Yuri Landman Ensemble and M185 at the Siluh Records Label Night at Waves Vienna

I've had a pretty good time last Friday, as I joined the Yuri Landman Ensemble for a concert at the Waves Vienna festival.

The Yuri Landman Ensemble is an ever changing band project created, directed by, playing compositions of and performing together with experimental luthier Yuri Landman, with plenty of guitars and Yuri's trademark DIY instruments - the home swingers (see Yuri tuning one on the left) - plus bass and drums. Yuri picks up local musicians wherever the Ensemble plays and quickly teaches them a few minimal repetitive compositions with more or less room for improvisation.

The result is quite impressive - and this particular concert seems to have been a good one -, and that's the kind of music I enjoy playing. I've been part of some impro big bands such as La Pieuvre or LISIM and I always liked parametric improvisation allowing large groups of musicians to improvise together as a collective. Yuri's way is playful and efficient, and the music we played was both improvised and his music, at the same time minimalist and maximalist - all I like.

Also I got to meet some nice people from the impro Viennese scene, and I'm longing to go back on stage more regularly together with other musicians, I didn't do that for ages. After the show I went to have a drink with friends and when I came back to say good-bye to my new comrades, I got stuck in front of the next concert, in a completely different style, but no less excellent. Austrian band M185 plays what I'd call trance rock, with heavy bass lines, hypnotic beats, energetic guitar layers and cool Moog loops - and that's exactly the kind of music I want to listen to lately! M185 has something of the Black Angels but less referenced, less pretentious, more pop - well I really enjoyed it and I also discovered that Austrians can rock - I thought so far they're all just hipsters listening to 2000s minimal/kitsch electronic music.

PS. Actually on Sunday evening I went again to Fluc (the club where we played on Friday) for a minimal/kitsch electronic music concert and really enjoyed myself too (with Superskin and Bear Bones, Lay Low).