If you think of making electronic music, synths, programming, samplers and keyboards would most likely feature as part of your staple kit. The electric guitar, symbol of everything rock, may not get a look in, unless of course you know about Christian Fennesz. The Austrian sound artist/ guitarist is hailed as one of the pioneers who absorbed that instrument into the electronica soundscape and in doing so restored tuneful resonance back to a genre which, by the early 2000’s, had become intent on musical deconstruction. His 2001 album ‘Endless Summer’ has become a touchstone and for the last quarter century he’s represented a seminal (and modest) figure within this leftfield music world. So bringing him to Falmer is a big deal and going by the steady stream of punters wandering up to the ACCA building on a Wednesday evening, that’s not just a personal viewpoint.
There’s a real synergy in the billing tonight as well which adds to the appeal. The ACCA team frequently champion local artists in the support slots for their shows and opening for Fennesz they’ve hooked in Brighton based multi-instrumentalist Marcus Hamblett. He may be the player of synths, bass, cornet and keys but it’s his singularity as a guitarist who explores the electronic interface which coheres with a Fennesz outlook.
With the usual ACCA punctuality Hamblett lopes on and takes his seat in the middle of his expectant rig, analogue synth blinking to one side, guitar case open to the other and a plethora of pedals to click and twiddle in front. In a mild voice he says “Hi”, tells us the first song is called ‘The Warren’ then settles into a tingling guitar piece, all fluttering runs and misty, hovering chords. It’s a tune which spikes the tranquil with an eerie presence, a sort of Tom Verlaine meets Jeff Parker spaciousness, jazz-toned music with a wiry experimental edge. The extended ‘Vibraphone Piece’, from his last album ‘Detritus’, comes next with Hamblett showing his multi-instrumental flare as he navigates from guitar to cornet across a moody synth undertow. The piece is refreshingly beats-free, melodic and purposeful with the clarity of a Kenny Wheeler reflection, inventive music with a warming touch which welcomes the audience in. Growing in presence, Hamblett offers brief anecdotes between songs, a broken string disaster, a falling out of the window dream, then completes his set with the tumbling, folky patterns of ‘Be New’ and a closing number where looping drone meets some enticingly melodramatic guitar twangs. He leaves us with a brief goodbye, those succulent tremolo chords still humming and a hope that, besides his work with everyone from The Staves to Laura Marling to Villagers, we get some more Marcus Hamblett solo music offerings very soon.
As the stage gets re-jigged with typical ACCA slickness, Fennesz time approaches. There’s something calmly ordered in the set-up, guitar laid out restfully to the side of his laptop/sequencer/mixer and pristine white amp in the floor space. In contrast to William Basinski’s strut and Alessandro Cortini’s darkened entrance at the Centre’s past shows, Fennesz slopes on casually with a glance out to the crowd and a sideways smile. It’s a low key and sort of homely beginning as he takes off his shoulder bag and peers down at his tech, coaxing a throbbing drone to fill the space. From here layers of rich symphonic sounds emerge, tidal, oceanic and expansive, swirling around the hall’s sphere but given clarity by the rotunda’s supreme acoustics. Details stand out, tingling harmonic flourishes, distant choral voices and subterranean rumbles where Fennesz’s stooping figure uncannily appears to shudder.
Tonight’s set seems to follow much of his latest ‘Mosaic’ album which might disappoint some but in this arena the music seems denser and more cavernous than the recorded version. Choosing to present the pieces without the obligatory back projections is a risk that Fennesz is prepared to take, confident that the lighting for the show, an astutely choreographed use of minimal spots and tones, enlarges the images he is developing this evening. As red beams flame out from behind, he engages with his supine guitar for the first time, tapping spikey chatter from the frets, then straps the instrument over his shoulder to pull out a mix of swift soaring notes and volcanic feedback instability. This torrent finally loops back on itself before drifting to a restful silence in a coda which underlines his natural grasp of the theatrical.
The performance’s next section is perhaps surprisingly more muscular. A ratcheting mechanical rhythm disturbs some high-pitched, circling strings as Fennesz peers quizzically at his laptop settings. The beats then morph unexpectedly into a stomping piston-like surge, thudding on slow repeat, which prompts a return to the guitar and a preparatory flick back of his fringe. In an echo of his avant-rock heritage Fennesz deftly pulls and plucks at the strings then turns his back to the audience, swaying to coax out some seering feedback intensity. As the white floor lights beam out to the audience he then reaches out further, gliding in the slipstream of some tangled Orcutt-like arpeggios. It’s a breath-taking moment.
The closing sequence in contrast is understated but offers gentler resolution. Returning to the opening ‘Mosaic’ themes, ripples of waveforms and gamelan patterns intricately converge to plunge the room back into those oceanic depths. As the music seeps away Fennesz scratches his chin then, as the whoops, hollers and applause grow, looks around for his shoulder bag as if checking before leaving a now stationary train. Bag recovered he peers up, gestures ‘one more’ then says his own kind of goodbye with a brief but elegiac guitar-based loop, bathed in haze and warm crimson lights. Suitably decompressing and reflective, Fennesz leaves you with your own thoughts like the finest ambient music should do.
Attenborough Centre For Creative Arts, Wednesday 9th April 2025
Words by John Parry
Fennesz photos by Chloe Hashemi Marcus Hamblett photos by Bureau de Fatigue
