FIMAV highlights
How to eat unhealthily, sleep poorly, drive extended distances, and have a great time!
“Working vacation” is a term that doesn’t exactly qualify for oxymoron status. While the words are indeed opposite in intent to each other, depending on the particular situation the balance between “work” and “vacation” tips in one or the other’s favour. And sometimes the concept is just about a kind of stasis: something that is neither truly work, but not really a vacation either. Covering FIMAV falls into this kind of equilibrium. It can’t truly be called work when you have most of your expenses paid to go to concerts you are delighted to attend. But on most vacations you don’t only risk drinking two beer over a four night period and hope to manage four or five hours of sleep in order to get your writing done but still function within the human framework.
However it is classified, it was definitely a five day stretch where I drove 16 hours, ate three poutines, saw 15 of the 19 programmed shows, chatted with some truly fun oddball music fans, and never turned my hotel TV on once.
If you want to read my abbreviated festival coverage it is posted here at Exclaim! But here are a few brief thoughts and highlights, a few of which aren’t in that review.
As is usually the case the artists and shows you already know and have high expectations for don’t end up being the highlights. The very first show featured a French / Japanese group called PoiL Ueda who played a version of Viking Metal that was really Samurai Prog featuring an operatic singer named Junko Ueda presenting epic 13th century battle tales while a shaggy haired dude in hippie clothes rocked the house on keyboard pyrotechnics. Not something I was expecting to love.
French/Belgian duo Emilie Škrijelj and Tom Malmendier improvised on turntable, accordion, and drums for a set that was transfixing in its ability to both create a narrative or trajectory and manage to stick to it, while still finding variations within to keep interesting.
There were four noise / electroacoustic shows at this year’s festival. Typically this is not a form of music that always lends itself to a live setting. Some rely on battering volume and intensity, like the FUJI||||||||||TA + EYE show on day four. Some stick to more academic means of object manipulation and computer samples like French duo Noorg, whose set suffered a little from the requirement to stretch it at least to the hour mark… as did Camille Brisson and Isabelle Clermont's « Collectif Tendancielle » performance. That duo took a theatrical approach, playing on societal and gender stereotypes while generating sound via voice, costume jewelry, kitchenware, and for a time harp and flute in the most successful center section of the piece. Unfortunately each section had reached a comfortable conclusion point but continued to stretch for an extra 5, 10, 15 minutes.
Of the four groups the one that found the best balance was the French duo of Nina Garcia and Arnaud Riviere. Riviere’s small desk feedback approach provided an intense and varied backdrop of frequencies for Garcia to strategize over on her electric guitar. They stayed busy, pushed forward, and kept inventing for a set that was 75 minutes but felt half that long.
The festival’s midnight shows tend to be where the loud shows get dropped, and this year was no exception with Italian / American quartet Buñuel. Led by Oxbow’s ass-kicker in chief Eugene Robinson it was a tooth-rattling tech/doom hybrid assault that actually knocked power off grid for about ten minutes. Now that’s metal. Special points to Xabier Iriondo for having a cool name and clearly having completed a graduate degree in metal guitar poses.
I tend to have slight bias against the “veteran” performers at any festival, but this year’s shows from Fred Frith and Lori Freedman both unrolled my socks! Frith’s trio was joined by trumpet player Susana Santos Silva and visual artist Heiki Liss for a set that felt like the flyover of a planet of ambient oceans and trees. Freedman’s top flight quintet of improvisers were the most locked in group, finding each other’s entries and exits without fail and presenting a wealth of details for the listener to lean into.
There was a lot more, but then there always is. You can do some extra credit listening when the FIMAV edition of next week’s Surgery Radio podcast drops on Sunday the 28th. Til then I have to reduce the gravy levels in my bloodstream and catch up on sleep.
All photos copyright festival photographer Martin Morrisette.