Day 27: A mixed bag

After the euphoria of "walking" home from the sleep concert the rest of the day, for me, was a bit of a mixed bag. I took my time getting organized in the morning. I wasn't all that sleepy, but I was ultra chilled. My first activity was to attend an artist talk for a performance coming up tonight. On one hand it was a bit odd listening to the artists explain something I knew nothing about, but on the other hand I think their explanations will help me make better sense of what I will see. I'll explain more tomorrow.

I'd intended to hang around for the next talk but felt the need for a quick nap to keep me going.

I returned a bit later to attend the artist talk from Robert Rich, master of the sleep concert. He was fascinating to listen to. His main area is sleep psychology ... music was more of a sideline, at least initially. He talked about the history behind the sleep concerts which he began in 1982 and elaborated a bit more on the intention behind last night's event. The real intent behind the concerts is to encourage people to listen closely to the music and focus on the tiny details. The only way Robert had been able to work out how to get people to sit and do that for long enough was to give them permission to sleep if they wanted ... hence the sleep concert.

The effect of having continuous aural stimulation for that long is that it prevents the listener from attaining deep sleep, but instead keeps them in the first stage of sleep where it's easier to recall details of the thoughts and images that appear in your head. I can attest to that with the details I was able to recall from my dreams.

While waiting to go in I chatted to a while with a chap from Holland. This is his third Unsound festival. I've been thinking that this probably won't be my last.

After some dinner I headed to the first evening event. It was a concert of two performances at a massive church, St Catherine's. The cavernous interior of the church was ideal for the styles of music being played tonight. Both involved heavy use of "loop pedal" technology to build up intricate evolving patterns and layers of vocals and instruments. I could appreciate the beauty of both artists. However, music created this way usually ends up being limited to a very narrow range of notes or chords, much like a round. This is partly a necessity due to the technology. For me, listening to piece after piece limited to such a narrow range of notes became monotonous. Strangely, earlier in the week I was really engaged in listening to "drone" music which was almost monotone. There is a difference but I can't quite put my finger on it yet. I left before the end of the second performance.

Afterwards was the first of what have been labelled the "club" nights back at the Hotel Forum. I decided to head there. The vibe was very different to the earlier night with heavy beats already pumping inside as the long queue patiently waited outside. I recognized many faces from events in the previous few days but it appeared we were to be joined by an equally large number of others, mostly younger.

I stayed to listen to two bands. Tralala Blip are from Australia and their brand of chaotic electro beats was really good. I loved their sound and aesthetic. They were followed by James Ferraro (USA) who's music was intense and dark with a lot of spoken voice lines repeated over thick bass lines and not so much rhythm. I liked it too. Forest Swords (UK) who I saw at Unsound London were next. I stayed to listen for a while but I wasn't really feeling it and I wasn't really enjoying the vibe of the place in general either. On reflection this morning I think maybe it was just tiredness but at the time the crowd felt a little aggressive to me so I decided to leave.