CLOSE TO THE RAIN
VENUE garage, bergen
DATE 07-09/06/2018
It’s ironic that Bergen’s Close To The Rain festival, named after both the Yes album and the Norwegian city’s familiarity with the wet stuff, takes place in a heatwave, with not a drop falling from the sky over its three days.
It’s hot inside the venue on the first night too, with Det Skandaløse Orkester juggling Zappa trickery with theatrics. It’s entertaining stuff, and by the end of the set, half the band are prancing about in their underwear. Kabaret Makaber are more reserved, channelling jazz vibes as Marita Vangen Bratteteig’s operatic voice shoots up to the Norse gods.
Headliners Major Parkinson are playing their home city with stellar new album Blackbox in tow, and its kaleidoscopic tracks Isabel and Baseball are superb microcosms of how the group juggle the hyperactive mania of Cardiacs with the accessibility of The Beatles.
There are no underwear-donning mischief-makers on stage as the second night opens, with Alwanzatar instead opting for a cape as the one-man band indulges himself in demonic electronica.
Jordsjø inject some vitality with a rousing set of atmospheric, retro-tinged tunes, finger-sapping bass guitar work at the fore, before Tusmørke discharge a unique sound that feels as much like it’s from the Bronze Age as it does 2018.
The night is closed by Saluki, who only ever released one album, back in the 70s. They’re clearly chuffed to be back, with cheek-stretching smiles mixed in with their retro prog.
It’s up to Pixie Ninja to open the final night, with the quartet channelling post-rock’s spectrum of sounds to usher things back into the 21st century. But Ring Van Möbius time travel straight back to the 70s. Their set concludes with exuberant ringleader Thor erik Helgesen lobbing his Hammond organ around the place, à la Keith emerson.
Arabs In Aspic drop in some Sabbath chunk amid the prog meanderings, before Sweden’s Anekdoten, the festival’s only group from outside Norway, close up shop. The Opeth-esque Shooting Star is one of the most tantalising tracks of the weekend.
Norway has a population of just over five million, but the endless downpour of talent here shows that the country punches well above its weight when it comes to progressive music.