Andy Holden ‘Anvil’
BBC Symphony Orchestra – Mahler Fifth Symphony [06.10.2023] @ Barbican
“The Fifth Symphony comes to terms with the idea of sonata form by splitting, in a sense, into two first movements; by its spirit the first would be the exposition, the second the development. The exposition movement is a funeral march arranged in squares, without free space for development; the second is constructed as a sonata rondo with its own development; the extensive interpolations from the first movement confuse the sonata feeling. If the Fifth tends toward the spirit of the sonata, it resists its structure all the more irritably” – Theodor Adorno, Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy, page 96.
I don’t know enough about musicology to understand Adorno’s grumpiness. But from the mournful first movement to the serene adagietto to the extravagant rondo-finale, there was nothing to be irritable about at the Barbican on this evening.
Municipal Waste w/ Gel & Undeath [07.10.2023] @ Islington Assembly Hall
From Mahler one night to crossover thrash metal the next. The singer from Virginia outfit throws a large cardboard box into the crowd, it is tossed around like a beach ball, eventually becoming a vessel for crowd surfers. Party thrash is not my thing but much respect to the band and their fans for such amazing energy.
Andy Holden – Song of Songs [14.10.2023] @ Seventeen Gallery
Seventeen Gallery in Haggerston consistently puts on solid exhibitions, one of the few commercial galleries in London to feature artists that aren’t very commercial. Andy Holden’s Song of Songs is one of those solid exhibitions.
In the first room: prints of telescope images taken in outer space with novelty “googly” eyes attached to them. Over the speaker we hear Holden’s band’s rendition of David Lang’s Just (After Song of Songs). There is something oddly touching about the toylike eyes. Beaming out like stars. Together with the soft vocals they hit you somewhere deep: “Just your eyes / And my beloved”.
In the second room: a makeshift living room, a memorial to Holden’s friend and collaborator Dan Cox who died tragically in 2011. Alongside various sculptures and furniture, the room contains Cox’s library. Particularly haunting is the prominence of books on time and death: Cioran, Cixous, Saint Augustine, Levinas.
In the third room: tiny 3D printed sculptures of the artist. In the image featured above: A giant anvil crushing Holden’s head. Mind bearing the weight of existence? Another sculpture: Three mini-Holdens stacked on top of each other forming a circle. Nietzsche’s eternal return or Freud’s death drive as repetition compulsion? Or something less cynical: circularity as a protest against the cruelty of linear time?
Holden strikes a delicate balance. It’s cerebral without pretence, tender without sentimentality.
Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers [16.10.2023] @ Café OTO
At OTO there is seldom standing let alone dancing. But this Haitian voodoo dub outfit managed to work the place into a frenzy. Listening to their latest album Somanti before the show, I was curious how the electronic elements would come together with the the traditional elements in a live performance. The drumming, rattling and singing drive the performance. The sound system lingers in the background, building atmosphere and providing bass-infused lifts in crucial moments. It works.