DIFFUSE REALITY LIVE

Music is the best to practice Mindfulness immediately. Attending an event like Diffuse Reality LIVE is a safe bet to live in the present moment for a few hours. In the context we are living now, with all the limitations and restrictions on the nightlife, it seemed to me more valuable than ever. To remember times when we were allowed to reunite together. When we raved and sweated, with no social distance and face masks were a personal choice. 

On the 23 of February of 2019, 7 artists were performing, all of them LIVE. A night full of LIVE acts. I mean, my fucking dream. 

I already knew some of them, but some others were a very grateful discovery. In addition, the venue took place in one of my favorite locations in Barcelona, “The Garage of The Bass Valley”, which is part of a bigger project. “The Bass Valley Barcelona” is a specialized training center in DJing, music production and electronic music industry. The school is on the top floor and the same professionals that teach the art, make you fly with it on the ground floor.

The first thing that blew me away was the atmosphere in the dancefloor. Tones of smoke with bright red lights. When I say tones, I mean tones. I barely could see if there was anyone else in the room, just me and the music in the middle of the smoke.  When my eyes got used to it, I could see some dark silhouettes waving their bodies and their hair in the distance.  Stauffer was in charge. And nobody is able to do what he does. Stauffer is the project of Pablo Gil, and his noise is specially sharped and aggressive, just the way I love it. His music is designed for the live acts, and he hasn’t repeated a performance since I know his work. His performances never had nothing to do with the previous ones. In that occasion, he used a vintage telephone as microphone, probably handmade by himself, to deconstruct his voice, leading me to Hell. 

After that, I needed to breathe, so I went outside for a while. It always happens to me. If something is super intense and I really connect with it, I need a space to digest it before I can ingest anything else. It was February, and it was super cold. “The Garage” is in an Industrial Area in the suburbs, in an alley with several warehouses.  There were more ravers on it, it looked like I was not the only one who needed a break. 

When I came back inside, the Argentinian producer based in Barcelona, Ivan Szew, took over. It was the first time I had the opportunity to saw him in action, although I already knew his work. His live sounds like traditional techno, but with a lot of personality. Industrial and unexpected breaks gave a special texture to the music. I was grateful for the more danceable but unpredictable rhythms he gave us, because I needed to dance and to relax the tension caused by the previous act. 

I didn’t know it at that moment, but everything was getting ready for the climax of the night. The duo formed by Mario F. (electronics) and Jogile D. (voice, electronics), SMforma. What a marvel. That was the first time I saw their performance, and today I still continue falling completely hypnotized with their acts. The music was dark, very deep. Their bass registers that impacted strongly on my soul, and the metallic voice of Jogile has a texture that penetrates in your deepest inner self. She performed grabbing the microphone hardly and curving her body supernaturally. Their music lead me to a very introspective state.  Same sensation again. So much intensity, I needed to breath.  Again. 

And thank God I did it, because I would definitely need the energy afterwards.  The following acts were designed to make you dance without pause the rest of the gig. 

The legends are always a pleasure to admire, and two of them were about to take control of the smoky dancefloor, where the ravers were enjoying wildly. 

Alex Martin was the first one. If you live in Barcelona and you are an electronic scene passionate (which is my case) you must know him. His activity in the scene is not reduced to his sets, lives or productions, he also works as a teacher of the art he masters as no one. I feel deeply respect for that kind of artists, who not only make history, but they also evolve with it. The other was Eric Fetcher, French producer and music composer based in Barcelona.  As usual, he acted completely surrounded by hardware synthesizers and modular gears, connecting their sounds dextrally. As always it was a delight to abandon myself to the rhythms that the two masters were constructing live for us, living my own mindfulness experience. 

The event was arriving to the end, and I started to feel it inside my boots. Squaric, Argentinian Dj, producer, and head of Diffuse Reality, was the responsible of the closing. The cherry on top of the cake.