Moments

A night of post-rock, instrumental rock, and smooth and bright melodies. And So I Watch You Watch From Afar, who headline Colossal Festival, will play an intimate show here at 1000Fryd along with amazing local heroes Via Mala and exciting new Aarhus-based Eigengrau that tore Fryd apart in December.

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR

Instinct. We all know what it is, but are hard pressed to acknowledge just how it guides us. Instinct subtly defines our identities, despite our attempts to defy it. The Endless Shimmering, the fifth album by Belfast, Northern Ireland quartet And So I Watch You From Afar, is the sound of a band operating on its purest instincts.

Every individual is an algorithm of prior lives and experience acting as its own sovereign entity. Every band is itself a combined algorithm of those instincts, driven by unconscious will to replicate itself in the world as if it were flesh and blood like the people who embody it. The Endless Shimmering is visceral and expressive � decidedly alive and purely instinctual; not conceptualized or postured. It�s ASIWYFA � guitarists Rory Friers and Niall Kennedy, bassist Johnathan Adger and drummer Chris Wee � manifest as a being beyond itself.

�We laid everything bare and put everything we had into the songs,� Adger says. �And we hope people can feel that and use that without us having to be to overt in how we present it. The album was charged with a lot of what we were all going through as individuals, but we wanted to allow it to become people's soundtrack to whatever they need in their life at this moment.�

Perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference on this album is that the ensemble vocals of the previous recordings Heirs and All Hail Bright Futures is dialed back considerably to allow the music to come to the fore. The difference gives the musicians freedom to stretch out and truly shine as performers.

The decision was made early on that this record would not be rushed toward completion and the band allowed themselves the time to let it come together organically. �We wrote around 30 tracks before deciding these 9 tracks would make the record,� Friers explains. �We then spent a long time playing them everyday to allow them to become almost as if we'd already toured them, ingrained in our muscle memory.�

The band flew to Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, RI in March 2017, aiming specifically to record live performances of the songs. Just as they arrived, a major snow storm brought the Northeast coast to a standstill. �We tracked, ate, washed and slept at the studio,� Friers says. �And 9 days later we had recorded and mixed the entire album just as the snow began to melt.�

The album opens with a brief, hushed guitar murmur as Chris Wee�s forceful galloping beat sets course on �Three Triangles� while the guitars seem to slowly awaken with whining notes that slowly build upon one another until it all abruptly halts. The whole band suddenly kicks in with chopping start and stop blasts as the chirping lead melody leads the proceedings toward a swirling apex. Elsewhere, �All I Need is Space� and �Terrors of Pleasure� show the band at their finest, unfolding complex, bobbing guitar figures over propulsive and jagged rhythms, while occasionally lunging into ethereal blooms at the drop of a hat. The title track�s unabashedly beautiful and hopeful melody begins so quietly, it�s as if it tries to sneak in under the radar as palm-muted arpeggiated chords and a clean plucked single note line asserts an optimism that finally infects the rest of the band, as they join the chorus of, well, near endless shimmering. Album closer �Chrysalism� is just the anthemic rush that makes ASIWYFA�s live shows such transcendent experiences.

EIGENGRAU

Eigengrau er en instrumental kvintet, der eksplorerer i den uudtalte mellemverden, som opst�r i leddet fra musiker til lytter, med den ordl�se musik som eneste sprog.

Eigengrau komponerer f�rst og fremmest med musikken som m�l i sig selv og befinder sig et sted i post rockens panoramiske vidder. Med bev�gelser fra sf�risk ambiens til stram stringens, fra polyrytmisk voldsomhed til melodi�se sk�nheds�jeblikke, fra minimalistisk plads i rummet til stort komponerede, �stetiske tidevandsb�lger kan Eigengrau's udtryk ogs� tilskrives et symfonisk isl�t. Mulige genrebetegnelser er mange og det ligger Eigengrau p� sinde, at lade lytterne selv tilf�je dem alt efter deres individuelle oplevelse.

Det instrumentale udtryk leder ikke lytterne p� en defineret vej gennem ord til, hvad der skal t�nkes og f�les men efterlader et rum til lytternes egen refleksion og dermed muligheden for en unik personlig oplevelse af musikken. Oplevelsen af musikken rummer muligheden for lige s� bred mangfoldighed, som der er individer med hver deres perception til at fortolke den.

I numrenes syv til tyve minutters varighed, hvor gentagelsen er en sj�ldenhed og hvor dynamikken og musikkens facetter er dybt gennemarbejdet inviterer Eigengrau alle til at egenfortolke og opleve musikken i det nu, som virkeligheden er.

VIA MALA

Forl�sende melankoli, forl�sende energi og uforl�st k�rlighed

Via Mala er et nordjysk, melankolsk rockband. Lyden sp�nder fra det helt intime og n�rv�rende til det storladne og sv�vende. Sangene behandler de undertrykte f�lelser vi alle l�gger l�g p�, og formidles gennem i�refaldende melodier. Det anmelderroste band spiller koncerter, hvor publikum bliver draget ind i et melodramatisk og dynamisk univers, der p� en gang form�r at v�re kompromisl�st og perfektionistisk med en underliggende, kontrolleret vildskab, der kendetegnes af bandets t�tte sammenspil og forsanger Nikolai Lyb�ks unikke vokal.

Bandet udgav i 2017 opf�lgeren til deres debut-EP Out of Sight, fra 2015.Opf�lgeren, der har titlen Drifting Apart, er produceret af Asger Techau, der prim�rt er kendt som trommeslageren i Kashmir. EP'en er indspillet i Asgers barndomshjem i vinteren 2017.

�Jeg er meget stolt af resultatet, og synes at vi har f�et det bedste ud af vores dage sammen. Sangene st�r skarpe og inderlige, og g�r virkelig ind og rammer�

Asger Techau om samarbejdet med Via Mala.

Drifting Apart er blevet velmodtaget og har bl.a. f�et nedenst�ende ord med p� vejen: �De har en unik fornemmelse for, hvad der virker og for, hvad dit �re gerne vil have. De giver det til dig og udm�rker sig yderligere ved ogs� at give lidt mere�

Bands of Tomorrow

�Via Mala er konsekvent p� den nye udgivelse og har skabt sig en sp�ndende lyd som kan genkendes p� den karismatiske vokal som b�de ridser og heler i lydlandskabet�

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