John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt - Klangwechsel 2026.08.05

In Halberstadt, a sleepy but pretty town in eastern Germany, an organ is playing a 639-year-long rendition of a John Cage composition. It’s not in the big cathedral in the center of town, nor in the other big churches nearby, almost all of which have mighty organs. It’s a little walk further, past the splendid half-timbered houses, in a former Cistercian cloister that was secularized in Napoleon’s wake in 1810. On August 5th, among election campaign posters that spoke of deportation in openly racist terms, most of the sparse pedestrian population appeared to be tourists. Some were there to admire the parts of the city that weren’t bombed to bits in 1945 when the surrounded Nazis wouldn’t surrender, but most came for the same reason I was there: a Klangwechsel, a chord change. The last one was in February 2024. They don’t happen often. The name of the piece is ORGAN²/ASLSP, where “ASLSP” stands for “as slow as possible”, and that instruction is taken quite literally.

[The Burchardi-Kirche.]

I came early with a couple friends who were there for the last one. The night before, we caught the free concert put on by the John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt, the volunteer-led organization that keeps the organ running. The last time around, they did a similar event in the cathedral featuring a shorter version of ORGAN²/ASLSP. This time they assembled a myriad cast of musicians and dancers to “set the mood”, as the flyer announced.

First up was Loré Lixenberg, a mezzo-soprano who performed excerpts from Cage’s Song Books along with a backing track. It was highly unpredictable, ranging from dissonant noise to Lixenberg gurgling water and opening a bag of chips on mic to waving a black flag and chanting “the best form of government is no government at all”. She also did a piece of her own, Bird, which started as her explaining birdsong. She gradually sped up her speech and interspersed it with wild flights of whoops and trills, and a backing track of actual birdsong gradually similarly built up to an ecstatic cacophony.

[Sarah Maria Sun and Clara Hyerim Byun.]

The other highlight was soprano Sarah Maria Sun and pianist Clara Hyerim Byun. First, they used found objects, harmonica, synth, and voice to perform selections from Benjamin Scheuer’s Fragwürdige Fragmente, which was arrhythmic, almost atonal, and very silly. They came back later for a straight piano and voice version of “Meine Stadt”, written by local composer Hans Auenmüller, but then veered back hard left into György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. The text was described as “half-nonsense”, but that could be said about almost everything I saw on stage. This piece was more physical and theatrical, including Byun ranting while Sun held her hand over Byun’s mouth, and Byun ripping up her sheet music.

Tanz Harz, a local dance company, performed Moving Silence accompanied by a soundtrack of prepared piano pieces by Cage. They danced with a digital timer on stage, which they frequently stared at in fascination or glanced at in curiosity, although the majority of the choreography was constant fluid motion. They seemed to be expressing tension and anxiety about the passage of time.

Otherwise, Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson performed parts 3 and 4 of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate in an expressive display of human vocal sounds. Moderator Christoph Ogiermann broke the avant-garde flow to sing a set of traditional political songs (Franz Josef Degenhardt, Wolf Biermann, Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht), accompanying himself on piano. The night closed with PSON (Dietmar Gubin), performing a blend of live electronics and pre-recorded material.

[Tanz Harz.]

When I came back the next day for the Klangwechsel, there was excitement in the air. Hours before it opened, there were already people lined up by the entrance to the church, and plenty lounging around the courtyard of the cloister, trying to escape the heat. I could feel the anticipation. Inside the church, video teams set up their rigs, photographers angled for good spots, and I could see I wasn’t the only one recording audio. I could sense something stirring within me, but I was distracted by all the people and activity. The foundation had a little ceremony and thankfully asked everyone to be quiet and just listen for a few moments. I could finally focus and started to feel at peace. Eventually, an elderly organist inserted the new pipe, an A4 (a’). There were already seven pipes in use, including the adjacent A♯4, so the tone was richly complex and mildly dissonant.

[The organ with the pipe to be added.]

After a few more moments, the crowd cheered. I saw lightness, giddiness, and a buzz among the people. Something mystical and strange had happened, and we had witnessed it. Gradually, people filtered out. I stuck around for a while, but there was still too much commotion to fully relax and enjoy it. I sat outside with my friends for a couple hours, listening to the amplified chord projected into the courtyard while we talked to volunteers and other attendees. I heard multiple comparisons to witnessing a total eclipse. Some described it as a religious or spiritual experience.

Eventually, I went back in the church. It was thankfully much quieter. I was immediately transfixed. I was mesmerized. The sound wasn’t particularly loud, but omnipresent and warmly inviting. I stayed inside for about an hour, meditating on the flow of time and the relative insignificance of my existence. For once, I was in no hurry. I didn’t want to leave.

[An installation inside the Cage-Haus.]

I was struck by the playfulness of the entire experience: Cage’s approach to composition, the performances the night before, and the hubris of performing an organ piece for as long as the modern 12-tone keyboard organ has existed. At face value, it’s all comical and absurd. Simultaneously, I found it profound. How slow is “as slow as possible”? Why do we take the passage of time so seriously? What does the future hold? Will humanity even exist in 2640 to see the performance to the end? Isn’t climate catastrophe basically inevitable at this point? Can anarchism (or socialism, or any other ideology) defeat the stranglehold capitalism has on the distribution of wealth and welfare? Why aren’t more disused churches used for fun art projects? What is the meaning of property? What happens if the extremists win the state election?

Okay, you can see how the mind can wander. But one’s environment influences thought. And when I was enveloped by an unceasing, discordant pipe organ drone, I felt on one hand relaxed and deeply connected to the world around me, and on the other starkly at odds and ready to fight. I want to live in a world full of strange and idiosyncratic art. It’s part of human experience, and everyone should have the opportunity to create and witness it. I’m not sure I understood all the music I heard the night before the Klangwechsel, but I don’t care. I think most of the performances would’ve benefited from being about 30% shorter, but can I really complain? It was fun. I laughed. It felt like a set of instructions on how to take things less seriously, while still fighting for what you know is right. Will they still be holding pre-celebratory concerts in a couple hundred years? I hope so. I hope the world isn’t on fire, or underwater, or a nuclear wasteland by then. What other ridiculous things can we get up to in the meantime?

Further Reading and Listening:
My friend Gabe’s piece for The World on PRX
A longer piece by Gabe from the last Klangwechsel
Homepage of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt

The Cure / The Twilight Sad - Live 2026.07.11 Parkbühne Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany

This was my fourth time seeing The Cure, and my first time since moving to Germany. I missed their 2022 show but decided I couldn’t dare miss another opportunity, even though all three nights sold out before I even caught wind of it. Thankfully I managed to get a ticket from the approved reseller with only a slight upcharge!

I biked the whole 19 kilometers to the venue and arrived just as the first band, Just Mustard, was wrapping up. I liked what I could hear, but based on reports from friends, I didn’t miss much. I did catch The Twilight Sad’s set. They’d also opened the last time I saw the Cure in 2016. Unfortunately, they were a bit drowned out by the crowd. The snare was just loud enough that I needed earplugs, but that rendered them quiet and indistinct. I liked the style of noisy rock but couldn’t quite get into it. I enjoyed seeing them last time around more, but it seemed like it wasn’t their fault.

The Cure appeared without bassist Simon Gallup, who was ill. In his stead was his son, Eden Gallup. If you didn’t look too closely, you wouldn’t have known the difference. He might not have had his father’s exuberance, but he could play all the riffs with finesse! They started strong with the wondrous “Plainsong” and then just started charging through the hits. I was surprised that they didn’t play a single song from their last album, Songs of a Lost World (2024), which I really enjoyed. I was looking forward to seeing how it would translate to the stage and disappointed that they didn’t even try.

[The Cure, with Eden Gallup on bass.]

They did play “The Last Day of Summer” from Bloodflowers (2000), which was a welcome deep cut, but otherwise there weren’t a lot of surprises. I mean, they did give us a trio from Pornography (1982), but that was never my favorite album. “Play for Today” with the traditional audience singalong (to the keyboard part!) was fun to finally participate in. There are always plenty of minor setlist variations, but it generally felt like the same show I saw ten years ago, but more predictable. That time around I got two new (still unreleased!) songs and two great b-sides.

While the mix was generally quite good, Reeves Gabrels was oddly low in the mix when he wasn’t playing his annoyingly flashy solos. I still don’t really like his style, so I wasn’t particularly upset, but I felt like some of the songs were missing something. “High”, “Never Enough”, and “Just Like Heaven” in particular were conspicuously missing riffs that really help to make those songs. “High” and “Heaven” were superb anyway, but at some point I realized that the band has arranged their material for six musicians, and they were making do with just five. Perry Bamonte had rejoined the band in 2022, making the band a six-piece for the first time since 1989, but he sadly died last year. Eden had actually joined to fill his position, and he can be seen on the video of their performance at Primavera Barcelona and others. Impressive that he can fill two very different roles, but unfortunate that one was left unfilled for this night!

Regardless, most of the songs fared just fine. Everything recorded before The Top (1984) was performed with just three or four members, so on some songs, I wasn’t even sure how much all the members were really contributing. And as far as the set goes, it’s hard to complain about two and a quarter hours of 27 bangers. They didn’t play a bad song. They might not be the most exciting band, but they’re still a lot of fun, and I’m glad they’re not done.

[The Cure, with green lighting for “A Forest”.]

The Twilight Sad’s setlist (thanks to here):
1. Dead Flowers
2. Designed to Lose
3. VTr
4. Attempt a Crash Landing – Theme
5. Last January
6. There’s a Girl in the Corner
7. And She Would Darken the Memory
8. Waiting for the Phone Call

The Cure’s setlist:
01. Plainsong
02. Pictures of You
03. High
04. Lovesong
05. Burn
06. Fascination Street
07. Never Enough
08. Push
09. In Between Days
10. Just Like Heaven
11. The Last Day of Summer
12. A Strange Day
13. One Hundred Years
14. Cold
15. A Night Like This
16. Play for Today
17. A Forest
18. Shake Dog Shake
19. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
20. Disintegration

Encore 1:
21. Lullaby
22. The Walk
23. The Lovecats
24. Friday I’m in Love
25. Close to Me
26. Why Can’t I Be You?
27. Boys Don’t Cry

Scores:
The Twilight Sad: C
The Cure: B

Transchor Plänterwald 2022 @ Casino for Social Medicine

Transchor Plänterwald 2022 will be performing at this fundraiser on July 23! The fun starts at 6pm and we'll sing around 7:30pm. It's at the Casino for Social Medicine, Sonnenallee 100, Berlin-Neukölln.

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 3

On Saturday, day 3, I was feeling a bit more alive than I had the day before. I made it to the first musical act of the day, Peki Momés, who played a chill, smooth brand of Turkish pop psychedelia. I thought of Khruangbin but with a different language and a few cultural touchstones swapped out. I wasn’t blown away, but it made for great listening while lying on a blanket.

[Peki Momés.]

The next band was La Sécurité from Montreal. I loved what I’d heard in advance, and on stage it was even better. They played off-kilter, fun, ecstatic art punk. The drums and vocals were both strong, I liked the synth touches and the fuzz bass, and I loved that the two guitarists twisted around each other and the other instruments but rarely played chords. I thoroughly enjoyed their set from start to finish. I managed to snag a setlist and then went to the merch booth to buy their album, which they graciously signed for me.

[La Sécurité.]

I caught some of Dressed Like Boys on the Birkenhain stage while I was getting food and visiting the merch booth. They sounded too tame and soft for my taste, so I didn’t stick around. I returned soon enough for quickly, quickly, but they also failed to impress me. They were just three dudes sitting down with a drum machine. They had no passion and nothing to help them stand out. The singer/keyboardist drove most of the sound, including covering the bass parts, but his voice was mellow and plain and the lyrics were generic. The two guitarists played restrained background parts, with the exception of one decent solo that briefly got my hopes up. In the right mood, they might’ve been chill and pleasant, but as it was, it was bland and boring. I left early.

[quickly, quickly.]

I took a break and came back for Brockhoff. They played very mainstream pop rock with a hint of Americana. They had some drive, and I could almost groove to it, but the lyrics were really bad and the vocal style was all breathy pop cliché. When she spoke of her love of Hannah Montana and rom-com stereotypes, I knew it was my time to leave.

Next up was Sprints, who finally offered some relief. Their garage punk was full of fuzz bass, great riffs, and political rage. The drummer and second guitarist were both excellent, and together they kept up a feverous pace. They played a cover of Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” that was quite a thrill. Their penultimate song changed the mood and started slow and acoustic with spindly lead guitar, with something like a Bauhaus vibe. They slowly built it up and sped it up and it ended up as another thrasher, but with all the tension released, it went even harder than the rest. Naturally, there was plenty of moshing and circle running.

[Sprints.]

After an hour of dancing to Sprints, I was feeling psyched but losing steam. I decided I still had energy for Jehnny Beth, erstwhile singer of Savages, who I’ve been sorely missing. She appeared with her longtime collaborator and partner Johnny Hostile on guitar as well as a bassist and a drummer. I’d wondered how she would translate the intense electronic industrial sound of her solo albums to the stage, but they pulled it off without much in the way of backing tracks. They were really hard, heavy, and aggressive. It might’ve been too much if I hadn’t been in the right mood, but I was well-primed, again got a great spot at the front, and was just barely able to keep up. Instrumentally I didn’t find the set as compelling or complex as I’d hoped, but it still rocked. It was more focused on noise and pulsing, seething rhythm. I’m trying not to be disappointed that she didn’t play any Savages songs, but I can understand if she wants to establish herself as a solo artist independent of that band. That said, she covered “In Heaven”, the deranged classic from the Eraserhead soundtrack, notably covered by The Pixies (but also Bauhaus and plenty of others), as well as Björk’s “Army of Me”. That idiosyncratic bassline was immediately recognizable! She ran into the crowd and sang atop them at some point, and did some push-ups (in heels!) during the titular song and invited a woman from the crowd up to the stage to do some as well. First time I’ve seen that. She also explained that “Reality” is about growing up queer and not understanding it. Relatable.

[Jehnny Beth.]

I was thoroughly beat by that point, and it was two in the morning. I caught a bit of Valentino Vivace on my way out, and I liked their sweet Italian disco pop, but it was too thin and insubstantial. It was pleasant to hear drifting through the trees while brushing my teeth and admiring the full moon, though.

Scores:
Peki Momés: B
La Sécurité: A+
quickly, quickly: D+
Brockhoff: C-
Sprints: A
Jehnny Beth: B+

P.S.: A big thank you to my festival crew!

P.P.S.: Here are the setlists for the best three shows of the day. I got the printed sheets from the stage for all three.

La Sécurité:
01. Le Kick
02. Detour
03. Power Snoozer
04. Bingo
05. Waiting for Kenny
06. Deny
07. Trixie
08. Anyway
09. Hot Topic
10. Try Again
11. Dis-Moi
12. Suspens
13. Snack City

Sprints:
01. Descartes
02. Feast
03. Beg
04. Literary Mind
05. How Does the Story Go?
06. Shadow of Doubt
07. Something’s Gonna Happen
08. Heavy
09. Cathedral
10. Up and Comer
11. Pieces
12. Need
13. Deceptacon [Le Tigre cover]
14. Desire
15. Little Fix

Jehnny Beth:
01. Broken Rib
02. High Resolution Sadness
03. I Still Believe
04. No Good for People
05. Innocence
06. In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) [David Lynch/Peter Ivers cover]
07. Push-Ups
08. Reality
09. Stop Me Now
10. Army of Me [Björk cover]
11. Out of My Reach
12. Obsession
13. How Could You
14. I’m the Man
15. I See Your Pain

[Karla Chubb of Sprints with the audience.]

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 2

After a good start on the first day, I slept in late and went to the store for more food and drinks. I wasn’t feeling the talks or the first band (Future Franz), but I was excited for RIP Magic and they did not disappoint. They only have five songs out, but their mix of sampled and synthesized sounds and their hypnotic energy had me curious. Their set was incredibly loud and the mix was dominated by their synths. Their bassist played with thick fuzz and lots of chords, but his parts were mere texture under the heavy low end of the synths. The drummer even seemed bored, which was understandable since they also played with programmed beats that had more complex rhythmic layers. Despite that, I admired their lack of guitar. The whole thing was intense and propulsive. I was fully carried away by it. I later realized the singer is also the keyboardist of Sorry, who played the next day.

[RIP Magic.]

I was feeling charged up by that point and stuck around for Kapa Tult even though I found their recordings somewhat half-baked. I kept thinking I was about ready to leave in search of food or friends, but every song won me over and left me wanting more. They played a fun mix of punky indie pop á la Die Braut haut ins Auge or Ideal, and the lyrics were clever, relatable tales of modernity and relationships, even if they were a bit straight for my taste. I liked the Moe Tucker-style drums and that the drummer got to sing lead on one song. This may have been the first time I’ve seen a band composed of three people I read as women and one man, and the man played bass!

[Kapa Tult.]

The weather forecast had predicted a warm and sunny day, but it started to get overcast, windy, and ultimately rainy, which dampened my mood. I checked out Ebbb but found them contentless and boring. They were dancey but too pop. There was no style, no depth.

There was also a change in schedule announced around then, as Mine dropped out due to sudden sickness. Hence, Kabeaushé played earlier and once we realized it, we rushed to the Zeltbühne to catch his set. It was just the singer, a drummer, and a lot of prerecorded tracks. The drummer was great, and Kabeaushé himself was fully charged up, but the intensity was overwhelming. If his set had been at the originally scheduled time after midnight, I might’ve been better prepared for that level of energy, but as it was, I just couldn’t get into it. The lack of live instrumentation also left me wanting some more variety. I couldn’t hang.

I was also interested in Fuffifufzich and particularly Chloe Slater, but the rain had really picked up and I just wasn’t in the mood to venture back out. Of course, the rain stopped once I’d given up, and I caught a bit of Slater while I was brushing my teeth. She closed her set with a cover of Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag”. Kind of a weird choice, right? I have to admit I do like the song, but I think that’s just because it got stuck in some corner of my adolescent brain. I once saw Wheatus back in 2005 because my freshman year college roommate’s band was opening for them at the Creepy Crawl in St. Louis. Too bad I wasn’t writing reviews back then. I don’t think it was a good one. Anyway…

Scores:
RIP Magic: A
Kapa Tult: B+
Ebbb: D
Kabeaushé: C-

Immergut Festival 2026 Day 1

I had such a good time at Immergut last year that I knew I wanted to come back this year. This time I came better prepared and with an even larger crew.

After arriving early-ish on Thursday and setting up the campsite, I made it to the first show of the festival: Snuggle on the Birkenhain stage. They played a very chill sort of slowcore shoegaze, a bit in the vein of Slowdive or Low. The lack of a bassist struck me as odd at first, but then I realized the drummer had pads for the bass parts and other samples, and I was impressed by how well he held it all down. I liked the guitars and the vocals were fine, but they were just plain too mellow. I like that vibe but I wanted a little more energy.

[Snuggle.]

My wish was granted with the next act, Ellis D. As a five-piece with two guitars, keyboard, bass, and drums, they had plenty of capacity to turn it up and get the crowd going. They started playing fairly heavy psychedelic rock, somewhere between punk and post-punk. In particular, the singer’s androgynous, wild, ebullient energy reminded me of The Cramps. It turns out that he also drums with Fat Dog, who performed last year (although I unfortunately missed them). Their set gradually involved more extended jams including multiple keyboard noise solos. The singer jumped into the crowd three times. I appreciated that they were going hard, but I started to feel a bit repetition. It seemed like every song had a fakeout break that went just long enough for people to start clapping before the band struck it back up. And the second guitarist made quite a contradiction with his stony lack of expression.

[Ellis D.]

They were followed by Gelée, a Pet Shop Boys/Erasure-style synthpop duo in which a man played keyboards and ran the drum machine while a woman sang and danced. Confusingly, their Bandcamp page shows three people, but I only saw the two. I liked the idea, and while the instrumentation and vocals were fairly good, I found the execution rather cheesy. The bad lyrics drove me off. I needed a bit of a break anyway.

[Gelée.]

I came back before long to see Heidi Curtis. What I’d heard before gave me big Neko Case vibes, and while her voice was quite strong and indeed reminiscent of Case, the music was mostly stereotypical pop. Although she hails from northern England, the band sounded like Americana. I liked that the bassist played some keyboard, and then that Curtis moved to the keys herself for a couple songs, including a cover of Patti Smith’s “Because the Night”. I like that song, but I’m continually surprised by how well Germans, even ones younger than me, seem to know and love it too. I got bored not long after that, though. The music was just too predictable.

[Heidi Curtis.]

I was originally going to skip Waving the Guns, but my crew was enthusiastic so I joined them. I’m glad I did. I often struggle to get into Deutschrap (too many cis white guys trying to act hard) but I appreciated the unrepentantly leftist lyrics. I mean, I almost felt like the singer’s requests for FLINTA* moshpits were a little over the top. The beats were solid and I loved the live drums. The three performers were a great match for each other and the whole set worked great in that environment. They brought Martha, the singer of Gelée, up on stage to sing with them as well, which was an excellent addition. I enjoyed myself quite a bit more than I’d expected.

I caught a bit of Die Höchste Eisenbahn immediately afterwards as they were on the way to the camping area anyway. They had a bunch of interesting-looking keyboards on stage, but weren’t making a lot of use of them. Their indie pop was too clean and plain for my taste. I left early and called it a night.

[Die Höchste Eisenbahn.]

Scores:
Snuggle: B-
Ellis D: B+
Gelée: C-
Heidi Curtis: C+
Waving the Guns: A-
Die Höchste Eisenbahn: C-

Bone Caster - Romance the Serpent (2026)

Friend of the blog Brad Schumacher is back with a new project and a new album. After three albums of noise and post-industrial as Night Grinder and numerous contributions to a variety of other projects (including The Man and the Scientist and Low Forest), he is now Bone Caster. Romance the Serpent comes out on May 15, accompanied by custom video game levels for Wizordum that align with the music. He’s hosting a play-through on the day of release at 6:00pm MST here.

The new album explores dungeon synth, much in the vein of his recent collaborative projects Journey to the Ruin of Xilmys by Dweller and Carapace by Keepers of Kozamir (both 2024), but that’s just the start. The primary instrument is synthesizer, but there is plenty of guitar riffing, drum machine, and fuzz bass. The production is detailed and enveloping, in which each song is a new level, leading the listener into new worlds of torments and treasures.

Opener “Bioluminescent Butterfly” suitably begins with inviting introductory music, but the path soon leads into darker hellscapes. “A Tremulous Draught” has some Night Grinder-style noise, and “Cognitive Drift” recalls the anguished throes of The Cure’s The Top (1984) or the spookier corners of Siouxsie & the Banshees. “The Warlock” starts with pastoral fingerpicked guitar from Jim Fitzpatrick (Cup Collector, Falsetto Boy), but then goes metal.

For most of the album, Brad’s vocals are heavily treated and transformed into a goblinesque growl, recalling Skinny Puppy. Near the end, in “Tower to the Moon” and “Smoke and Mud”, the vocals start to clear (and Josh King (Low Forest, Joshua and the Ruins) joins the fray), as our troubled narrator reaches closer to relief and resolution. The closing “Epilogue: Moss-covered Stone” returns to the ethereal peace of the opening moments.

Romance the Serpent mystically invokes the feeling of playing D&D or an old fantasy RPG. It’s an intense ride. Take the journey yourself on May 15 at Bandcamp.