3rd October

October 3, 2004

The ongoing adventures of Centrozoon provided a wonderful early September diversion.

The 5 days spent at the ARS Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria were relaxing, enjoyable and an ideal way to contextualise recent emotional upheavals that have been exhilarating, frustrating and quite probably the source of another exquisitely miserable concept suite that could be brewing in the ‘canyons of my mind’!

Centrozoon’s part of the festival consisted of performing for two hours on top of a small boat, mostly improvising, between stops on the Danube (or ‘the blue doughnut’, as we liked to call it).

A good performance, spectacular location and decent enough response totally justified our efforts, while my favourite moment came when, simultaneously, 10 Japanese tourists excitably set up their digital video-cams to film us in action.

When not intensely wandering around the beautiful streets of Linz (allegedly, Hitler’s favourite city) seeking out CD shops, I spent much of the rest of the time with Centrozoon and the wonderfully gregarious Janek Schaefer watching other excellent festival events including Steve Reich, AGF with Craig Armstrong, Fennesz and Ligeti.

A ‘festival of the future’, the AEC had genuine scope, ambition and purpose and is something I’d return to in an instant.

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With new releases from Brian Wilson, The Blue Nile, Bjork, American Music Club and AGF, the year’s suddenly started to sound good. At this rate, I might even have 10 albums I like by the end of the year!

Film-wise, this month’s recommendations are Pieces Of April (featuring the lovely Katie Holmes), Love And Death On Long Island and the emotionally charged 21 Grams.