Last Sunday, we had a small, but extremely promising event held in Underworld Club, Bucharest. The line-up consisted in 3 lesser known projects from Russia that blended together extremely well: …and brought them atop the mount, Sequoian Aequison and Ypres (having shared band line-up).
The concert started with a bit of a delay, but even an hour later only a small group of around 20 persons gathered inside the venue. I hope people will be more open to experiment in the future and go outside their comfort zone and by comfort zone I am referring to concerts from bigger bands and well-known festivals that already have some exposure. I’m not saying you should skip those certain concerts or festivals, but be willing to see something else, that might turn into an unexpected gem, like the evening I’m referring to.
“…and brought them atop the mount” are an excellent drone / ambient duo. The small club was completely dark, with incense stick burning, and the cat masks the band was wearing contributed to the eerie atmosphere. Personally, their music reminded me of Dirk Serries Microphonics, a project that I saw live in 2013, and some of Dirk’s interviews I read at that moment. One of his ideas was that the ambient music is interacting with the structure of the venue and with the audience, thus being different for each live performance. Likewise, ABTATM’s music seemed somehow organic, like an unnamed creature subtly communicating with those who were there. On their bandcamp page they posted several splits, if I stirred your curiosity.
Next, Sequoian Aequison were an exquisite live performance. This instrumental project blends doom, post-rock, post-metal and stoner elements extremely well. They reminded me of another great post-rock band, our Valerinne. All 4 members are very young and promising and I would surely recommend you keep an eye on them in the future. In fact, I even whispered to my best friend ‘why are they not at Roadburn already!’ and this might sound a bit over-enthusiastic, but I promise you they were very good.
Ypres are the best known project from the line-up. As a matter of fact, almost everybody at our webzine was eager to see them, so we streamed some short live moments, because most of us couldn’t be present. Ypres are coming more strong than Sequoian Aequison, they are less post-rock and more sludge. Unfortunately, the loudspeakers volume was a bit high, and as a result the instruments were louder than the vocals. This spoiled the moment for me a bit and I tried to move around the club to find a better spot, but even in the back the sound was not much better. Instrumental-wise the band is impeccable, with heavy guitar and very impressive drums andI’d quote bands like ISIS and Neurosis as influences. Again, I don’t understand why they are not listened to and promoted more.
As usual, Gheorghe Paraschiv took some beautiful photos, even under low-light conditions – you’ll find them here and I would also like to express my appreciation for the work he did for us this year.
