With SOHN in Frankfurt (Photos & Video)

Location: Gibson Club,Zeil 85-93, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Words: Dimitris Mavrokefalidis – Photos: amusicmap.com

Listening, while writing:

On the ticket it said the doors open at 19.30, so I made sure I was there at 18.00 in order to be among the first to arrive. The Gibson Club is set on an arcade above one of Frankfurt’s main pedestrian shopping streets. Until 20:00, I was the only one there-standing and waiting for the gig to begin. It was just me and the rusty chain with which they had sealed the entrance of a typical touristic club. “Do you know if there is a side entry to today’s concert?” I asked the employee from the next-door gelateria. “No, people get in from here.” I check the time again. 20.10 p.m. Had it been canceled? Perhaps there’s an announcement on the Facebook event page? Nothing. I begin to observe things around me only to creatively kill some of my time.I then notice the one poster – for Gibson – with the scheduled concerts from April to May. “Oh well Morcheeba – coming up -How-many nights and days have I spent –listening to Otherwise“, How many days after today’s concert – April 29 – May 7 (huh, just over a week)but it’s the28^th of April today!” The feeling was like going to a party you’ve been invited to only to find you’ve arrived at the wrong house or similar to singing Easter carols!

Of course the next day the process was the same this time I entered the club (that easily could have been located in Ibiza) thanks to its lounge areas, huge balconies and three bars. He went on stage at 9.00 p.m sharp, and the show unfolded as a love letter not yet read by its recipient. Chapters of his career included. The message was loud and clear: be present and centred.

The gig opened with his new single “Hue”, a gesture to remind us that one of the main representatives of the so-called “emotional electronica” is on stage.

«I’ll never find another like you
Similar tone but a different hue
Could never love another like you
I’ve been out living, it’s true
But enough’s enough
I’ll never find another like you
I’ll never find another like you
Not in this life».

2016’s “Signal” confirms that Christopher Michael Taylor (professionally known as SOHN) knows how to capture his audience. With a slow movement of his torso and a melancholic lost look on an empty smoky stage (just 50sm) he manages to hypnotise even the most demanding viewer who describes what he is watching and listening to as a whole new genre probably conceived just for Sohn’s music: sadwave. What else can one say about the man who sings “I died a week ago” at “The Wheel.” It reflects a grim period of his life, right after a difficult break-up and his relocation to Vienna. Voices, however, are like listening to a studio recorded album. The songs from last year’s “Rennen” (“I’m running” in German, an album he created after a time of isolation in a pool house belonging to a friend) prove that his dive into new depths, new shadows and bright moments with a voice that says it’s as vulnerable as a thin thread ready to break, can be one of the most mesmerizing experiences of your life. No one has the time to define their beginning, middle and end. Such a concert with this kind of minimalist stage and linear format and sound allow you to create your own drama, your anti-climax.