Remi Christen is the owner and managing director of 
Bergmal Festival 2018
On the 20th of October 2018, Zürich's Dynamo was once again witness to a stunning show of alternative and downright experimental music from a broad variety of bands. A consistently strong series of performances has proven that Bergmal remains one of the best places to indulge in the dark and gloomy left-field of music and experimental sonic art.
The strongest opening act yet for Bergmal, Luzern's A River Crossing brought explosively raw and yet mellow, introspective music to the Dynamo's cellar stage. The festival's first anticipated notes burst out and reassured the crowd that they were in safe hands for the night ahead. Featuring an obligatory e-bow, powerful vocals, and an abundance of energy, the first of many Swiss bands would also not be the last to praise and congratulate the tireless Bergmal staff for their efforts in bringing the alternative and experimental festival to life. Let's also not forget the most important component in any band's pedalboard, namely a stick of incense to set the mood.
Next up, Zürich locals car crash weather took to the roof stage for a journey through post- and progressive rock with a distinctly metal edge. Transitioning with ease from melancholy doom-laden drones to complex textured riffs, their Cardiacs-do metal flavour of experimental music was tautly held together by Dzhevret Sali's standout drumming, thrashing his syncopated hi-hats like a wild animal and yet totally in control of not just his kit but the timing of every note in the piece, right down to an emergency cymbal-replacement just in time for his cue.
A further step in the raw direction came from another Luzern representative, Preamp Disaster, who thankfully didn't live up to their name, but were well-fitting for the experimental stage, showing off their sludgy post-doom riffs and Urs Schnyder's aggressive growling vocals.
A last-minute replacement for Luxembourg's Mutiny on the Bounty, their Belgian brothers Astodan showed how even without the original line-up, they could still be one of the festival's most consistently strong line-ups. Cut from the heavier edge of the post-rock axe, with grinding metal-infused riffs interspersed with sombre and mellow moments, the band really represented the dynamic range of this year's Bergmal: perhaps more matured and introspective in musical choice and yet without having lost that raw experimental edge.
After a lengthy set-up and sound check, Geneva's H E X at last answered the question, what would a 1980s horror movie scored by Swans sound like? Their answer was in the form of an utterly hypnotic fusion of industrial post-punk, atmospheric post-rock, and darkwave electronica; crafted with as much pedal-driven footwork as handwork (complete with a human drum machine) to weave an unearthly electro-doom vision of a dystopian cityscape future. Psychedelic trance-inducing repetition and era-appropriate synthesizers (Yamaha's classic DX7 and Sequential's Prophet-6, the modern incarnation of a late 70s John Carpenter soundtrack favourite) overlaid with touches of ethereal vocals; this must be the music they dance to in hell's darkest clubs.
From the soaring energy and echo-soaked hard rock riffs of the Spaniards comprising Toundra to the wistful and almost folk-reminiscent musings of the UK's Her Name Is Calla, it was still abundantly clear that this festival is a border- and boundary-pushing affair; a stage for every facet of the unusual and ever-changing face of post- and experimental rock.
It's hard to find a place outside this niche and yet broad sub-genre, where djenty headbanging rhythms & polyrhythms & metapolyrhythms & hexadecameta (you get the point) can exist side by side with melancholic and fragile vocal explorations of pain and loss. All the while, jeffk's surprisingly upbeat post-metal rumbled and pulsated from the cellar stage for those who craved some of Leipzig's finest dark grooves. Variety was the name of the game here.
Speaking of variety, you couldn't do much better than Jaga Jazzist: a Norwegian nu-jazz supergroup that took stylistic blends so far left-field that they practically created a new genre, mixing big band jazz with poppy electronica and post-rock drumming to pull a stage experience from another dimension where The Cinematic Orchestra took on board four dedicated synthesizer players and where street lighting was composed of strobing multicoloured LED strips. Completely unpredictable and a real mood lifter, it brought a fun and optimistic atmosphere to the otherwise often downbeat or aggressive mood of more common post-rock and metal. Certainly one of the most energetic and frenetic headliners in an already energy-packed festival, drummer Martin Horntveth proclaimed his bass drum dead at the end of their vast and towering set. Twenty-four active years exploring the weird and wonderful crossover of jazz and electronic music has made the band one of the most intriguing acts to grace the Bergmal roof stage and a true delight to experience live.
The night drew to a close back on the experimental stage with locals Egopusher, the violinist-drummer duo that consistently blew away all expectations of what could be achieved with such seemingly limited resources. Conjuring science-fiction desert landscapes with their soulful blend of electronic and neo-classical textures, Tobias Preisig's virtuoso strings and Alessandro Giannelli's powerful percussion (tied together with a handful of synthesizers) brought the intimate crowd to new heights and sent the night off with a bang.
With plenty of solidarity shown through interchanged band t-shirts and countless praises sung for the organisers of the festival, it seems the Bergmal team has done it again. Bands representing lands both near and far came out of the woodwork on another atmospheric autumn night to show off the best in experimental and underground music. They showed that no matter how niche, there will always be a place for those who want to create and share truly creative and different music with one another; and so long as Bergmal exists, they will have a stage. After a stunning trilogy of festivals, one can only be excited for what the future has in store.
Not reviewed were Soldat Hans, Duara, and SPOIWO due to schedule conflicts.
- Miles Prinzen
More photos of the Bergmal Festival 2018 by Anna Wirz on Flickr.