BC Winter Festival 2000
March 28th, 2002 by freddie96
So Much Beauty: The Big Chill Winter Concert 2000
‘Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world… I find I can’t take it.’
Two months ago those words came out of nowhere and lodged in my head. I was listening to Nick Philip’s set for the Big Chill in Naxos, after an idyllic day of lazing in the sun, when he dropped this sample from ‘American Beauty’ into the mix. The sense of connection with a fundamental truth was almost overwhelming.
Last night those words came back to me with redoubled force. Once again I was with the Big Chill, only this time in the Union Chapel in Islington, at the end of a long day of office work, grisly London travel and winter weather. But in the face of the unique mix of sounds, sights and people that is the Big Chill, those day-to-day concerns melted away… I found myself in the presence of beauty.
And once again the sense of connection was profound. As Pete Lawrence set the mood for the evening with a blissful opening set of pure mood music, a deep sense of human connection settled on me. On my left were two friends who several years ago were the first to tell me about the Chill. On my right was someone I hadn’t seen for six years. In front of me was Nick Philip. All around me were smiles.
The even greater connection was with a primal sense of creation. I know that’s a word with religious overtones, but no other will do.
For last night did feel like an act of worship, not least because we were sitting in a candlelit church, a large screen of Muffled Visions’ projected visuals before our eyes and a soaring, vaulted ceiling over our heads. Within this setting, all the music played took on a celebratory aspect – a celebration of the beauty that can either be found in this world or created from it.
Certainly Piano Circus make music that is nothing if not beautifully poised and pure. Six pianos in a circle, three male pianists, three female – as performers, they balance and counterpoint each other in a wonderfully precise manner. And the same goes for the music they make. ‘Mazuzu Dream’, their concluding piece last night, was just that – a dreamy and joyful romp through a whole range of rhythms. You might already know this piece from the Big Chill’s ‘Enchanted 01′ CD, but it was clearly designed with live performance in mind. Last night it was stunning.
Not surprisingly, however, the real heart of the evening belonged to Tom Middleton’s Amba, his electro-acoustic ensemble. This is where words, for once, begin to fail me. A thirty-strong choir, long washes of ambient strings, deep deep bass tones… all I can say is that it gave me goosebumps then and just thinking about it now gives them to me all over again.
I sat through the first movement of ‘Obselon Minos’, with its grandfather clock beat, simply pinned to my seat. When the more melancholy ’12:18′ followed, I found myself weeping. I felt pierced to the core by all this beauty – the scenes from nature projected above the choir, the human voices coming together, the mysterious warmth of electronic music – and by its fleeting nature. In a blink it was all over.
Life is definitely too short to have this kind of experience only once, so I will be returning tonight. There is so much beauty in this world… and sometimes I can take it.
Freddie B., December 2000
The Big Chill Winter Festival
Total Immersion 2: Big Chill Cinema
The Big Chill Christmas Knees-Up
