Tag: Faust

Tony Conrad with Faust – Outside the Dream Syndicate Alive

It’s a bit like you are listening to an instrumental part of The Velvet Underground’s “Black Angel’s Death Song” when someone sneaks up behind you and shoots you in the back of the head. As the bullet tears through your brain, there is a sudden moment when your perception of time is destroyed and those last few moments of your life are somehow spun out into a bewildering hour. This is how the last moment of music would sound.

This is a live album. This is a live album wherein minimalist violinist Tony Conrad revisits his 1972 collaboration with Faust some 23 years later in London. What makes it all the more remarkable is this was only his third meeting with the band (the second being for another mid 90s concert). It’s just Conrad with Jean-Hervé and Zappi of Faust along with premier leftfieldist Jim O’Rourke.

Let’s not mince words: the original album had a startling power but is now pretty much rendered obsolete by the sheer blistering intensity of this harsh, live version. It has much more zest, more aggression, more impact. It somehow burns itself into your mind and leaves behind such an imprint, that you can still hear it playing once the CD has ended, much like the way a bright light leaves it’s mark on your eyes after it’s switched off.

To sum it up in 2 words: shit hot

FAUST + Ectogram – Newcastle Academy 2, UK, 8th November 2005

So, my first encounter with the group Ectogram. Two dueling psychedelic guitars underpinned by a powerful drummer and complimented by the vocals of one of those guitarists, Ann. It’s always tricky to judge a support group, particularly when you haven’t heard them before and are all hyped up for the main act, but still Ectogram managed to impress. I am going to have to track down some of their stuff.

As for Faust, well, I never! Where to begin? I go to gigs every week. Hell, this week I’ve got 4 gigs written into my diary. I have been a regular gig goer for around 15 years now. The point I’m trying to make, basically, is that I have seen a thing or two in my time. I’m not wet behind the ears or easily impressed [2022 note – think I was insecure about being new to krautrock].

I state all this because at this gig, I was more than a bit impressed. A bit bloody gob-smacked would probably be the right turn of phrase here. I’d seen the first rehearsals from this line-up of Faust on the “Connections” DVD. I’d heard them on the “Collectif Met(z)” box set. I’d read all about how good the tour was from the e-mails on the Faust List. I even knew the set lists for every previous night of the tour. I’d even heard about what went on in the stage show.

Somehow, though, even though I knew all about it, Faust still managed to completely surprise me. Maybe it’s the way they lulled me into a false sense of serenity by opening up with a lush, soothing rendition of “Listen To The Fish”. They followed that up with “It’s A Bit Of A Pain” and suddenly, Zappi’s no longer holding back and neither is Jean-Hervé. The new members Olivier and Amaury fuse naturally into the sound, adding a distinct edge of their own.

After breathing fresh new life into that old classic, Jean-Hervé begins to shout at us that “this is not music” and suddenly, he hops off the stage and unveils an ironing board at the front. He switches on the iron and persuades an audience member to take off their shirt for ironing. Suddenly, Zappi comes marching to the front of the stage with a load of metal bars and begins to hurl them off the stage onto the metal plate at the front of the crowd. A plate I’d been standing on until I stood back to give Jean-Hervé room to hop off the stage. Luckily, they’re fairly light pipes or I’m too enraptured by the whole thing to feel any pain when they bounced off and into me.

I’m feeling all cool and laid-back, when suddenly “oh fuck!” he’s wielding a bloody big lead pipe above his head and I start to leg it into the crowd when I realise he’s just banging it above his head and isn’t going to lob it at me. That sense of calm and safety is soon shattered when he begins using an angle grinder and fires sparks into the crowd. The security guard’s faces are a complete picture – horror, fear and helplessness as they shout into their headsets and walkie-talkies. One of them later on tells me not to dance near to the iron. Come on! They’re an avante-garde rock ‘n’ roll band! They may throw pipes off stage and shower us in sparks but they’re not going to leave the iron plugged in! They’re not barbarians!

By now, a big smile is stretched across the faces of nearly all the crowd (if not the venue staff) and then they only go and play “The Sad Skinhead”. After that, Zappi conducts a small group of beautiful young ladies [2022 note – single, much?] for a rendition of “I’ve Got My Car And My TV” and dancing like mad seems the only sensible option.

Then, Jean-Hervé begins the discussion: “Rund Ist Schön” when suddenly the local firemen’s marching band ambush us from behind and come to the front to jam with Faust. After this, you begin to wonder what next? An alien choir? What comes next is a fantastic selection of songs, mainly new which meld Zappi’s heavy but oh-so-danceable drumming with some head-banging guitar thrash-outs and heavy wildness. We get a blazing version of “Mamie Is Blue”, another marching band jam and some big smiles.

Of course, the crowd wouldn’t let them get away without an encore and very loud applause dragged them out to finish us all off with “It’s A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl”. How could you sum this night up? It wasn’t a gig, it was a happening, a special event and something that will stay with me for a very long time [2022 note – it certainly has and not just because it came out on DVD in the ‘Faust in Autumn’ set]. Blimey!

 

 

Huge thanks to Peter Kidd, David Enzor and to Emma @ AMG.

Faust in a box

It’s taken me a while to get round to reviewing this box set, as it takes a lot of getting your head around. The first disc is more rehearsals from the new Faust [JHP, Zappi, Olivier & Amaury]. The second disc is a live album they recorded in Paris in 1996 with the same line-up under the name Collectif Met(z). Disc 3 features solo material from Jean-Hervé Peron and Zappi. The fourth disc is an 8 minute VCD of footage from after the 1996 concert.

Let’s begin in the present with disc one – the modern Faust. Sometimes heavy drone-rock, sometimes lighter and more song-based. These are not studio recordings but more recordings of the new Faust in rehearsal (like the excellent Connections DVD). Someone once described acoustic performances as being “a band naked” but in many ways, these raw, primal sessions are the closest music gets to naked. Just a band playing and something in the corner recording. Not that for a minute you should associate such abrasive sound for anything substandard. It takes a certain confidence in your art to release your music in such an unrefined format, a confidence which recently led to the band Arctic Monkeys selling out large venues in the UK before they’d even released a single thanks to their demos being all over the internet. We’ve all heard great songs with massive production, now the public’s thirst for something new craves great songs without any studio trickery. That’s disc one for you.

Disc two is 6 solo tracks from Zappi and 3 from Jean-Hervé. All the tracks on here are playful and quite laid back. As you can imagine, Zappi’s pieces are heavy on rhythm, while Jean-Hervé’s are more song based. JHP’s epic “Rund ist Schoen” is a 15-minute
meditation from somewhere outdoors in London. His other 2 tracks “Melancholy on Three Strings” and “Decisions” are acoustic, laments sung in his mother tongue (French). Zappi comes up with some great songs and some equally great song titles: “Mufflet” and “Stumpling” both being delicious words that I have never heard before.

The third disc is the 1996 concert. This is a heavier, more firey kind of a beast. In fact, it’s fair to say this is a sonic assault. Brutal, provocative and, of course, utterly enjoyable. Here Faust (or Collectif Met(z) as they were known at the time) go full-on. Things unknown roar and rumble, while JHP takes to the microphone like he was summoning demons. The rhythms are heavy, driving, skull-crushing and immense. The noise is hypnotic.The sound is intense. This is a chugging beast of a concert. No old songs are played, although JHP does sing “Mamie Is Blue” at one point, but the music is so different it seems more like a nod to the original than a reworking. It sounds like the audience don’t know what to make of it – the crowd noise could be rapture or could be rage. It’s probably both.

The 4th and final disc is simply an 8 minute video filmed as the live set on disc 3 ended. One of the tracks from the set plays while over the top we hear the audience’s joy and confusion. As the camera darts around the smoke-filled venue and then does close-ups on people talking a language that I don’t speak, the effect is a disorientating as being hit repeatedly in the face with an invisible brick.

It’s a cracking little box, full of magic and indispensable for the Faust fan.

Faust “Connections” DVD

A new Faust has been born, fusing Zappi & JHP from the original line-up with Ulan Bator members Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion. This DVD allows you to witness the birth of this new line-up. We begin with the plane containing Amaury & Olivier landing and then you get their first session. Unrehearsed, spontaneous music with no overdubs.

It’s a brave move for a band to release a DVD of their all-new line-ups first ever session but, let’s face it, they all know how to play and the results are nothing short of exciting. 6 new, spontaneous songs that let you know a brand new Faust is coming.

As you would expect, the visuals are as disorientating and entertaining as the music. Sometimes words scroll across the top of screen. At times they seem to be translations of the lyrics, at others times they appear like invocations on the themes of the lyrics.

Zappi really is a hell of a drummer and Jean-Hervé the perfect foil to his power. These 2 have a musical bond built up over years, so it’s incredible to hear the new members finding their place in the music immediately.

As fun as it is fascinating, “Connections” is a very well produced DVD and definitely one that I’ll be watching again and again.

a small chat with Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust!

Jean-Hervé Peron is a man who should need no introduction.However, it would be rude and lazy of me not to. It is now 35 years since Faust began their extraordinary transmissions from the studio. We, the world, are still scratching our heads and trying to work out where this music came from. How can we ever nail it down with such crude weapons as words? Listening to the works of Faust makes you crave for more words in the language to try and express what is happening to your ears.Jean-Hervé Peron is part of the multi-headed beast that is Faust. At the time of writing, he is part of a new line-up of Faust with Zappi and Ulan Bator members Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion.This new line-up played at Jean-Hervé’s Avante-Garde Fiesta in September 2005 alongside the likes of Uli Trepte (Guru Guru), Ectogram, Chris Cutler (Henry Cow, Art Bears), Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now) and a set from Ulan Bator. The festival took place near Hamburg/Lubeck and Jean-Hervé even arranged for festival goers to be collected from the nearby railway station and airport (and cheapo airline Ryanair fly there!), so it shouldn’t have hurt the bank too much for anyone.Next up is the ‘Faust in Autumn’ tour of the UK and Ireland to come, so it is all go right now.I e-mailed Jean-Hervé a few questions by e-mail. Here is his response.Jean-Hervé: Hi Ned. Some among us have had the privilege to be visited by the Sacred Fire, this for no evident reason; as the seed blindly falls here or there, so Inspiration visits him or her without distinction: it just happens. It is even useless to hope for it or to prepare for it.Nonetheless, the duration and the intensity of this state of soul depends, without a doubt but only to a certain extend, on our personal behavior and on outer circumstances. This fire kissed me, devoured me. I have known love, jubilation, innocence. Within this period Faust was born.What happened then to this Fire, to Faust, and what will I become?For the sake of laughing, I shall say that, the fire being eternal, it does not bother about my whereabouts. Faust, being what it will be, remains what it was, with or without me; And as far as I am concerned, dear Ned, although I still do not fear to lose neither my teeth nor my time, it is undeniable that they inexorably abandon me and time seems somehow to bypass me. I must confess I am almost fully responsible for this, as my own philosophy tells me we are, consciously or unconsciously, the own makers of the circumstances around us. Of course, there are still the divine or banal unforeseenables such as… for example… for example…Ned: What are your current musical projects?Jean-Hervé: I am ever so glad to say that I have so many projects at the moment, the most actual being an avant garde festival in mid september. My beloved wife Carina and myself organize events regularly and this one is going to be fantastic. Check the line-up! Besides this immediate project, I am preparing the ‘Faust in Autumn’ UK tour for October and November. The ‘machine’ is a bit rusty so we are having some problems here and there. But we’ll get by with a little help from our friends, like the members of the Faust-Pages or Ankst Records or you.I am finishing the cd box of Collectif Met(z) it will be a box of three CDs plus a cd-video, the story of our encounters with Ulan Bator in 1995 and then 2005.I have started my own website Art-Errorist and I am developing my merchandising. That includes the re-productions of past live concerts, very old documents, collaborations with various artists. Oooh that is so exciting, and a lot of work.It is getting in shape though!What else? Well we have a big house with a big garden and we have five children and a few grandchildren. Keeps you busy, all this.Ned: How important is being independent to achieving your maximum creativity as an artist?Jean-Hervé: “Independent”? You mean financially independent? I am broke man, poorer than the poorest church-mouse as we say in Germany. This financial state is more inspiring than anything else.Or you mean mentally independent? Yes, I am free in my head. I think it is called inhibited? I have no problem with making a fool of myself, I feel I am the center of the world and I don’t feel it’s wrong to think this way; I have managed to get over the top after a mighty depression caused by past problems related with Faust. Well I do not know whether I achieve the ‘maximum of my creativity’ or not but I know it is extremely liberating/fulfilling to create music.Ned: How exposed are you to popular culture?Jean-Hervé: I am extroverted and thus I do expose myself quite openly to whatever comes my way, let it be a group of kids shouting or a klezmer band going wild or a pig eating or a concrete-mixer churning peacefully or the radio turned on to any channel according to the hazard of the moment.Ned: Given the chance, would you allow the mainstream to embrace you? For instance, would you accept a support slot with U2 or allow your music to be used for an iPod commercial?Jean-Hervé: I have heard that U2 is a very good band but they would never accept to play as a support act for Faust. or do you mean faust supporting U2? It would not be suitable. The audience would not be prepared: no I would not do it.My music being used as a commercial? Yes. I have done this already. I do not feel bad about it. I would NOT sell my music to a firm that I reject for reasons of ethics. I do not care about money in general.Ned: How did you first come across Ulan Bator?Jean-Hervé: Through Olivier Manchion who contacted us 1994 maybe, very quickly a friendship developed between us. We did a gig in Metz, France 1995. They helped us in our tour 1994 when I decided to withdraw from the tour.Ned: As half of Ulan Bator are now in Faust, will there be a full Ulan Bator show before Faust concerts on this forthcoming tour?Jean-Hervé: No. Ectogram will be supporting us. I like them very much. They give me strength. They spread vibes of love and dedication. I am glad they accept to support us on this difficult come-back.Olivier and Amaury and Zappi and myself melt into Faust.Ned: What was working with Michael Gira (on Ego:Echo) like?Jean-Hervé: I sat early in the morning at the door of the recording studio. No one around yet, I blew my trumpet. They arrived. I went into the studio. Olivier sat beside me. I played one ton. A long time. Somebody in the mixing room liked it. It was done then. I left. I did not see him.Ned: Who do you most admire from popular culture?Jean-Hervé: Edith PiafNed: How do you feel about the strong interest in Kosmische music and it’s influence on music’s present mainstream?Jean-Hervé: It is an absolute natural phenomenon: we were avant garde 30 years ago. Now we are simply modern, soon we will be out of date. But I’ll be dead before I get old.C’est le printemps chez les herbivores! Love and respect.