Dieter Muh #49 : Marie-Antoinette, Berlin Alexanderplatz. 15/06/2013.

The 49th performance by Dieter Muh took place at Marie-Antoinette on June 15 2013. The club is a railway arch situated under the Jannowitzbrukke train station at Alexanderplatz, Berlin. The event was the "Epicurean Escapism Event" curated by Stefan Hanser of Anemone Tube.
I do like Berlin, one of my favourite cities and this was one of my favourite Dieter Muh performances. The evening started with a video presentation by Mike Dando. He read out a statement explaining what we were about to witness. Thirty years of Con-Dom films, from experimental collages on slides to Super-8 films and TV mash-up images. As Mike repeated the statement over and over with minor adjustments on emphasis and minutiae tweaks on vocal effect the films began to roll before an onslaught of Con-Dom soundtrack. Stunning stuff, it works! A whole new avenue and aspect to the work of Con-Dom. I asked Mike where the idea came from, to present his film work in this way. The idea was Stefans', so congratulations there for spotting the possibilities.
Trepaneringsritualen followed. A high energy set with Thomas stalking the "dance floor". I heard "Judas Goat" and the performance ended on (what to me sounded like) a reworking of "Discipline". Louder and more focused than the gig he did in Exeter last April - excellent to see.
Dieter Muh followed. Hypnotische Dreamworks - that was my plan. Escape through trance - looped and layered. I was totally satisfied with the sound and hopefully it will be uploaded on the Internet soon - maybe you tube. There were plenty of folk recording, and it felt like being mobbed by the paparazzi when I first sat down on stage! I was approached after the set by some guy saying that my sound reminded him of Astral Social Club. A fine compliment.
Anemone Tube gave a precision soundtrack to the Austrian film "Angst" creating some fantastic drones with scraping metal, flute and Tibetan percussion. Compelling. Post Scriptvm also filled the venue with a wall of manicured noise. It was good to see a project playing instruments instead of laptops, all the way from New York too. Impressive. Highlights of the sound was Liana's use of the violin, created a great sound .. apparently their theremin broke on the flight over, that would have been interesting.
Where there was once Anenzephalia now there is Ke/Hil. Powerful possession of pulsating power electronics. The sound is not too far away from Anenzephalia, what "seemed" different was Klaus seemed more involved in the vocals. Stunning sound, gripping visuals I had to buy the "Hellstation" CD straight afterwards.
Philipp Strobel of German label Aufnahme & Wiedergabe provided the tunes between sets. As ever when outside the UK, organisation and sound was excellent. I love Berlin.

It was great to meet some old friends, great to see Ville and Heikke in Berlin - all the way from Helsinki, and Daniel & Mario from Rumpti-Pumpsti (I just had to pop in on Saturday - making me late for soundcheck ... ). A meet and greet drinking session took place on the Friday night, getting to know you as Julie Andrews once said. Finally got to chat to Chris Groves of Cipher Productions (all the way from Tasmania) and Wim from Silken Tofu.
Hats off to Stefan and his band of helpers for organising a memorable evening / weekend. A great night out.

There are clips of performances up on You Tube as I type (no Dieter Muh yet) - just type in Epicurean Escapism in the search bar. Also some pictures of the evening are up on Flickr - much better than mine!


Pictures.
1: Marie-Antoinette.
2: Outside. L-R: Jason (Peripheral Records), Klaus and Michael (Ke/Hil), Liana and friend, Thomas (Trepaneringsritualen), Daniel (Human Larvae).
3: Ville, Josef & Heikke (Grey Park).
4 & 5: The Gallery.
6 & 7: Trepaneringsritualen.
8: Dieter Muh. (Thanks Jason for the pictures).
9: Philipp Strobel.
10: Anemone Tube.
11: Post Scriptvm.
12 & 13: Ke/Hil.
14: Chris Groves riding the S Bahn! (very tired about 3 am).