After an early, but good flight with Luxair including a stopover in Luxemburg - I even managed to take a few steps in this rather small European country best known for its radio station - I arrived at Porto airport and was met by my hosts. The sun was shining, I had been served vegetarian food on the plane and I was in excellent company!
Being the great hosts that Luis and Catìa are, they took me to Guimares, the place where Portugal was founded (and incidentally, the place where another good man - Carlos Tavares - teaches physics). We took a nice walk, visited the old castle, took a walk around town and had lunch at a bar where the owners took some interest in classic movies. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to spend more than a couple of hours in this lovely town with many old beautiful houses, which kind of reminded me of Ystad in the south of Scania.
Next, we went to get something to eat at a huge shopping centre very close to where Luis and Catìa are living. Apparently this place was open until midnight on a Friday. I feel sorry for the shop assistants! At least I could find some tasty veggie grub, which was necessary since we were about to leave for Gouveia, a two hour trip from Porto. Despite some half-scary sounds from the brakes of Luis' car, we had a good trip and arrived at the rented house around midnight. I was knackered, but decided to join Luis when he suggested we should go meet some people as a warm-up to the festivities starting the following day. I was greeted by several friendly faces as soon as I set foot inside the bar, which was really heartening. At the same time, I was reminded that not all European countries have decided to ban smoking in public places. Luckily, the friendly faces made up for the smokey environment. Still, I was a beaten man when I fell into bed more than an hour later.
Saturday was the first day of the festival and for me, it began with setting up the Isildurs Bane sales table and saying hello to one of the really good guys, Mario of ProgCDs. If you ever need any prog music, get it from him! He has all of IB's back catalogue in stock. During the course of the festival, I met so many old and new faces I had the pleasure of talking to. One of the great things about this festival is that the whole atmosphere is very positive, friendly and intimate with a clear focus on music. The organizers share their love of art rock with the audience and most of them are very open and encouraging to new sounds. This is just one reason why the Gouveia Art Rock festival is the festival for this kind of music.
The bands.
Taal were not my cup of tea. A loud prog-metal band with a lot of enthusiasm, but lacking in compositional skills and dynamics according to my ears. Also, they should have brought a sound engineer and not relied on the organizers to have one on hand.
Matthew Parmenter was a most pleasant surprise. I wasn't familiar with his previous work, but since he kindly gave me a DVD I can safely say that I now know his music. And he really is a good singer/songwriter indeed with interesting topics. He performed his songs on his own with conviction on the Gouveia theatre's Steinway (and some pieces on acoustic guitar) and it was a pleasure to listen to songs like Polly, probably my favourite song of his. To be honest, I think it would be selling Mr. Parmenter's abilities short to label him prog. He is a good singer/songwriter, period. He needs the prog label like Mac users need Bill Gates.
After the rather subdued music of Matthew Parmenter, a contrast was needed and we really got one: Present! Listening to this band live is like being run over by a bulldozer well-versed in music. In a good way. Intense, dynamically rich, sometimes intricately lyrical, sometimes dissonant and dirty, but always musically interesting. Some of the festival's best musicians played in the group: Pierre Chevalier (keyboards), Pierre Desassis (saxes) and Keith Macksoud (bass) were impressive! Kudos to the band for bringing a good sound engineer, Udi Koorman. Standout track: Promenade au Fond d'un Canal.
Peter Hammill ended Saturday night on a high note, albeit decidedly different than Present. His voice in fine condition, Hammill played a well-balanced set including a couple of surprises, such as the encore of Still Life, a classic if you ask me. Here was a man who is so much more than a prog icon. A great songwriter and one of all too few people who can write really good lyrics. And the man's voice is still expressive, impressive, moving and intense.
What a great way to end the first day of any festival! As if that was not enough, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hammill and speaking to him about music in general, my paper (which he had read), Daniel Barenboim's thoughts on how to start a piece of music, Hammill's performance with the Kronos Quartet at the Barbican in 1994 and more. A true gentleman with informed views on music and a true artist.
After a few hours of sleep, Sunday morning started with an intimate concert by a new line-up of Trape-zape. This group has been a bit of a mainstay at the festival: brilliant guitarist Fernando Guiomar played a solo set in 2004; Trape-zape played as a quartet on the main stage in 2005 and this year, they performed as a trio at the library. Despite having the worst drummer of the festival, a guy called Roland who was very stiff, but easily controlled (by a foot pedal). Hearing the band in this intimate setting, I could really enjoy Fernando's Terje Rypdal-influenced vibrato and beautiful classical guitar playing.
Following the short concert, yours truly chaired a panel discussion on prog at the library in Gouveia. The discussion was loosely based on the paper I held last year, which had conveniently enough been printed (title: Is There Anybody Out There?) and sold at this year's festival. The room at the library was packed with interested audients, some of whom were very involved in the discussions. Along with yours truly, the panel consisted of musician/composer Carlos Plaza, Fernando Guiomar and Matthew Parmenter.
Without blowing my own horn, I think activities such as these really add something to a festival like this. After all, most people coming to the festival are really committed to music and they have strong opinions on their likes and dislikes. Having said that, I didn't feel any hostility at all, despite my being provocative in my paper. Like I said, this is not just any festival, this is the best.
After having tea with my friend Nuno, it was time to go back to the concert venue. The first band to tread the boards on Sunday were my fellow countrymen (and -woman) Anekdoten. I was familiar with the band, but having never enjoyed their music on record, I was hoping for something of a revelation, as a live performance can be sometimes. As it turned out, I was very disappointed. Anekdoten were even duller live than on CD. They sounded like a badly mixed shoegazing indieband. I couldn't stand it, so I left for the bar, where I met up with Fred and his lovely family. We had a game of Uno - I won - and a beer. Later that day, I was very kindly given a bottle of red wine by these super nice people. I treasure it and will save it for a suitable occasion.
Next up were Alamaailman Vasarat from Finland. This band were a most welcome addition to the festival and shows the far-sightedness of this festival: this is all about good and interesting music first and foremost, wheather you can call it prog or not is neither here nor there. Alamaailman Vasarat play a colourful mix of traditional music from several geographic areas with an intense attack and a great sense of humour. Yes, lest we forget, humour does belong in music!
The band selected to close the festival were German veterans Amon Düül II. I like many of the so called Krautrock bands, but this lot is not one of them. Musically, they weren't really in good shape either with lots of sloppy playing and seemingly unrehearsed endings. Once in a while though, there were moments of, not exactly greatness, but at least some musical excitement. Unfortunately, these moments were few and far between. The concert was also marred by a couple of power cuts which didn't make things better.
Full of the great music we had heard over the intense weekend, we headed back to Porto, tired, but very happy. The following day, Luis and Catìa kindly took me to the airport, we had some tea, I had some kind of sticky pastry thing and then I was on my way back home again, many IB records lighter, but filled with warm and wonderful impressions of a lovely festival and above all, nice people. I'll be back!
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I like many songs by the great Ray Davies, but See My Friends is not one of them. It sounds unfinished, it's not played very well and it sounds like a parody of a British band from the 60's trying to do something with Indian influences. It's a shame, Ray.
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NP: Robin Eubanks podcast
