- For the sixth year in a row, the former Russian airbase that's home to Freqs Of Nature festival opened its doors to the global psy-trance tribe and a growing chunk of the techno community. The site was divided into six stages: techno, experimental, bass, an ambient hangar with sleep concerts and the two main floors, Groove (minimal techno, progressive trance) and Forest (breakcore, hitech psytrance). The layout was such that you never felt disorientated or lost. Each stage had been decorated with a remarkable attention to detail. There were kinetic wooden installations, oversized playgrounds, palaeolithic props and animals scattered across the fields. The weather also played its part in the flow of the festival, alternating between powerful bursts of cloud, sunny skies, gentle breezes and rainbows.
With many of the campers already well into the swing of things, Mark Ernestus's Ndagga Rhythm Force opened the festival with a live performance of frenzied drums, vocals and the feverish dancing of Fatou Wore Mboup, who by the end had coaxed part of the crowd onstage. Takaaki Itoh's early set at the Kreuz & Quer stage on Friday was the first of many memorable ones. He created an electrifying atmosphere with riffs that rotated increasingly quickly until they eventually vanished, causing four hours to pass by in the blink of an eye. This set the tone for Mike Parker, who followed with an intricate mesh of mid-range distortions, howls and otherworldly sounds that made you feel completely lost. In the area surrounding one of the aircraft hangars, which had been turned into a gallery exhibiting Alexander Rodin's chameleonic paintings, a dazzling fire-spinning performance hooked in a sizeable crowd. Freqs Of Nature has a strong art tradition that serves as an expressive outlet for the community who have been working on the site for months.
The Saturday midday dew was shaken off by Naty Seres, who, aside from co-organising the event, captured the crowd effortlessly with a combination of classics and recent tunes (Judas' "Disgrace II"). Polar Inertia and ZV_K stood out among the live performances, with energetic cascades of kicks and melodramatic hissing. Later that evening, Kangding Ray gave the crowd the energy they needed, playing his own edit of The Knife's timeless "Silent Shout" and ending with Surgeon's "Zilla."
A refreshing gust of wind blew through the horizontal crowd as Shackleton arrived at the Rela(x)perimental stage. It wasn't long before everyone slowly took to their feet and started a full-on rave, while the UK artist distilled alchemical potions by intertwining Jhonn Balance's voice with the incessant drumming of Midori Takada's "Catastrophe Σ." Throughout the week, there were several instances of the main techno acts playing notable experimental music: Takaaki Itoh's vaporous ambient, Rrose's healing gong bath and Tobias Freund's four-hour odyssey. A special mention goes to the Ostgut Ton affiliate Alekzandra, who, once she'd bewitched the passing night crowd, sat down and listened religiously.
On Sunday night at Kreuz & Quer, Luigi Tozzi's soothing set opened with Dorisburg's "Irrbloss" and closed with a Marco Shuttle track, which played while the Italian was stood on the dance floor, waiting to perform. Time seemed to stop during Rrose's two-hour slot. The US artist entranced everyone with a stream of ever-evolving percussion, industrial refrains and shamanic windpipes, navigating the delicate balance between wildness and restraint. Shuttle started his seven-hour set with some gentle techno before diving into a run of ethereal grooves, electro cuts and psychedelic rock. The crowd jumped about and wobbled along until dawn arrived in tandem with Gina X Performance's "Nice Mover."
The Forest floor drew my attention several times, particularly during Ruby My Dear and Current Values' melodic takes on breakcore and darkstep respectively. Considerable crowds gathered for both and the energy of their sets visibly satisfied the numerous fast-paced dancers. Partiers at the other main floor, Groove, seemed in a constant state of elation, with deep sounds supplied by the likes of Acid Pauli, Carlo Ruetz and Sebastian Mullaert, who waved the final goodbye with a lush three-hour jam in the haze of Monday afternoon.
In times when music events are becoming increasingly commercialised, profit-based sedatives where one feels trapped rather than free from the daily routine, Freqs Of Nature managed to instil a feeling of unity and transcendence that one rarely encounters. It showed that music, dancing and nature can in fact overcome the separateness of the contemporary human condition.
Photo credit /
AleinWonderland
Mimosa Lo
Johan Delétang
The Forest floor drew my attention several times, particularly during Ruby My Dear and Current Values' melodic takes on breakcore and darkstep respectively. Considerable crowds gathered for both and the energy of their sets visibly satisfied the numerous fast-paced dancers. Partiers at the other main floor, Groove, seemed in a constant state of elation, with deep sounds supplied by the likes of Acid Pauli, Carlo Ruetz and Sebastian Mullaert, who waved the final goodbye with a lush three-hour jam in the haze of Monday afternoon. In times when music events are becoming increasingly commercialised, profit-based sedatives where one feels trapped rather than free from the daily routine, Freqs Of Nature managed to instil a feeling of unity and transcendence that one rarely encounters. It showed that music, dancing and nature can in fact overcome the separateness of the contemporary human condition. Photo credit / AleinWonderland Mimosa Lo Johan Delétang