LONG DISTANCE CALLING

STUMMFILM – Live from Hamburg/A Seats And Sounds Show InSIdeoUt

TTake a pew for the post-rockers’ first live release, on film.

he Kulturkirche Altona, a neo-gothic church built in 1873, is a piece of ornate beauty ensconced in the German city of Hamburg. The stonework rises from the ground up, imposing over the congregation like a cathedral. A fitting space, then, for Long Distance Calling’s grand, prog-tinged instrumental post-rock. The Germans performed there in early 2019 in a ‘seats and sounds’ tour, and recorded the atmospheric, absorbing two-hour set. Don’t expect any guitarists flying on zip lines or pyro melting off eyebrows in the front row; this is four men – and a cellist and percussionist/electronic alchemist – on stage, playing music. But don’t they do it well. Opener Into The Black Wide Open snaps with a pounding drum intro, snare cracking through the rafters, before ending up sounding like latter-day Porcupine Tree having a fling with a post-rock mistress, while In The Clouds briefly down-picks into Metallica territory. Long Distance Calling are suckers for drawn-out, well-mapped musings, so two hours could be a chore, but when the cello emerges and the light and dark shades swoop into play, the beauty shines through.