When I first heard about Immersion being booked for this show, I hadn’t heard of the project before and assumed that it was a new Colin Newman project. Well, after doing a little digging I found that I couldn’t have been more wrong. First off, it’s a joint project with Colin’s wife Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact fame, and it started over 30 years ago!
After a handful of original material and remixes, in 2021 they embarked on what they label “Nanocluster,” a project where they collaborate with different musicians. With the third volume just released featuring the NYC band Suss, it made sense to team up with those collaborators for some live shows. The format was Newman and Spigel playing about 30 minutes of songs first, mostly instrumental that had strong flavors of kosmiche musik and a bit of techno and dance thrown into the mix. The duo played against a very beautiful video montage, including footage shot from a moving car, slow-motion flowers unfurling, and gorgeous landscapes.
Acknowledging today’s news of Trump’s impending tariffs, Newman quipped “This set is 10% more expensive than it was yesterday.” After they closed their set with a new song “Defiance,” the Brooklyn trio (and sometimes quartet, with a bass player joining in for a couple of songs) then took over the assembled instruments at the front of the stage. Self-identifying as “ambient country,” the use of pedal steel was a predominant color and fit their bill. Though a fairly newish band, Suss’s members date back to the 80s as alums of Rubber Rodeo and 8 Eyed Spy.
They used a video backdrop as well but it wasn’t nearly as effective; first off, the screen wasn’t maximized and the playback controls and top menu were visible, and it mainly consisted of kinda rote fractal-generated images. Still, their slow, methodical and spacious sounds hit the right spot. Just as they finished their set and were to be joined by Spigel and Newman as Nanocluster, Jonathan Gregg broke a string on his pedal steel guitar, forcing him to play a conventional one as the third set started. Before they played the next one, he managed to get Newman’s attention that he needed some time, to which Spigel said “I didn’t think you could break a string on one of those.” “Very punk playing, Jonathan” joked Newman in response. The set ended with “In The Far Away,” a fitting end to a set that was less rhythm and more textural.
