Melbourne Music Week’s only performance at Southbank’s state of the art Melbourne Recital Centre was Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory. And from the moment Hendrik Weber and his four percussionists entered the theatre holding invented Sanctus bells, the attention of the higgledy mob of hipsters, clubbers and music buffs was captured.
For 20 minutes prior to the headline act’s performance, German act Oval (Markus Popp) performed his seminal glitch. While on paper the perfect support, considering Popp is credited with evolving ambient into glitch back in the early 1990s, tonight he just looked like a scrubbily-dressed rave refugee doing something (or nothing) on an unseen computer.
In stark contrast, Weber’s bell-heavy collusion with four Scandinavian classically trained bell/percussion players and a drummer was the epitome of dance music made real. There was a vibraphone player that also played tubular bells; a marimba player who also played xylophone, Balinese gongs and all other sorts of gongs that substituted the carillon; a glockenspiel player and another who played a steel drum, toy bells, and electronic effects.
This moment was best captured in the encore when he played Lay In Shimmer from the Pantha Du Prince album Black Noise. Hendrik and his fellow apron-clad musicians transformed this already mind-blowing piece of ambient house into triumph of monolithic aural stimulation.
The overall musical vibe of the evening was transcendent and uplifting with the refrain of Spectral Split – from the collaborations album Elements Of Light – providing the most profound moment for listeners.
As the headline act of Melbourne Music Week, Pantha du Prince and The Bell Laboratory embodied the future of music while still paying tribute to its past.
BY DENVER MAXX
Loved: The uplifting tonal arrangements
Hated: Myself for taking notes down on my phone and interrupting the dark of the audience.
Drank: Culture
