Entity opened with a good set of spacey ambient/sequenced EM. They played one continuous piece, also called 'Entity'. John and Steve produced some nice music with a very minmal set-up. There is a download of part of their set available from here.
Astrogator was fun. One member of the audience said it was like seeing TD in '81. We did a very sequencey set, semi-improvised (Steve and I had exchanged some basic ideas on CD so that we weren't too crap). Track 1 didn't work out as planned as Steve couldn't hear half of what he was playing, and the original melody got lost somewhere along the way. Tracks 2 and 3 were more fun because by then we were both a bit more relaxed and decided to go for it. Due to time constraints we couldn't really go for the long drawn out gradual development of our more improvised jams, but most people seemed to prefer it when the sequences all kicked in. Maybe next time we'll be able to do a bit more spacey stuff.
SkinMechanix had had problems getting to the venue and had to setup halfway through the gig. Dave played some new stuff, which was more ambient/melodic, some of which even used the Zeit! Dave's more structured appoach to EM isn't really my cup of tea these days but there were some good bits when it all came together.
Airsculpture played two pieces, the first was about 40 minutes of solid sequencing, which got off to a slow start but gradually built-up into some sort of demented hybrid of EM and dance. do I detect the influence of Mr Nagle?
The second piece, their encore, was a bit more traditional and started out as the intro to TranceAtlantic, then built solidly as more sequences were added and then changed. Nice
More photos here
All in all, apart from a particularly horrible drive home, it was an excellent end to the first proper year of Awakenings gigs, thanks to everyone who played, attended and especially to John Sherwood for setting it all up and organising it.
Looking forward to next year already.
