH THE MAGIC!.
roedeliusA choir appeared with some vocal forest style murmering over the top which i thought could go well but no, it was horrible! My mind was being blown for the wrong reasons. I had to endure 1 hr 30 minutes before they finally got on top of their game and busted out a really beautiful piece sounding somewhere between Cluster guitar searing and Warsawa by Bowie. For 15 minutes i was transfixed. Bliss was coming on full scale and heads were even nodding into some infinity headjams, at last. Some moments of Music Von Harmonia trip outs with aforementioned modern torture layered/drowning over. So yeh, to little too late for me. I'd highly reccommend the Live 74 cd just released (which you can find in the reviews section here) but otherwise I'd save some money and time and see Embryo, still visiting Berlin twice a year for 7 day stints and mind blowing each night. -- steven lavender.
HARMONIA (Rother/Roedelius/Moebius) - Live at Haus der Kulturen der Welt - 27/11/2007.
harmonia: fotos © wolfgang spiegelburg
harmonia in berlin/hkw
rother/moebius
