Bestival 2011 – Part 1

2011 has been a year of brilliant revisits rather than new adventures, this has been my third Bestival! In some aspects it wasn’t quite as good as before (All Saints and other big brands around the site) but the lineup was amazing and luckily the weather was beautiful again.

65 Days of Static performed a live score to an old sci-fi film Silent Running.

Omar Souleyman from Syria is also on the label Sublime Frequencies (along with Group Doueh from ATP), he has gained quite a cult following. There was a big group dressed as Souleyman dancing away at his performance, it was quite a scene. I wouldn’t necessarily pay to see this performance mostly because I am unaware of the artist but there’s always so many discoveries at festivals.

This is a video from 2010 but nevertheless Mr Motivator was still energetic and motivating in 2011! On Sunday morning everyone was dancing away with Mr Motivator by the main stage, I love his colours and happiness.

Akira

The Duke of York’s in Brighton showed Akira on the silver screen again in the summer. The film was really amazing and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Berlin July 2011 – Part 3

Berlin is a great place to be, lovely atmosphere, great sound systems, delicious food and so many other good things. It really helps that most people speak English in Berlin. There’s a lot to admire about the way they live, although my view is possibly overly optimistic because I’ve always been on “holiday’ mode when visiting this city.

Ready-made ceramic sculpture wonderland

Berlin July 2011 – part 2

On the last day I went to a magnificent gallery located in a converted hospital. The building was a dedicated space for artists to work in as well as exhibit.

Beautiful hallway inside

Mushroom nails on the corner of an exhibition space

Berlin July 2011 – Part 1

Went to Berlin again in the summer with my boyfriend and our friends. Weather was awful, it rained every day but still we had an amazing time. Great parties, great food and we made some new friends!

A giant graffiti by street artist Blu

Another rainy evening waiting for the train

Funny names in an office block

ATP curated by Animal Collective 2011 – part 4

As with any other festivals, I missed out on a few acts. Hopefully I can see them perform in the near future.

 

ATP curated by Animal Collective 2011 – part 3

Group Doueh was another great discovery from ATP. “Group Doueh is part of a family entertainment business run by Salmou Baamar (aka Doueh), a native of Dakhla, Western Sahara. The rest of the group includes vocalists Halima Jakani (Baamar’s wife) and Bashiri Touballi and keyboardist Jamaal Baamar (his son). Rhythm duties are shared between collective hand claps, Halima’s tbal (a hand drum), and the keyboard’s drum programs.” An extract from Last FM.

Prince Rama’s performance was brilliant. The psychedelic visuals were very mesmerizing at the live show.

ATP curated by Animal Collective 2011 – part 2

The diverse range of music at ATP was the most exciting thing about the whole festival. Psychedelic, experimental, world music, ambient, etc.

 

I’d been listening to Kria Brekkan through the Mum albums, the collaborations with Animal Collective on Feels and Pullhair Rubeye as well as her solo releases. The solo stuff didn’t really make any sense until ATP, seeing her experiment with the instruments and the tape recorder really helped to make sense of all the sounds. Kria Brekkan was amongst one of the best musicians I’ve seen so far. She blew sparkle dust around the stage to create a magical dreamy scene.

A live performance in Moscow as I was unable to find a good quality video from ATP.

And then there was Oneohtrix Point Never

ATP curated by Animal Collective 2011 – part 1

Although it was quite a way back now but I never got the time to put together all the great acts who performed at ATP. An eventful weekend which opened up my eyes to  many aspirational artists.

Firstly there was animal collective, the live videos were a bit nuts so here’s an official video. Their live set sounded very different from the album, it was more dancy and much crazier!

 

Then there was Atlas Sound, this was the second time I’ve seen him live. One of the best live acts, the gig was very beautiful and resounding.

Gang Gang Dance also performed a pretty crazy gig where the lead singer got off the stage to walk around in the crowd. As you can imagine, everyone was going wild for it! Couldn’t find any decent live videos so here’s an unofficial music video instead.

Surprise Stefani