A romantic evening with techno music
On the day that the city was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of Berlin’s wall, many many events took place all across the city. Last Saturday night, in order to join the commemoration and in the frame of the European Club Night, Get Physical Music together with Riga concept club project theRoom presented a special program.
Movie About Soviet EDM Stage
The Latvian film ‘Era of Dance’ of Viktors Buda was projected at Suicide Club Berlin. The vivid documentary depicts the beginnings of the techno scene in the ’80s, especially in the last years of the former URSS as an expression of freedom and union and it continues showing the development of the electronic dance music movement when the wall came down and two different cultures met. “The reunification started as a dance floor” was one of the lines that stuck in my ears from the movie. People were dancing in the street, celebrating and raving together. Westbam (Maximilian Lenz) meets EastBam (Roberts Gobziņš) was a real and symbolic event of the unity of the new era, where those two iconic DJs, one from West german and one from Latvia, met and play together.
The mass raves that started to take over the party scene during the ’90s, like the Love Parades and Mayday, resembled that moment of joy and celebration where borders and differences disappeared into a dancing community.
The documentary is extraordinary and deserves all the acclamation that is receiving. A film to watch more than once to learn and to rediscover some secrets of EDM and its first steps, learning from the voice of one of the most influential voices of that time, the diplomat and journalist Indulis Bilzens. The nostalgia of a time that some of us haven’t even experienced is inevitable… because it speaks to the heart of those who love to dance.
Music bonds people together
Rather, a theatre, a street or a dance floor, music, and its stages tell a lot about a specific moment, a specific culture and a specific person. What is dancing if not the full expression of the body… and soul. An activity where from skin and organs to spirit and feelings are in motion…
After having mind and heart full of wonderful images, Suicide Club Berlin hosted four extraordinary DJs of one of the most exquisite labels, Get Physical.
With its own moving philosophy Get Physical promotes its new message for this Era, through special sounds and rhythms. With some earthy grooves and straightforward but deep and tuneful techno, DJ T. moved our feet on the ground, letting us fly with the spirit. The party continued with the skillful and vivid rhythms of Roland Leesker activating the crowd as in a race at the beginning with something faster, then moving on to his catchy and gritty House to close with upbeat 80s classics, such as a beloved New Order remix.
Kaspar Konrat, a Latvian DJ was the third on decks, binding with the film and giving a little of the Baltic’s melodic techno… rough and profound. To crown the night, another experimental Latvian DJ was on stage: iOAN. Really deep and minimalistic sounds, full of emotion like a deep kiss.
At 8 in the morning leaving the Suicide and walking towards East Side Gallery, was possible to glimpse the wall… and couldn’t help imagining the faces and energy of the people on the morning of the 10th of November in 1989. For sure full of smiles and dreams about the future… like all romantic evenings end.
