Nigel Turner-Heffer

Electronic Music Festival Derby 2009

Nigel Turner-Heffer | David Wright | Neil Fellowes | Andy Lobban

AD:2009 Electronic Music Festival

Date: Saturday 5th September 2009
Venue: The Guildhall, Derby.

“I just wanted to write and let you know how much I enjoyed the 2009 AD Music Festival at the Derby Guildhall recently. I would like to add my thanks to David Wright, his lovely wife and the rest of the team for all the hard work that must have been put in to produce such a well-organised and superb event. (I’ll bet there was lots of fraught activity in the background though to make everything appear to run so smoothly!) ”

Reviewed by Steve Roberts

Many of us who remember the halcyon days of electronic music in the UK will fondly remember Derby. Electronic Music events in the Assembly Rooms. Headlining acts including Mark Shreeve and Klaus Schulze. Was it really 13 years ago? The EMMA organisation dedicated to promoting Electronic Music and Ashley Franklin’s ‘Soundscapes’ show on B.B.C. Radio Derby. I made a small contribution by producing ‘Zenith’ magazine with my two friends Graham and Ian. Unfortunately, since those heady days things have steadily declined. The electronic music scene has contracted for many reasons but thankfully due to the efforts of David Wright/AD Music and other stalwarts it still endures.

The Guildhall Theatre is a pleasant, intimate, venue and the attendance, although by no means a sell out, was good enough. This was
certainly the hard core of Electronic music fans, a few making a long journey from Europe, many just wanting to experience electronic music
in a live setting again. The fans are as friendly as always and buying CD’s and chatting to the artists. There is a Record Fair in the opposite building and Derby is grey but buzzing with Saturday shoppers and visitors.

Code Indigo with new member Neil Fellows (Geigertek) replacing Robert Fox open the event and play an excellent set. Featuring highlights and medleys from their albums Chill and For Whom the Bell. The set passes too quickly and comes as a timely reminder just how good Code Indigo’s music is. The sound throughout the event is very good and despite David having a few difficulties with monitors and technology generally, Code Indigo’s unique mixture of electronics, guitars and carefully selected and often evocative samples, is a joy to hear.

After a short interval, Dutch Electronic Music veteran, Ron Boots take to the stage with friends Harold Van Der Heijden and F.D. Project on drums and guitar. Ron has an impressive discography of more than 30 albums to his name is a consummate craftsman of quality electronic music. This is only the second time I have seen him live and he does not disappoint. Heijden’s excellent drumming certainly gives the music an extra dimension and makes a change from the usual electronic percussion and with Project’s sensitive contributions, Boots plays a first class set. The titles almost seemed to be dismissed by the effervescent Boots who was clearly thoroughly enjoying himself. Boots’s multi layered music builds successfully and often surprises with sheer power. Bass sequences and keyboard textures create lush music which delight the audience. Boots and friends play a well deserved and well received encore. The smiles from the stage are matched by the cheers and applause of the audience. Boots’s infectious personality matches his talent but he really must wear a clearer message on his T-shirt next time!

A longer interval as Paul and I investigate the taverns of Derby. The beer is good so we will not dwell on the food. After a couple of hours we are back for the evening performance of a unique collaboration. Perhaps Ashley’s description of an electronic Music supergroup was a slight
overstatement but we know what he meant. Ian Boddy, David Wright and Cosmic Hoffmann-Hoock are indeed well respected veterans of the scene. Boddy is stage left with an array of keyboards including mini moog, Hoffmann Hoock is centre stage with a variety of guitars, pedals and the digital ‘Memotron’ and Dave Wright is on the right hand side with his bank of keyboards. The set starts with a track from the album ‘Shifting Sands’. Hoofmann Hoock provides often eastern tinged guitar treatments and smiles at Ian and David and is clearly enjoying himself. Ian Boddy’s mini moog solos on the Shifting Sands material is a highlight. Hoock works hard on his piece from Conundrum and Boddy who plays with great vigour and humour throughout the set works even harder leading his tracks such as ‘Foundry’ from Elemental.

However, the highlight from the first set was David’s ‘Walking with Ghosts’. With added cosmic memotron the piece is sublime. The second set starts with another improvised piece, provisionally called ‘Cosmic Avocados’ and sees the three musicians working hard to blend their styles and generally succeeding. More tracks from Hoffmann Hoock’s Conundrum and Boddy’ Elemental, but for me the undoubted highlight of
the second set was a blistering piece from ‘Shifting Sands’ called ‘Comet’. The Cosmic Three whip up a veritable storm and it is these ‘tingle moments’ that make us love electronic music. The set did have a few technical hitches and one planned piece ‘Endless Terrain’ now rechristened ‘Endless Pain’ had to be abandoned in favour of more improvisation. The glitches did not really bother the audience and speaking
for myself it is a strangely reassuring affirmation that the music is live and kicking. The audience showed its appreciation demanding an encore and a clearly exhausted David Wright gave his thanks at the close. Hoffmann Hoock, grin now wider than ever, rightly pays tribute to David Wright and his AD Music Team for making it all possible. He is right, it’s all about fun.

Hoock and many others hoped that this would become an annual event and I echo these sentiments. Perhaps we will be back at the Guild Hall next year. At the time of writing this I do not know if the event has even broken even. However, when the dust settles, I hope David will consider doing this again. Perhaps we will see a gradual return to the great days of the nineties. More artists, a big headlining act. Who knows? Finally, I would like to personally thank David and his team for their efforts. The Electronic Music community is small but it is tenacious and appreciative. Ultimately, it is the music that we love that makes it worthwhile and as it becomes increasingly distant from the mainstream it is up to us all to keep the flame burning.

Fans Reactions

I just wanted to write and let you know how much I enjoyed the 2009 AD Music Festival at the Derby Guildhall. I would like to add my thanks to David Wright, his lovely wife and the rest of the team for all the hard work that must have been put in to produce such a well-organised and superb event. (I’ll bet there was lots of fraught activity in the background though to make everything appear to run so smoothly!)

I’ve been an ardent fan of Code Indigo since I saw them premiere For Whom The Bell at the Derby Assembly Rooms. I must be honest and admit that before then I hadn’t actually heard any of the solo albums by David Wright or Robert Fox. Something I’ve been steadily addressing! On that score, I really enjoyed chatting with Elaine and would like to say thanks for recommending Moments in Time. The “Spirit of the Plains” suite is a pure delight.

Anyway, back to the Festival. I always enjoy Code Indigo and this was no exception. David seemed a little stressed over an errant synth, but rest assured it still sounded great! (Being totally honest though, I still think the superb performance of “Chill” premiered in Leicester had the edge – that performance was just so good it would be hard to top).

It was the first time I’d seen Ron Boots, and I thoroughly enjoyed his set of tour-de-force of Schulzian sequencer magic. For me though, the icing on the cake must be seeing David and Ian Boddy on stage together. My congratulations on a tremendous set with all three musicians collaborating so well together. It was obvious that David, Ian and Klaus were really enjoying themselves and this feeling was infectious. It was a truly superb concert. Nice improv at the end too! My only complaint is that the time simply shot by so quickly. Please tell me that this will be released as a live CD (DVD?). If so I’ll put my order in now!

In the meantime Shifting Sands has rarely been out of my CD player. It really “emboddies” (sorry) some of the best qualities from both artists and adds that little bit extra too. A classic partnership. I hope there will be more from David and Ian (and Klaus) in the future.

Thanks again for a superb event and thank you for your time reading this. I do have one last question. Please satisfy my curiosity and explain the purpose of the small white globes that each musician had sitting on their equipment.

Very best wishes,
Dave Griffith

Just thought that I would e-mail you to say thanks for a fantastic day in Derby yesterday (5th September)!!!!! I had a really great day at the event and the music was just fantastic. It was a pleasure to meet both of you and hopefully there will be other such events in the future.

I would also like to say good luck with the gig in Germany next week and also good luck with the upcoming CALLISTO gig, (which Neil mentioned to me)!!!!.

Anyway, once again, thanks for such a great day.
Paul Walker

Just a note to say thank you to all the AD team that put on Saturdays’ Festival. It was a most rewarding day (except for my wallet) and my friends whom I’ve been introducing electronic music in recent months enjoyed the sounds, more than I expected. They’re already planning to go with me to Hampshire Jam 8. One said “Shifting Sands” is excellent. [I've not got to it yet in the large pile of CDs bought in Derby.] So we may have found some new recruits.
Malcolm Currie

Ron, Harold and me….we are back…What a weekend…the best I ever had…wonderful people, Derby is a nice town and the concert…SUPERB !!! FD Project

I can only underline what Frank has said, we had a superb weekend (even with the 26 hours of traveling) the Venue place was great, the orgainsation fantastic (Thanks Elaine and David!!) we played a very relaxed and IMHO great concert and all other acts where also great.
We had the best time in the Hotel pre and after the festival.

It was all in all a great weekend
Ron

Firstly, bloody fantastic show yesterday .. loved every minute of it! Unfortunately, we had to leave earlier than expected and missed the majority of the evening show, which apparently was awesome. But we’ll definitely be at next year’s festival and we’ll bring along some friends next time too. Kristina loved it and she’s not a natural electronic music fan!

You have my 100% admiration for what you’re trying to achieve with the AD Music project – putting electronic music firmly back on the map!
Chris

Hi Klaus. I would really like to thank you for being part of the great concert on Saturday. It was excellent, I really enjoyed your part and the input you produced in the set. I am new to your music, yes I have heard your name and music but never got round to really get into it. Well, I think this will change now. I brought on Saturday from your stall Space Gems, Electric Trick and Visions of Asia, all excellent music. I do hope you enjoyed Saturday and you can perform again soon. Great sounds you make, take care, all the best ….Paul