On the very first day of Jazzkaar all the music thirsty Estonians visited Vaba Lava to meet GoGo Penguin – Manchester guys, claiming to make acoustic electronica. I knew in advance that the show was going to be amazing. What I did not know was their mesmerizing power. Attend their live concert to fully experience it!
When you come from a country of three-voice singing traditions, the unity made by the trio feels very natural. When I was listening to GoGo Penguin I had immediate impression of something familiar and at the same time, very different. Like in Georgian traditional polyphony each member of GoGo Penguin trio leaded its own, independent music line, equally intertwined with other two. Perhaps this was the reason I couldn’t stay close to the stage and had to move to the centre of the hall. I needed to see all three musicians at the same time and to absorb the whole transcendental space created by their music. This way, I could perceive one whole organism made by three distinct individuals, sharing fixed roles. Piano as a representative of classical music with endlessly repeated minimalistic musical patterns. Drums with extraordinary wide range of rhythmic fund, leading us to the world of electronica. The double bass with its colourful pallet of tunes often turned into jazzy improvisations.
I was standing in the middle of the crowd with closed eyes and constantly moving body, experiencing some kind of ecstasy with freedom, imponderability and pleasure of traveling to my imagination. There, I was on a board of metaphysical spaceship formed by this massive sound, and I was enjoying high speed drive to somewhere beyond the universe, beyond my own self, beyond the beyond world…
Now I know for sure that attending GoGo Penguin gigs means that you’re ready to be mesmerised until the end of the concert as the extreme intensity of sound never lets you out. The only thing you should do is to stay there and continue traveling, wherever your fantasy leads you.
Telliskivi Creative City Birthday: GoGo Penguin (United Kingdom)
21st April, 22:30pm at Vaba Lava (Tallinn)
Members:
Chris Illingworth – Piano
Nick Blacka – Double Bass
Rob Turner – Drums
Check out the photos from the concert.