Life inside a particle accelerator with Ben Frost

Frost’s mandate to collaborator MFO was that the show should “feel like being inside a particle accelerator”. And if A U R O R A Live is the closest we get to understanding life inside the likes of the Large Hadron Collider, then it could be described as both mesmeric and oppressive. However, we were not in CERN, but within Frost’s own mobile, sonic particle accelerator, where within, he plays the role of the mad scientist revelling in his own creation.

Over the course of the 70-minute set, Frost violently collided industrial soundscapes, with piston-like samples, against distorted rave synths and tribal drums, to not only bring alive the music of A U R O R A but also to expand on it. “Venter” was elongated to allow it’s pugilistic drums to build before its anxiety-ridden melody kicked in. Furthermore, set opener “Flex”, with its glacial, alien soundscapes and sweeping synthesisers was prolonged and then reduced to a single reverberating note, as strobes flashed manically, as if to represent not only a particle accelerator warming up, but also the dawn of creation in slow-motion.

Closer and set highlight “Nolan” characterised Frost’s masterful handle on the flow of A U R O R A Live. “Nolan” intersected periods of quiet, introspective melodies with immediate shifts in volume, as rhythmically-dense drum patterns layered upon themselves to beat upon the tympanic membranes of those in attendance with pneumatic force. And although the frantic and violent beauty of A U R O R A characterised the show, Frost periodically lowered the tempo and volume inter-song, allowing for periods of audience reflection (and much needed relaxation), whilst connecting the set into an overall singular and coherent body of work.

In a conversation with photographer Richard Mosse - whose radical re-thinking of conflict photography, with its hot-pink rendering of the Democratic Republic of Congo, had a profound influence on the development of A U R O R A - Frost illuminates one of A U R O R A’s key themes: the use of light as “an offensive gesture”, whilst recalling the work of 16/17th century German alchemist Jakob Böhme, who conceptualised the aurora as the pinnacle of an alchemic process actively expunging the darkness. It was thus apt for Frost’s show to be based in part on the A U R O R A-permeating theme of light. Frost’s belief in its offensive nature was intensely realised with a light-show that not only complemented the sonic bombardment but also laid siege to the visual senses. If anything, Frost and MFO performed an alchemy of their own, to create an otherworldly audio-visual experience, with warped prismatic visuals, and disarming (and sporadically uncomfortable) strobing, as retinas were pushed to their absolute limit, leaving sunspots to linger upon the visual field.

Frost himself cut an interesting figure on stage. Stoic and concentrated in nature, he exuded minimal emotion as he focussed on recreating the textures found on A U R O R A and acquiring as much feedback from his guitar as possible. Previous shows have seen Frost flanked by the likes of Greg Fox, Thor Harris and Shahzad Ismaily, and therefore this current incarnation sees Frost isolated on stage and somewhat detached from the audience. Luckily, the visual spectacle created by MFO counter-balanced Frost’s icy but determined approach. Regardless however of Frost’s qualities as a performer, the rousing applause that greeted the finale hinted at the fact that actually the single strand of confetti that fell may have not been so incongruous after all, and that Frost should be wholeheartedly celebrated as an artist…with or without confetti.