Christoph Donarski

Medusa's Head

Subjective Notes on the 12th Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig
(July 6th - 9th, 2003)

Every spring it is time to unveil the darkest of subcultures in the idyllic and old town of Leipzig in Germany again. Ten thousands of aficionados of sinister gothic-culture gather to celebrate the annual Wave-Gotik-Treffen.

The roots of Gothic subculture reach back to the Gothic fiction of the nineteenth century and the decadence of the fin-de-siècle. The ancestors of Gothic are Poe, Stoker, the Shelleys, Wilde, Baudelaire and the like. The (post-)modern Gothic began in the seventies of 20th century’s popular culture, lead by charismatic artists like Nico, Ian Curtis (of Joy Division), Peter Murphy (of Bauhaus) and Rozz Williams (of Christian Death).

What first happened to be a small underground-music-scene (Gothic and Death Rock) later melted with the more experimental but equally pessimistic Industrial culture, the Neofolk-scene, medieval music as well as the electronic tendencies (EBM) and created a stunning “Head of Medusa” which is now present at the Leipzig festival. Looking at the huge international and very peaceful crowd - dressed in black with deadlike white makeup, in Fetish-gear or military uniforms - one could get the impression the Gothic subculture is probably the biggest real subculture in the western civilisation.

Friday

The first highlight was presented in the biggest venue: the AGRA-convention-hall. Reviving their eighties-popularity the cynical ‘boygroup’ DAF (Deutsch-amerikanische Freundschaft) presented their martial and provocative electronic ‘punk-songs’ in a raw and commanding manner. Starting with the true classic “Sato-Sato” their biggest hit “Der Mussolini” was not far away, ending with a radical staccato of the damned name: “Tanz den A-dolf Hit-ler.” Gabi Delgado carelessly broke the taboos: nazi leaders and Jesus Christ, violent anarchy (“Alle gegen alle”), anti-american paroles, and terrorist glorification (of the RAF). He stays the fool of destructive times like these – just like back in 1982. This may not be everbody’s taste. But the rage is still there.

Saturday

One of the most talked about but least known sub-sub-cultures of the Gothic-scene is the cult of Neofolk music – closely connected to names like Leonard Cohen, Death in June and Sol Invictus. Considered boring and conservative by some, indifferently adored by others, the festival at Haus Leizig displayed the many faces of international Neofolk.

The American neo-hippies from In Gowan Ring produced a fragile and melodic atmosphere by only acoustic instruments (flute, guitar, cello and voices) which obviously enchanted the audience. Pantheistic odes to the forgotten beauty of nature – the great in the small.

A living Neofolk legend is chaos magician Ian Read of Fire & Ice, one original founder of Sol Invictus and head of the chaos-magick-organisation “Illuminates of Thanateros”. Presented in a very serious and melancholic manner Read sang to all the seekers of a true spiritual world – regaining the holiness of the ancient gods. The collection of songs consisted of his whole carreer – from “Gilded by the Sun” to “Birdking”. And in between Read communicated with the audience in his nearly perfect German: “Auch Ihr könnt Odin’s Hand berühren, wenn wir ihn wiederhaben – irgendwann.” Musically very melodic and professional, with Read’s trained voice this concert lived up to the legend of this charismatic folk-musician.

Ian Read

The climax of this evening was the appearance of jet another legend: seventies-folk-band Changes reunited to sing their classic songs – re-edited on the CD “Fire of Life” (Tesco Distr.). Singer and guitar-player Nikolas Tesluk appeared as an irritating look-alike of Brendan Perry (Dead Can Dance) – who himself now is a singer/songwirter – aided by the Viking-re-enactor and adventurer Robert N. Taylor. Their minimalistic songs of cultural pessimism and the Fall of the Gods made this one night to remember.

In the AGRA-hall the midnight-special provided another bombastic performance of Slovenian cultural terrorists Laibach, who presented their industrial-rock-show as a micture of their works “NATO” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”: “One world – it’s a battle-ground. And we’re going to smash it down.” Over a thousand enthusiastic people were moved by this artificial yet effective agitation of totalitarian rock-star-power (actually quite similar to the new Marilyn Manson-stuff).

Sunday

The festival of Cold Meat label-bands from Sweden is a tradition of the WGT. Some new and some established projects of this dark cult-label showed glimpses of their new work. Already the first participant – newcomers Coph Nia – had the audience on their side. In very powerful manner, accompanied by pounding livedrums and marching rhythms, they invoke the hedonistic and luciferian gods. Especially effective was the even more aggressive live-version of the ritual-hymn “Holy War” which led to ecstatic states among the listening crowd. Despite some ironic flaws this is the (oc)cult-band to come!

Coph Nia

Deutsch Nepal, the long established ritual- and industrial-band by alcohol-infected musician Lina Baby Doll, scored films of hunting animals with typical elegance and skill for improvisation. The style of Deutsch Nepal is always dependent on the mental condition of the mastermind behind it. So this was not the worst choice at all.

One of the most popular CMI-bands is Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, the musical output of a s&m-orientated couple. The texts by Tomas Petterson concentrate on power relations between individuals as well as in the political context, key motifs are fetishism, pleasure and pain, totalitarian structures, self-awareness, ritual magick, the dialectics of Good and Evil and finally a Sadean sense of sinfulness. Several CDs developed this concept and culminated in the new CD "Cocktails, Carnage, Crucifixion and Pornography", which was mixed with older and wellknown songs in the live performance. Two exceptionally beautiful fetish-models stood in the background holding the band’s flagg, showing the Crowleyan “4”, his symbol of perfection. The filmprojection mainly consisted of sadomasochistic imagery. Pettersons clear and resonant voice and the sharp live-drumming made this event very impressive.

With the fact in mind that classical Industrial culture had always been about the daily information-war with an either critical or cultural terroristic aspect, the long awaited appearance of Brighter Death Now, the personal project of CMI-founder Roger Karmanik, was the biggest disappointment of the whole festival. Drunk and silly, Karmanik and Lina from D.N. supposedly had a lot of fun molesting each other in masturbatory manner, not even creating a convincing noise-scape... This was grotesque and even disgusting for being overshadowed by films of child molesters, the usual subtext of BDN-music (it has to be remarked that no actual pornography or whatever was shown on the screen – despite some rumors).

In contrast the sacral and melodic Arcana provided a very beautiful conclusion of this ambivalent evening, even convincingly covering Dead Can Dance.

What has to be criticised in general is the arrogance and ignorance of a lot of the people working at the festival – especially in the Werk II. They clearly seem to judge people by their outfit and style which led to such ridiculous principles like: wear short hair and a tie and you will hardly get your soda water at the bar! This is unprofessional and intolerant to say the least.

Fotos by :ms: and su.se.