Festival life and the missing suitcase
Let me tell you about last week. I played two festivals, spent time with some great people, and wondered where the hell my suitcase with synthesizers was. This post is part just showing some clips and recommending some artists, part a lesson for traveling musicians, and of course just story time from life on the road.
Part 1: Oslo - Boksenfestivalen
We will start off in Oslo, where I played at Boksenfestivalen. Boksenfestivalen is the festival of the great (secret) venue Boksen aka Hotbox. A dirty DIY space where there are interesting concerts and club nights. The slogan for the festival seems to be Unsafe art / Safe conditions, which I think is just what we need.
I had been talking to Morten about playing at Boksen for the longest time, but it always clashed with something else, so it was really cool to finally play solo at Boksen! Last year I played with Øy and it was a very nice experience.
The festival ran for four days and Morten asked if I wanted to curate the first night, what an honor! So here are the people I booked.
ILKAMA
First up was ILKAMA. Lovely ambient set full of the sweetest of sounds! So dynamic and well-crafted sounds, ear candy!
Bernt Isak Wærstad
Then it was Bernt Isak Wærstad performing together with a newly trained ai bot. Moving from ILKAMA’s utopia we were now in the deep dark doom. Bernt Isak had some problems with one of his controllers, but didn’t let it get to him, and I wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t told me. He delivered a bombastic and dramatic set. Very nice!
LNUA
Moving over to LNUA with Malin Olsen on visuals we were now in the mood of a sci-fi future. Very nice combination of music and visuals.
Kristoffer Lislegaard
Then it was my turn. I am happy with my set and had a good time. There was a very enthusiastic guy from Seattle who went on the side of the stage to film so I got some nice shots.
I have to admit I was a bit surprised when he walked onto the stage, but he was cool. Bought one of each of my three tapes as well. Thanks dude!
(You can hear his reaction at the end of the video)
Part 2: Trondheim - Elektrosamfundet
Then it was time to go to Trondheim to play at Elektrosamfundet, a festival with a lot of great artists on the program.
Most of it was quite dance oriented so I have to admit that when I saw that my slot was 01:00-02:00 I was a bit nervous. Was this sort of a headliner slot, or was it more of a nachspiel calm down slot?
I made a plan for a setlist and decided to try to go for a powerful start to get people hooked, have a calm ambient part in the middle, and end with a bang.
Samfundet is also quite an interesting place. It is the big student house in Trondheim and is all ran by A LOT of student groups, including the group responsible for video production. So this time it was the students that were doing the visuals instead of myself. I thought that even though it would have been nice to bring my own visuals I wanted to play ball and be a team player.
So I packed up my gear and got on the plane.
The last thing I said to my studio partner Jørgen before I left was:
Well, it should be pretty hard to lose a suitcase from Oslo to Trondheim and not be able to get it there before 1 in the night, but I do as I always do: When possible, bring enough gear in the hand luggage that you would be able to do the gig even if your suitcase doesn’t show up.
This turned out to be critical!
Because what do you think happened? Well, no suitcase! Here is a short summary of the next hours:
- No suitcase on the belt.
- Went to talk to the people responsible, met a note that said “Sorry nobody is working today. Scan this QR-code”
- Scanned the QR, filled out the form.
- The internet said they found my suitcase and put it on the next flight and said they would bring it to my hotel.
- Radio silence.
SO HOW DID THE GIG GO? DID YOU CANCEL?!!?
Luckily as I told Jørgen I brought the most important gear in the hand luggage! PUH! So in my hand luggage I had my laptop, controllers and in ear monitors. In the suitcase I had a modular synth, my Organelle (that I use for granular live sampling), audio interface, microphone (for talking), etc. etc.
So I knew that I would be able to do the gig with just software, but I would have to think differently than I did in Oslo, change the setlist and also see if I could substitute some of my hardware with software. Luckily my whole setup is very modular, and I had time at the venue. I plugged into the DJ-mixer on stage, plugged my in ears to the headphone output on the mixer, borrowed a microphone and plugged that into the mixer and used Madrona Labs Aalto software synthesizer instead of my modular.
So everything went great! I had to think and improvise on stage, but that is of course something I like to do so it actually turned into a very fun gig for me. People also enjoyed it. Most people lay down on the floor and looked up on the visuals in the ceiling. There was some talking at the beginning of the gig, but after a while people just got quiet and tuned into the music and the visuals.
When I was done and after applauding, people told me (and messaged me) that it was totally magical for them, that they had been on a journey and that they had never experienced anything like it. So this felt especially good after all this time of wondering how this gig was going to go.
Good times! Yay!
Video clips from the festival
Here are some clips from the night!
Lárus
First up was Lárus. He was actually allowed to do his own visuals (hehe) so he brought Ola Lysgaard to perform as a live AV duo. This set totally blew me away and I keep on telling him that he has to release an album now! Super eclectic, from danceable via experimental to ambient. Constantly surprising.
Sorry for the video compression Lysgaard!
Patås
Then it was time for Patås. I remember he once told me that he really likes things to be playful (inspiration for the name of his label Lek I guess, which means play in norwegian) and this is exactly the mood he brought!
Moving his machines and riffs seamlessly between breakbeats, acid and techno it is music you are unable not to dance and smile to. Good shit as we say! I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get to see him when he performed in Oslo not too long ago so this was a great treat!
Kristoffer Lislegaard
The clock turned 01:00 and it was time for my set.
I didn’t manage to document much. I was tired from thinking about my suitcase which also had both my camera stands so I decided to focus on playing. But here are a few lofi clips from pretty early in the concert.
Heading home and Final words
The next day my suitcase showed up just in time for me to take a shower, change clothes (located in the suitcase) and head back to Oslo.
So my big tip for all traveling musicians: If you can, bring enough gear in your hand luggage that you will be able to do the gig if this is all you got!
Thanks for reading!
Shoutout and thanks for good hangouts to Lárus, Patås, Kim Dürbeck, Haider and Ola Lysgaard. Also thanks to the guy who helped us find the exit from hyblene at Samfundet and the guy working in the hotel chatting with us at 4 in the morning :)
