September 12, 2003
It’s Sunday night in Gütersloh and it’s freezing. The only refuge from the harsh elements is that high water mark of German culture, Köchlöffel.
Two coffees later, served by a visibly shocked waitress who obviously equates my faltering Deutsche-English with incomprehensible alien, I’m on ‘stage’ with Centrozoon performing at the Martin Luther Church.
Refraining from defiling the pulpit and the magnificent resident organ, we play a soothing ‘ambient’ version of the Centrozoon set to the 50 or so troubled souls who’ve bothered to check out the bizarre sounds emanating from their regular place of worship. Evensong this isn’t.
Comprising three existing tunes and three improvisations, the performance is mostly good, and barring a few technical difficulties, sounds excellent throughout.
New piece ‘Skylight’ receives its first outing and is surprisingly strong, as is the improvisation which follows a strangely muted version of ‘Make Me Forget You’ from ‘The Scent Of Crash And Burn’ EP.
A nice break from the usually loud and intense Centrozoon performances, the ornate interior of the church provides a wonderful backdrop to an emotive and focused performance.
In two days, we play again in Gütersloh (this time filmed) and at the weekend we travel to Berlin, where we perform as part of an arts festival.