Wolfgang Voigt in London

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  • Despite maintaining a fairly low profile, Wolfgang Voigt remains an eminent and continuously evolving artist. The Kompakt co-founder has recently switched his attention back to Rückverzauberung, a live ambient project that champions a modern-classical approach to electro acoustic sound-design. The new album, which Voigt recently performed in full at Dalston's Café Oto, incorporates the same granular orchestral timbres and hypnotically repetitive motifs as his last work, 2014's Rückverzauberung 9. The result is heady, nuanced and sophisticated. There's something wonderfully noire about dropping into Café Oto on a winter's evening. The room was lit by a handful of lamps and candle-lit tables, and the rows of seats had long been occupied by early arrivals. There were two types of clientele: trendy east-enders and middle-aged connoisseurs. Astral Industries chief Ario opened the evening with mysterious sonic explorations that revolved around a rooted minor tonality. He weaved a stimulating tapestry of sound, evolving from chant-like synth lines and rumbling bass into a series of instrumental mantras, led by organ and string dissonances. The arrangement was very Philip Glass, not dissimilar from his seminal "Koyaanisqatsi" composition. But as interesting as the music was, some of the crowd grew visibly restless due to Ario's lack of stage presence. That's understandable—using just a laptop, he might as well have been checking his emails. After a short break, Voigt began. A slowly pulsating bassline underpinned an intro of airy pads and blissful strings. The room was hot and stuffy, and Voigt's set drifted between the halcyon string motif and a much darker and oppressive sound. This powerful antithesis became a running theme throughout and was at once riveting and exhausting. During the more foreboding moments, Voigt looked sinister in the darkness, his hands becoming elongated and skeletal. The performance left me mentally and emotionally drained, but also with a quiet sense of satisfaction. Coupled with Café Oto's rich acoustics, Voigt’s set showed the inspiring breadth of his musical endeavour. Although the music had long finished, his idyllic refrains continued to echo in my ears as I stepped back out in the crisp London night.
RA