photo by petros nikoltsos (www.nikoltsos.com)
this was only the second time i have caught tasos stamou live, the first being his first solo show a year earlier. he’s obviously come a long way since, releasing a record on editions_zero, testing himself in various one-off settings and the like. there was also a great shift in his confidence one could see. when exactly he acquired that confidence i can’t say but finding him pre-concert, he was ready to roll.
the show took place in that ever-friendly venue, arder. for the occasion and in addition to the usual operating table, tasos had brought in a small piece of, could-have-been-discarded, furniture to set up his tools on. add to that a couch for the biggest tasos fans to sit on and you had the most intimate of settings.
most of the pieces played were similar in execution but rich in detail and musicianship. for those who have heard his recordings he stayed close to the path of those that combine bent electronics, toy sounds and other musical elements in synthetic song creation. pulsating sounds built on evolving loop stuctures. where he excelled this time was in the economy of means; though economy might not be the first thing to pop into your mind when looking at his table full of gadgets, he built each piece using only few of them delivering well phrased and well-rounded statements. also, after each song he would turn to different tools to work with.
the sound of the concert was also excellent. arder is a bare-bones basement and you can’t do crazy things with amplification and, with closely captured sounds as some of tasos’ are, there is always the danger of feedback. in the end it turned out to be the best sounding concert i’ve seen there, mainly because a careful balance was struck between amplified and acoustic, leaving you the chance to listen to some of the sounds directly from the table. this is what i think worked best to the advantage of tasos’ music as it gave it a chance to reach out to us and communicate some of its qualities better.
around the 40 or 50 minute mark the show already felt quite complete and the musician seemed to think so too; still, the audience thought otherwise and tasos dutifully obliged. he didn’t seem to have prepared himself for a show of ‘epic’ proportions and so the last pieces played were more exploratory in structure, though still never overlong. in the end and after a roaring applause we went for a beer.
-special mention goes to the small figures and christmas lights decorating the underside of tasos’ table. out of season but in style, i only hope he doesn’t travel with it everywhere.
kostis kilymis
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