One of the highlights of the Big Ears Festival for us was probably the late night set by English electronic musician Four Tet. He didn't take the stage until midnight after we had been on our feet and watching various live sets since 12:00 noon that day, but the music he played transported us beyond our physical limitations and complaints and his 90-minute set passed quite pleasantly.
Although considered by many an EDM performer, Four Tet foregoes the extravagant light and video shows featured by many EDM performers and concentrates instead on the music. We think that in his mind he's an electronic musician, not just a beats producer or a DJ for a dance party. In fact, he played in the dark, his equipment illuminated only by two table lamps, and he let the audience dance, sway, or just stand there in awe in the dark as they so chose. Here is a sample of his set that I found on YouTube, and as you can see, while he makes great music, it's somewhat less than visually compelling.
For contrast, here's a clip from Kelly Lee Owens, who was up before Four Tet and entertained the crowd with her singing, dancing and psychedelic projections as she performed her trance-like music.
Don't get us wrong, though - we're not complaining about Four Tet's lack of razzle-dazzle - as a matter of fact, we admire him for sticking to the music and letting his artistry speak for itself, rather than striving to constantly entertain a bunch of ADHD kids on ecstasy. And we're not alone - unseen to most of the audience but visible from our position right up on the stage, Kelly Lee Owens herself was dancing backstage throughout almost the entirety of Four Tet's set. Here's another little taste of Four Tet:
But the point of this post is that as great as the Four Tet set was, the next day, Four Tet performed an improvisational duet under his real name, Kieran Hebden, along with Mats Gufstasson, Norwegian sax monster from the jazz band The Thing. The pairing of an English EDM musician with a skronky Norwegian jazz musician might seem like an odd arrangement and perhaps it was, but the two are both skilled improvisers and played off each other beautifully, and as it turns out not only was their set our favorite of the festival, it was one of the top five performances we've ever seen in our long life of listening to live music. Ever. Life-time top five (no shit). As before, here's a small sample.
The first half of their set, which was just one long improvisation, was led by Kieran's ambient soundscapes and textures, with Mats filling in odd, like-minded sounds between the synthesized notes, and the second half of the set was most definitely dominated by Mats, who built up to an epic free jazz rant, with Kieran hanging on to his coattails for the ride. As I recall, this is around the mid-point of the set, the transition from one lead to the other.
And here's Mats as he started taking over the set, exploring the upper stratosphere with Kieran's electronics the wind beneath his wings.
Here's our own video of Mats at full-throated intensity near the peak of his performance. We were initially reluctant to post this because it could be misunderstood out of context, but if you've watched any of the videos above, we think you're ready for this.
We were literally speechless after the set. Kieran and Mats were both triumphantly jumping around the stage together and embracing because they both knew that they had just nailed it.
The videos don't really do justice to the set due to their brevity (you kind of have to be along for the whole ride to get it) and the limitations of YouTube's sound compression compared to that of a live performance, but trust us - this was truly an astonishing thing.
These are the moments you go to live shows to experience. This is what it's all about.
A few more photos of the set to close out this post before we embarrass ourselves with our gushing enthusiasm.
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