Like collective dreaming – looking back at Bells Echo – gladly happy – electronic music from Leipzig

Another edition of the “Bells Echo iiinteriiim” series took place on April 19th. Our author Claudia was there that evening with her camera and her senses. Here is her recap in pictures and words.

The chandelier of Leipzig's Philippuskirche shines in the red spotlights, and beneath it, numerous visitors meander through the wafts of fog in the nave. They all look forward to the third concert in the “Bells Echo iinteriiim” series with great promise.

The hustle and bustle and murmuring of the audience suddenly falls silent as soon as Maria W. Horn plays the first notes. The Swede's powerful melodies penetrate completely, they sound dark and beautiful. As if in a trance, her eyes wander with inspiration, wandering upwards, almost as if she wanted to follow the music into the distance with her eyes. The audience is left cleansed and enlightened after their impressive performance.

A short break in the renovation later, William Basisnki's boot heels audibly fade away. The legendary and yet completely unpretentious, even clever musician from Texas fiddles with his tapes: “The Disintegration Loops” are four releases on which the artist makes the materialized memories of 20 years old tape recordings audible. You can hear their fragility in the ghostly, muted sounds; these incomparable repetitions inevitably invite you to collective dreaming – and the audience is only too happy to indulge in that.

The philosopher Jaques Derrida sums up what those listening reverently experience here: a “ghostly moment, a moment that no longer belongs to time”. At the end of the atmospheric evening, the audience applauded loudly.

All pictures by Claudia Helmert