Sturmklang Festival

INSANITY IS FREEDOM COMFORMITY IS DEATH

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29/4/98 THE DRESDEN EXPERIENCE - VIVA LAS DRESDEN

sturmk.jpg (55729 bytes) (from PENGO N22)
Back in Italy from our last travel in Germany, this time in Dresden, nice East German city destroyed in the last days of war by allies airplanes with Fluor bombs. After a quiet night in Munich, Luca Wutanes Heer, Tom (AGHARTI mail order, our usual host in our Munich travels) and I leave the Bavarian city to cross Germany in a warm quiet day of spring. First time in eastern Germany I note immediately two things: 1) Cars and busses are very old styled and they remember the glorious PRINZ my father used to drive when I was a child (not so much time ago someone could says). 2) There are no organized service areas and parking places WCs are those horrible chemical closets where you can see everything those who passed before you has left... Old boy scout remembrances of self imposed stipsis made my belly hurt...

Arrived in Dresden we find quite immediately the place (but not unless loosing ourselves in the motorway, leading toward north thanks to our usual attention...) thanks to the very affable citizens which show us the way to SCHLOSS NICKERN, where the first show as to be held. After 3 hours under the sun nearby the little old building turned into a pub/show hall, our friends CAMERATA MEDIOLANENSE arrive, very tired after an unlucky travel with a little crash and other useless misfortunes. Trevor, their singer, with a sad smile on his face shows me the NORTHGATE Cd, our first experiment/production we'll speak more about next time... After about three years I meet with Stefan of SIGILL magazine/EIS UND LICHT , one of the organizers of the show who struggled to organize Italy's neo-renaissance military project which we deeply love, both in music than as persons. We wait for the show speaking with the usual friends of many adventures from MEMBRUM DEBILE PROPAGANDA, TESCO, PAGAN MUZAK, etc. I was expecting more persons, but I was thinking that the cause for not such big crowd was the fact that another show would have started in few hours at ten minutes by the Schloss. The youth center has a nice pub which reminded me the old pirate bars of Stevenson's stories. We stay there a little bit waiting to see once again our friends at work. The show starts with "IL Fuoco" with Trevor in LEATHER version. Their now classic songs are done one by one. Unluckily the sound is not very good, especially when Daniela, their very talented and sexy singer, start to sing. Luckily the set goes on sounds turns better and the powerful military drumming of Manuel, Pier and Trevor become more impressive, with the great composition of Elena on keyboards. What a pity we have to leave and, most of all, what a pity that not so much people went at the show after Ronni and Stephan worked so hard to organize such show. We leave in a hurry to get as soon as we can at the CLUB MULLERBRUNNEN, a nice small club where PAGAN MUZAK and Membrum Debile Porpaganda organized the most awaited festival of this first part of this year. Arrived there we meet with Mike Dando of CON-DOM, a real teacher to me... The fun starts immediately with old remembrance of our tour at his house and bla bla bla.... Great! INADE starts the show with some new very experimental stuff. I've always enjoyed them, but their new kind of atmospheres are much more in my wavelength. The show is a creation of intense ritual textures, married with very nice videos dealing with Tibetan ritual stuff, the Vril project (something which seems to be really in vogue at the moment), etc. made me finally taste which paste the LOKI FOUNDATION brothers are made of. Great! Can't wait to see them again. The show has been followed by PREDOMINANCE, with a new record out in the last weeks. Their new sound is in some way less heavy and extreme, it always has that kind of obscure Satanic feeling, but evolved in a more melodic, atmospheric way. I loved it. Bases at the back, impressive videos showing a well known Italian visionary woman crying blood (already seen in ALLERSEELEN's video for MACROCEPHALOUS COMPOST), Anger's LUCIFER RISING, bodies in movement, Baphomet, the Hindeburg
accident (that gives title to the new P LP), and so on... Very theatrical singer, perfect sound... God! This German kicks ass! Few minutes speaking with the guys of Homicide Society and my friend Bastian Jurk and Mike get on stage, stop a candle to start the best show of the evening (and the best CON-DOM show I've seen). CON-DOM is for me a guide, an inspiration , an example of how counterculture can be intelligent, aggressive and extreme at the same moment. His vision of the CONTROL/DOMINATION dichotomy is brought at the most of expression through a multi effected - dehumanized voice, lots of action, super 8 films dealing with religion, control, psychiatry (excerpts from a very old/rare W. Reich documentary had been screened, who has complete version please let meknow) ... multimedia means from the real prince of disorder r. Mike Dando speaks the word of god, with a voice who can sounds like that of an old mad preacher foreseeing the upcoming day of judgment, then after some minutes he cover his face and become THE MOOR RAPIST, touching women and males, watching the reaction of a molested audience. I hope that few of the pics I've done came... The sound of CON-DOM is his usual. A wall of sound with grinding feedback, controversial lyrics, action... action... and again action! Oh God... I want more! I want to bring him in Italy... next year... The show ends and we are all pretty shocked... Can't stop listening in my hears "I NEED RAPE... I NEED RAPE"... My God... I need to sit down... The night end with Mike, Kerstin, Bastian and me, telling bullshits about this and that... Great night... God... What a pity that I have few minutes to speak with Michi from Pagan M. before leaving for a night of sleep in a parking place with my loyal friends. The following day we are at the Turbund headquarter finally speaking about very serious things and discussing about the highest kind of political strategies. Luckily I have some time to show that I'm able to speak also with dedicated and serious persons about serious intellectual things... We listen some interesting music especially a new Italian avant garde project coming from my city who has just done a tape dedicated to romantic love and idealization of the feminine figure influenced by dante Alighieri and Petrarca, together with another project from somewhere else in the good Old Boot... MMM can't remember the name of the projects... But the tape is called womanhood... or something like this... After such a serious and dialectical afternoon we come back at Tom's place in Munich and leave for a long travel back to Italy... some tears also this time fills our tired eyes... Germany it's at our back... Grey life in Pizzaland this way come... also this time greetings to all the people we had fun with... sooner or later we'll move to Germany... THIS IS A MENACE....

Reproduced with a kind permission of Depla/SOFFITTA MACABRA, ITALIA
Visit SOFFITTA MACABRA site at http://noiseweb.com/soffmac