Love Music Live Warrington

presents Fältsånger

at Warrington Irish Club 

Friday 9 June 2023

Tonight is something extra special and very different.  I’ve been told about Fältsånger and their ‘otherworldly electro’ creations so for me this is must see.  I’ve also been told it’s a gig like no other – I’m intrigued. They are from Warrington so it’s a home town headline in the brilliant Irish Club, which really is the place in Warrington for live music. I do love a gig here – always varied and the high standard of artists showcased is commendable. With very reasonable bar prices, air conditioning and a good beer garden we have everything; always s good atmosphere and a great night is guaranteed.

Fältsånger: Ian Ward, Stuart Smith 

The stage tonight is set all in white with an impressive and vast set-up of tech kit…it’s almost like some space-age laboratory or similar. It’s all seated tonight and is laid out in rows like a theatre. In an impressive intro, a video is projected onto the white stage set – a 1950s era ((I’m guessing here, but somewhere around the atomic age, 1940s -1970s) and what appears to be a US Government informational style cartoon reel about the threat of nuclear attack. (I later find out it’s actually a Canadian public film board cartoon from the 70s). It somehow fits with the stage full of tech which really does have a Cold War-era control room feel about it, we’re just missing some huge dials and bulky primitive computer screens. 

(Faltsanger_Credit: Chris Rose Photography)

Our band members arrive on stage amidst a sea of swirling, psychedelic, brightly coloured patterns, wearing white boiler suits and headsets (very astronaut/radiation suit-like, adding to the feels created). The bright and mesmerising images project onto Ian and Stuart so they almost disappear into the effects. With their backs to us, this continues throughout the performance so as to enhance the imagery and it’s straight into the set…which is instantly hypnotic and trance-like. Nothing is pre-recorded; it’s all performed live before us, our two band members communicating through their headsets. No gaps, no breaks, each song magically blends into the next. Guitar, synth, keys and a whole host of stuff too technical for me to comprehend are played/used. The sound is incredible; it genuinely does feel out of this world, spacey. It’s a wide variety of sounds, light and free, then pulsating and undulating, electro then dance feeling, then a softer, gentler but totally trippy vibe. It’s a brilliant sound and it honestly transports us to some other place, time, space…or that’s how it feels anyway.

For me tonight (I’ve a feeling each performance may differ in content) I get real feels and the whole atmosphere where I personally was swept off to was all very mid-century, very American, hyper modernism style (or ‘Googie’ as it was known). Very futuristic, for then anyway, stylised…think the Jetsons!  I found the sounds really reminiscent of the music played throughout Tomorrow Land in Disney World, a treasure of that whole era…I was thinking conveyors… leading you out, after just riding on Space Mountain roller coasters. It’s fantastic and so atmospheric. I just love this! Very conceptual – the imagery projected changes throughout the set, which is full of content; sounds get harder, or funkier; it feels more dance-like; I’m getting Daft Punk, even Chemical Brothers-type feels. There’s no vocal or singing throughout but it’s not missed or needed, there is already so much interest in this sound. It’s mesmeric, hypnotic, completely immersive, engulfing and totally fascinating. 

(Faltsanger_Credit: Chris Rose Photography)

A brilliant gig, very complex and excellently performed.  It’s not just music created here tonight but an entire concept, feel…world even…and so detailed. What a bloody show! Smashed it, guys, totally different and totally addictive.

Set List: Dusk Among the Circuit Trees, Jim and Harry, So Long, Soläng, Jellybean  Galaxy, Traces (The Morning After), Wild West Colonels and the Atomic Menace in Deadwood Junction, Tales From the Assembly Line.

Review by Janet Harding

Photography by Chris Rose Photography

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