DANCE OF ELECTRICITY

A memory emerging from the overpowering realm of teenage years, swinging and swaying in the rhythm of the gruff sound from a record player, rippling through the air – Eric Burdon and The Animals roaring through a public speaker system before a school event – “Baby Please, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. A sweet blonde tousled head resembling a shining golden comet woman – Laurie Anderson, still hot on the heels of the future.

All the reflections and echoes of wild teenage cries in honour of His Holiness Rock’n’Roll , I would say, are to be found somewhere between Burdon and Anderson. Extraordinary artistic aspirations and black Africa in commotion, storytelling from the fantasy world in shorthand, exuberant oral tradition being compiled through centuries in mysterious ways, or commentaries stemming from the rebellious heart of our larger-than-life civilisation; all of this, in a whirl, in its dance of electricity, is coming together to light up the silhouettes of Nikola Tesla and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart where everything started – the technology of modern music media and the phenomenon of a pop hit.

The music of this year’s BELEF are those birds from Laurie Anderson’s The Lark which are circling in their billions around and around, singing. So sing a song and JUST GO.

Music Programme Selectoress Zorica Kojic