OMG, Christian Fennesz on a rare American tour?! OMG, why is he playing at Swedish American Hall and not somewhere epic like one of our fabulous museums?! OMG, who is Christian Fennesz?!
Common audiences do not tune into experimental music, a genre constantly pushing the boundaries by asking ‘what is music?’ The masses seem to recognize new sonic experiments and aesthetics only after they are re-translated by more popular bands like Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Animal Collective, blah blah blah…Although these named bands are probably not influenced by Christian Fennesz, my prediction is that he will definitely influence electronic musicians and guitar composers to come.
Normally, I would break down an artist’s sound but I would like to compare his emotion to a fictional and metaphorical image. You are slowly trudging up Twin Peaks on the foggiest day of the season. You are supposed to be meeting your date there but you’re not quite sure if she’s really going to be there. It’s so foggy that you have lost your way on the road. Now you forcefully trek through thickets and brush. The sweat of excitement cools your back but your feet feel heavy with unnerving anticipation. The wind howls and the pressure is greater than any depth of any ocean. You finally reach the top. It’s so foggy, you can barley see people wandering out of the thick mist three feet in front of you. Walking faster around the craggy mountain you call your date’s name and feel like giving up. Then like a diver coming topside, the hand of the sun comes down. It shears through the fog and allows you to see your date peer through a looking glass onto the city skyline. As you approach her, you realize it’s not really her. Giving up on your initial prospect, you ask her out anyway and walk together down the mountain.
Fennesz is a whirlwind of melodic glitching and ambient white noise that encases particular moments of solitude and bliss while washing over each other, never committing to a direct resolution. Fennesz is an artist who lives in Vienna and Paris, collaborated with the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, and is one third of Fenn O’Berg.
See the man who picks up where Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) left off at the Swedish American Music Hall on September 28th and plays with Odd Nosdam (Anticon Records), one of the Bay Area’s most psychedelic, imaginative and tastefully disturbing Hip-Hop/Electronic producers.
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