15/03/13 Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria @ TAM
w/ DreamOde
The beginning of every single travel I've started the last few years was either marked by me running late for trains/cars/buses/whatever or/and the thought why the hell I didn't stay in bed. TRAINBIENT II was surely not an exception as it started with both. I missed the first train to Veliko Tarnovo and after the second one I pretty much had to ran with backpacks as heavy as me. However getting inside was just the beginning of a damn long ride. Most of the time I slept, and barely played music as I kinda felt I have to be listening to the damn ambience more, as it's a damn ambient tour. In the beginning everything was fine, actually it ended quite fine except for the almost two hour delay because of the insane weather which the day before destroyed a region in the northern part of Bulgaria, oh yea and a 15 year old dude with blood pressure issues (hi Misho, you're not alone). Anyhow, at 19 o'. I was already climbing the stairs of Veliko Tarnovo with my host Tsvetan (DreamOde). We quickly got in the venue which was super cosy and warm, we set up the gear and between the talks about the blooming lesbian community in the city we even played. First solo sets, then a short, but cool collab. Afterwards there were people sharing it was quite a depressive performance, which is one of the best things you can tell Angel after a show, it makes me feel accomplished wohoo. We rapidly packed the equipment, stayed for few Abba tunes and wicked dance movies from the 50s, and with Tsvetan and Ro on the lead went for a quick night snack. Then for a quick stop at a reggae party and a longer stop at a Nirvana tribute. Then we landed home for rejuvenation. The morning was easy, because the way to the train station is down the endless stairs of Veliko Tarnovo. Big ups to everyone who I met and successfully depressed, big ups for the lesbian community and the Nirvana tribute band.
the day souded like: Locust Of The Dead Earth, Olafur Arnalds
16/03/13 Rousse, Bulgaria @ Mazeto
w/ Portable Elephant, Skylined
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| No chanting through virtual amps = no fun |
Twenty five damn years on this world I turned that day, and the best way to celebrate it is by spending some another 4, 5 hours in the train, then playing a show with cool mates. I reached Rousse some twenty minutes before 2 o'. Then went for a cup of coffee with my name mate Angel (Polygon Ring, Portable Elephant). The weather here was cool, especially if you didn't really spend too much time outside. After a thorough and a bit eclectic conversation about pretty much everything we stopped at his place to charge batteries, enhance the sound set ups for the night, and then we went to a meeting with quite an unexpected guest namely Ivo from the cult BG netlabel
Mahorka and the experimental act Skylined. He not only came from Pleven for the show, but even joined us for an improvised set. After this awesome surprise we got to Mazeto, which is always awesome. We terrorized the first visitors with a soundcheck, then with a selection of crazy music from Mahorka's catalogue, and then I started the show. Speakers were cracking under my mindless low frequency abuse, stereo channels were coming and going due to crazy cables, but it was a cool, short and intense set. Then Portable Elephant with Angel and Kaloyan on board slammed a mighty and detailed improvisation with Monotribe, field recordings and heavily processed guitars, which at points sounded almost as rough as Ben Frost, and sometimes reached the epic heights of orchestral strings. Then we ended the live part of the night with a huge improv collaboration, which sadly none of us was smart enough to record from the mixer, cool ha? The conclusion? Well, next time come to the show, cus we'll probably forget to record it again. Right after the show someone played Nirvana, I guess it had become kinda tradition hah. Then we pretty much closed Mazeto with tons of electronic tunes of all genres, then went for a quick bite at a place who was in a total decline of the public smoking ban and the rest was bed, blankets and the weirdest party dream. The coolest birthday ever.
the day sounded like: John Coltrane, The Smiths
17/03/13 Shoumen, Bulgaria @ Delphina
w/ the poetry of Ралица Красимирова, Тони Теллалов, Кольо Колев, Владимир Диловски, Красимир Вардиев, Антоний Петров
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I played for like 30 minutes so we can see the credits, no I didn't just took a photo
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The morning started promising with a hot shower, oath meal punch and again jumping on the train in the last minute. As it was Sunday both trains I switched were pretty packed. At about 17 o' I reached Shoumen. After a walk in zig-zag to avoid the massive crow shitting in the park I reached the center, which is signature for its endless amount of free public wi-fi. I stood like a creep in front of a local cafe to catch up on some mails and messages until my Ipod stated battery low, then few quick phone calls to Ralica and Antonii and half an hour later we were all gathered at Delphina, which has become a traditional point for our music/poetry symbiosis. The people at the place know us already so everything was set up really fast, this time we even had multimedia so George's visuals were added to my solo set. However before that all five authors read awesome stuff that I haven't heard before, during and between them I was improvising with a crazy digital set up of field recordings, random synths, noise generators even the simple nanoloop app on my Ipod. After the live part ended people showed up saying this time we were perfectly balanced, synchronized and the music was awesome. I guess we did our job well. After that I packed, got a cool book from one of the poets and ate all Mentos candy that Ralica had. I'm finishing this story from Ivan's place. He's a cool dude, living a free and modest life just the way he wants, and it's great that on this tour all people I've met are actually doing the same. And the coolest thing about that is you can pretty much do the same if you want. Now I bury myself under layers of droning blankets, cus I have a date with the sea tomorrow.
the day sounded like: Anemone Tube, Julianna Barwick, Black Table
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| Shoumen says 'Don't Shower', but it was Sunday sorry :( |
