Einstürzende Neubauten Brings 'Lament' to London
Published
The sheer, cataclysmic barbarity of the First World War defies comprehension. One hundred years on from the outset of the conflict, we’ve seen countless memorials and commemorations; yet, from the profound to the crassly opportunistic, few have scratched the surface of its horror, or its complexity. Veteran experimental outfit Einstürzende Neubauten (who reject the ‘avant-garde’ label for its military connotations) seems to understand the impossibility of a truly encompassing memorial, responding with a sprawling, humane, and unsentimental performance – ‘Lament’.
Commissioned by the Flemish city of Diksmuide (reduced to little more than rubble during the war), ‘Lament’ has been developed with the aid of historical researchers and extensive archival material. This is the first and, likely, only time that it will be performed in the UK, so Koko is packed to the rafters.
From the outset, it’s clear that this will be as much theatre as concert, ‘Kriegsmaschinerie’ [‘War Machinery’] evoking the mechanical, brutalising rhythm of post-industrial warfare: the grind of chains against sheet metal, the clatter of ‘Neubauten’s improvised drums.
It’s a familiar cacophony for followers of the group, unlike what follows. ‘Hymnen’ (‘Hymns’) compresses a number of national anthems, delivering a blackly humorous commentary on the clash of waning empires. Indeed, while there’s nothing light hearted about ‘Lament’, its creators find moments of irony amongst the suffering and realpolitik: particularly throughout ‘The Willy-Nicky Telegrams’. Delivered as a duet between Blixa Bargeld and Alexander Hacke (he of the mighty handlebar moustache and rumbling bass-lines), it’s an eerily jaunty number, highlighting the mock-cordiality of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas and Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm in the run up to war.
Bargeld’s bone-dry quips aside, things get bleaker from there on out. ‘In De Loopgraf’ (‘In The Trenches’) and ‘Der 1. Weltkrieg, Percussion Version’) (World War 1…) combine to highlight both individual suffering, and the conflict’s monumental scope. Drawing on a Flemish text from Paul van den Broeck, the former is spare and haunting, lines like ‘How can I dance in 4/4/In My Grave That Is Way Too Narrow’ set to the clang of a Barbed Wire Harp. ‘Der 1. Weltkrieg…’ then presents a chronological, percussive ‘rendition’ of the war, each of its (4/4) beats representing a day. It’s as oppressive as it is lengthy, as is entirely fitting.
In his research, Bargeld has unearthed some overlooked aspects of the war. ‘On Patrol In No Man’s Land’ and ‘All Of No Man’s Land Is Ours’ reinterpret songs by the Harlem Hellfighters, an African American regimental band who served under the French Army – due to racist policies of segregation. Elsewhere the frontman delivers his take on ‘Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind’ (‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’) as performed by Marlene Dietrich, with a minimal accompaniment. It highlights his belief – convincingly stated – that the First World War bled into the Second.
It’s affecting stuff, the three part title-piece in particular. It peaks with ‘Pater Peccavi’, a slowed-down octet for strings, based on the work of Netherlandish composer Jacob Clemens non Papa. Few in the room seem unmoved when the band members ‘play’ rare recordings of war prisoners, captured in German POW camps. Given how few survive from the ‘War To End All Wars’ today, this is a hugely poignant moment.
As a whole, ‘Lament’ seems a phenomenal achievement. Where so many treatments of the war tend towards whitewash, sentimentality or ghoulishness, this is nuanced and intelligent: free of political point-scoring, and touched by a very genuine sense of the absurd. It makes for one of the year’s most memorable performances.
www.neubauten.org Words by Rob Sayce
