It sometimes happens that established, recognized creators have little to say after their “peak hour” has passed. In many cases, this is true, and in others, it’s not. In the case of POLE, it’s not true. Here’s an artist who’s still fervent, who reached his peak of coolness at the turn of the 2000s, and who hasn’t stopped searching since.
Invited to perform as part of Nocturne 6, the final program on the MUTEK Montréal 2024 menu, the German artist is one of the originators of glitch, a Germanic alternative to dub, an electro sub-genre then immersed in an electro-acoustic perspective and an inclination for minimalism in expression. As POLE points out in an interview, glitch was an important influence on the founding artists of dubstep, such as Scotland’s Kode 9, who took over from POLE at the SAT on Sunday night.
To make a long story short, there was nothing nostalgic about POLE’s program, recent material far outweighed old sounds, and there was no formal repetition. Low frequencies were deliberately exacerbated, to the point of generating vibrations on all the plexuses close to the stage. Technical problems broke the rhythm of the performance a little, but POLE took matters into their own hands and got their set off to a good start. Aside from the special use of infrabass, we also detected a number of small details in their sonic quest and a real expertise in rhythm and the synthetic percussion that generates it – notably those rather jazz-like cymbal effects.
In short? Fashions and generational tensions are the enemies of creation, and this is the counter-example. After pole position, there’s life, and it’s good to live it.
Photo Credit: Bruno Aiello Destombes
