If you want to listen and dance to loud music, you have to find or create a surrounding that makes this activity possible. For the distinct purpose of a rave, appropriating existing structures and environments has always been a good move. From the top of my head, I can remember either participating in or hearing about parties in power plants, churches, monasteries, old swimming pools, and under highway bridges, in school buildings, fortresses, castles, garages, disused holiday parks, office buildings, and on boats.
Over the years, it has been possible to witness a constant one-upping in global nightlife to find more and more spectacular, or rather bizarre, locations (Ben Klock or Nina Kraviz on the Great Wall of China come to mind), whereas locally the focus usually has been on cultivating under-the-radar spots and being patient until possibilities arise. Of course, all this came to a halt in March 2020 and streams and digital raves became the center of attention. In video games like Fortnite, on communication platforms like Zoom, or in specifically programmed digital surroundings dancers gathered to try something new.
One spot that was always there, and, like many stories about illegal parties tell us, also didn’t really go away during the pandemic, is the forest. A rave in a field is how acid house apparently was enjoyed best in the late 1980s and a rave in a field is how people have been enjoying loud electronic music up to this day. Nature is beautiful in the company of one person, but it can also be beautiful with 500 dancing bodies around you. Admittedly, a strange thought after so many months without it.
There is also an argument which can be made that nature is at its most beautiful when left alone and that it did plenty of “healing” over the course of the pandemic. The short film BOS by Amsterdam-based photographer and director Tom Biddulph might be making a case for this. However, it might also be adding a more nuanced view to the intricate relationship between nature and humankind for the purpose of a, well, party.
The clip takes us to Amsterdamse Bos, a forest area in the south of the Dutch city, where Dekmantel Festival usually takes place during the first weekend of August. Naturally this wasn’t the case in 2020. Biddulph went to the area together with cinematographer Michael Hobdell that week to document the forest in its unbothered state. The clip resembles a pitched-up David Attenborough documentary that drifts into the surreal. In addition, the video is accompanied by an exclusive composition by Dutch DJ and producer Oceanic titled “Just as Before.” By weaving together field recordings from Amsterdamse Bos with a chirping soundscape, the producer succeeds to elegantly match the visual energy of BOS. Biddulph says about the work:
BOS explores the idea that over the years the flora and fauna [of Amsterdamse Bos] have absorbed the noise and energy they’ve been exposed to, the rhythms of the forest becoming intertwined with the sounds of the festival. Just as photosynthesis converts sunlight into energy that allows them to grow, the synthesizers and drum patterns have become part of the trees, plants, birds and insects.
The clip portrais a peaceful, almost romantic, coexistence that is beneficial to all involved. It should be stated though that this coexistence is a delicate one, requiring attention and care. Watching BOS serves as a good reminder about this delicateness before the dancers return to the forest this summer.
Dekmantel Festival 2021 will take place from the 6th to the 8th August 2021. On the festival’s line-up are plenty of artists who were featured in zweikommasieben over the years, like Batu, Call Super [in zweikommasieben #9], DJ Stingray [in zweikommasieben #15 and online], Elena Colombi, Helena Hauff [in zweikommasieben #9 and online], Interstellar Funk [in zweikommasieben #15], Jasss [in zweikommasieben #17], Low Jack [in zweikommasieben #12 and online], Laurel Halo [in zweikommasieben #16], Lee Gamble [in zweikommasieben #7], Parrish Smith [in zweikommasieben #16], Lena Willikens [in zweikommasieben #10 and online], Vladimir Ivkovic [in zweikommasieben #18], and upsammy [in zweikommasieben #18 and online]