“Together with the screening, Cadlag’s performance acted as a thoughtful, well-rounded ensemble of experienced musicians who only care about creating, and definitely a must-see for fans of noise music.” – Sigic, review by Žiga Jenko
Cadlag consists of four experienced musicians: Dejan Brilj, Boris Laharnar with guitars and effects, Simon Šerc with electric bass and Korg sound synthesizer, and Neven M. Agalma with chains, contact microphones and effects. The performance was visually well thought out. Between the audience and the band was a screen onto which the white noise of TV static and the textures of blank VHS tapes were projected from the band projector. So we only saw the silhouettes of the performers and their instruments. Everything was visually reinforced with red lighting. This dramaturgy of the performance is heightened by the band members wearing hoodies tied over their heads. And here began the game of the brain, which interprets the picture in its own way. Since I purposely did not look behind the screen before the performance, I was sure during the concert that the band members were facing away from us and that the table with the electronics was placed away from the edge of the stage, so that the musicians were looking at the light source. The connected hoods created the impression that Simon and Neven were wearing ritual clothes and that we, the listeners, were part of some kind of ritual. The picture on the canvas itself created doubt as to whether the musicians were even in the room with us. They could easily be from another space and time. The band entered the sound slowly and noisily. A slightly longer performance for the band, about an hour long, slipped through the ears slowly but pleasantly. The mass of sound, created and layered by the four members of the band, merged into a concentrated whole. With the help of reverb, echo and modular effects, the guitars of Dejan and Boris created a sonic field of sound and beeps, in which the ear detected references to the masters of noisy guitar, such as Thurston Moore and Keiji Haino, with whom they had already performed together. But these references do not take away the uniqueness of the guitarist. They sat nicely, each creating their own field and occasionally walking from one side of the speakers to the other. Neven’s noise formed a solid foundation on which the sound mass sailed around the room, and the other members carelessly built on it. Simon’s electric bass gave the band’s sound a distinctive and unique note, enveloping the listener in pleasant droning and greasy vibrations.
Cadlag builds his improvised sound ritual slowly and patiently. Thus, we could hear how the band members add their sonic ingredients to the common ritual vessel and how ever new forms of noise rose violently from it quite a few times. But never painful to the ears, always sophisticated and interesting narrative, without long-windedness. Together with the screening, Cadlag’s performance acted as a thoughtful, well-rounded ensemble of experienced musicians who only care about creating, and definitely a must-see for fans of noise music.
Cadlag sestavlja četverica izkušenih glasbenikov: Dejan Brilj, Boris Laharnar s kitarama in efekti, Simon Šerc z električnim basom in Korgovim sintetizatorjem zvoka ter Neven M. Agalma z verigami, kontaktnimi mikrofoni in efekti. Nastop je bil vizualno dobro premišljen. Med poslušalci in bendom je bilo platno, na katero je bil iz projektorja za skupino projiciran beli šum TV statike in tekstur praznih VHS kaset. Tako smo videli le silhuete nastopajočih in njihovega inštrumentarija. Vse skupaj je bilo vizualno podkrepljeno še z rdečo osvetlitvijo. To dramaturgijo nastopa člani benda stopnjujejo s kapucami hoodijev, poveznjenimi na glavo. In tu se je začela igra možganov, ki interpretirajo sliko po svoje. Ker pred nastopom namenoma nisem pogledal, kaj se skriva za platnom, sem bil med koncertom prepričan, da so člani benda obrnjeni stran od nas in da je miza z elektroniko postavljena proč od roba odra, tako, da glasbeniki gledajo v vir svetlobe. Poveznjene kapuce so ustvarjale vtis, da imata Simon in Neven na sebi obredno obleko in smo poslušalci del nekakšnega obreda. Sama slika na platnu pa je ustvarila dvom, ali so glasbeniki sploh z nami v prostoru. Zlahka bi bili iz nekega drugega prostora in časa. V zvok je bend vstopil počasi in hrupno. Malo daljši nastop za bend, okoli eno uro dolg, je drsel skozi ušesa počasi, a prijetno. Gmota zvoka, ki so jo ustvarjali in plastili štirje člani benda, se je zlivala v zgoščeno celoto. Kitari Dejana in Borisa sta s pomočjo reverb, eho in modularnih efektov ustvarjali sonično polje zvoka in piskov, v katerem je uho zaznalo reference mojstrov hrupne kitare, kot sta Thurston Moore in Keiji Haino, s katerim so skupaj že tudi nastopali. A te reference ne jemljejo samosvojosti kitaristoma. Lepo sta zasedala ter ustvarjala vsak svoje polje in se občasno sprehajala z ene na drugo stran zvočnikov. Nevenova hrupnost je tvorila čvrsto podlago, na kateri je zvočna gmota jadrala po prostoru, ostali člani pa so na njej brezskrbno gradili. Prepoznavno in svojo noto je hrupu benda dal Simonov električni bas, ki je poslušalca ovil v prijetne dronirajoče in mastne vibracije.
Svoj improvizirani zvočni obred Cadlag gradi počasi in potrpežljivo. Tako smo lahko slišali, kako člani benda dodajajo svoje zvočne sestavine v skupno obredno posodo in kako so se iz nje kar nekajkrat silovito dvignile vedno nove podobe hrupa. A nikoli boleče za ušesa, vedno prefinjeno in zanimivo pripovedno, brez dolgovezenja. Skupaj s projekcijo je nastop zasedbe Cadlag deloval kot premišljena, lepo zaokrožena celota izkušenih glasbenikov, ki jim je mar le za ustvarjanje, in vsekakor kot obvezni obred za ljubitelje hrupnih muzik.
