BRANDT BRAUER FRICK ENSEMBLE
October 5th | Southbank Centre, London
When you think of techno, you think of sweaty warehouse parties, illicit narcotics and moon eyed partygoers, rather than a civilised sit down affair. The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble continued to defy genre conventions at London’s Southbank Centre.
Opening the tenth anniversary of Ether festival – the Southbank’s annual festival celebrating music, technology and cross-arts experimentation – the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble are the perfect addition to the line-up of this pioneering musical event. With a name that sounds like a group of German attorneys and looking like they came straight from their day jobs as slightly unkempt foreign language teachers, there’s a sense of keen anticipation around the Berlin-based threesome’s performance in their rather more expansive ten-piece form.
More accustomed to the club surroundings of Fabric than the Southbank, the group produce a seamless hybrid of acoustic techno and classical music. On arrival you might be mistaken for thinking you were about to experience Don Giovanni or La Traviata in all their operatic glory, but what followed couldn’t be further from the truth.
Representing a bold new addition into Germany’s esteemed techno heritage, it seems BBF’s perfectionist attitude is what helps them create such an engaging sound, rich with complex layers. With timpani, trombone, tuba, two drum sets, a grand piano and a harp amongst the identifiable instruments, we were taken on a techno tour of off-beat rhythmic intricacies and epic crescendoing drops. The packed out crowd, consisting of the widest cross section of the public humanly possible, danced around heroically, and awkwardly, in their little chairs.
A new contributor to the ensemble was Swedish female vocalist Erika Janunger who took the evening in another, albeit not entirely welcome, direction. An undoubtedly impressive and haunting singer, Janunger’s additions proved slightly underwhelming alongside the group’s unaccompanied work. Crack found ourselves salivating for a return to the ensemble’s signature material, their pure and unadulterated beats.
Taking techno to another dimension, essentially stripping it back and building on a more organic level, the ensemble were also an enjoyable visual spectacle; particular when one member ran the length of the stage to get to the triangle, only to hit it once before running back to the other side to continue hammering away at his xylophone.
The night culminated in three encores which were reciprocated, impressively, in the form of three standing ovations. Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble were an engaging and innovative live act, adapting incredibly well to their grand surroundings, and Crack was entertained and invigorated despite being sent packing at the slightly anticlimactic time of 9.30pm.
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To download our exclusive Brandt Brauer Frick Crackcast, click here
Words: Lucinda Bounsall
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