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"Music
for the 3rd Millennium"
The London Concert
"Music
for the 3rd Millennium Vol. 2, which took place in October 2000, was
the UK's final electronic music concert of the year 2000.
The
setting was a spectacular Gothic church in central London, and the cast was
stellar. After an absence from the live scene of almost 15 years, Michael
Rother (of early Kraftwerk, and Neu!) joined forces with fellow ex-Harmonia
member Dieter Moebius (of Cluster) for the headlining set. Since any of the
duo's joint studio work has yet to emerge on CD, this remains the only
available example of their recent collaboration.
 
Next
on the bill was White Noise, whose comeback CD "White Noise 5 - Sound
Mind" gets back to the psychedelic, experimental roots of the
groundbreaking 1960's debut An Electric Storm. Headed by David Vorhaus,
the group this time round comprised a trio including two laptop operators, plus
a guest appearance by Alex Paterson (of The Orb) who mixed in ambient material
which added to the drum loops, sequencers and abstract patterns of the White
Noise soundscapes.
With
Germany and the UK already represented, it was off to Mexico for a set from
Alquimia, whose music, and album A Separate Reality, featured a unique
combination of voices, synthesizers and sequencing and has been a huge success
around Europe. Apart from improvised voice loops and album material, Alquimia
introduced film soundtrack composer Michael Nyman who added piano for a couple
of collaborative numbers.
Then it
was over the channel to Europe for a long set from WaveWorld, the synth duo
from Holland whose albums are setting new standards in atmospheric, ambient
music and whose performance was accompanied by spectacular, spacey computer
graphic projections.
The
combination of space music, computer graphics and (for the more rhythmic
elements of the White Noise set) some intense psychedelic lighting was
overwhelming. The Arts organization, The Goethe Institute, had helped fund the
headline act, and have to be congratulated for such an effective involvement in
the electronic music scene. Now the organizers are looking for opportunities to
give a "3rd Millennium" concert with some of the same artists
elsewhere in Europe and in the USA.
A
taste of the show has now also been made available on CD as Music for the 3rd
Millennium Vol. 2, follows up on 2000's debut album in the series. The
"3rd Millennium" London concert is superbly represented by a live
excerpt from the Rother/Moebius set, an unreleased WaveWorld piece, and by
Alquimia's involvement in a new project with synthesist Mark Jenkins, "Spiral
of Silence", which powerfully fuses voice, synthesizers and loops
on a piece inspired by one of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
The
CD also features much more. opens with an up-tempo unreleased piece from world
music stars Deep Forest, proceeds with an unheard and very symphonic Bernard
Xolotl track, and has symphonic inspired piano-and-synth pieces from
Clearlight, Nick Magnus (of Steve Hackett's band) and Ryo Okumoto (of prog
rockers Spock's Beard).
There
are techno-oriented instrumentals from Hideki Matsutake (of YMO), Nick Rhodes
(of Duran Duran), and a powerful electronic piece by the as yet unrecorded duo,
Modulus. Pure synth music is represented by Bernd Kistenmacher and by Tangerine
Dream's Paul Haslinger, with a more ambient piece from Michael Stearns. Prog
rocker Dave Greenslade has a track from his solo CD The Pentateuch of the
Cosmogony massively remixed by Mark Jenkins. A final goodie is a
previously unheard instrumental from Canadian electro-pop legend Nash The
Slash. Compiled by Mark Jenkins, Music for the 3rd Millennium Vol. 2 is
available in a strictly limited, numbered edition of 1,000 with color sleeve
photos and is bound to become a huge collectors' item for anyone interested in
synthesizer, progressive or ambient music.
Mark
Jenkins
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