Music is a way of travelling without moving. It transports you to different places in time, Introduces you to new people and ideas. Music is the great equalizer. When you are on the same alcohol-stained dancefloor, inhaling the same second-hand smoke, moving to the same rhythm there is no class, gender, age or race. Music is a universal dialect that doesn’t require speaking, instead it demands movement. We are walking long before we start to talk, speech comes second to motion. You get lost in the motion of good music, participating in a form of active listening where you hear the rhythm and then feel it. Feeling music with other people means that even if you go out by yourself you are never truly alone.
I recently went to a club in Tirana called Technosphere. Techno is an burgeoning genre in Albania , you can hear it emerging from underground raves and hidden basements. There is something unique about being a part of an evolving scene, it hasn’t existed for long enough to become diffused among the mainstream so there is a raw authenticity that is missing in the commodified club culture. It is a misconception that busier clubs have better music, there is a reason the term ‘sellout’ isn’t used affectionately. Technosphere was by no means busy but the people and music provided the energy. Entering through the doors you were transported to an undersea world of beautiful bottom dwellers who sleep all day and dance all night. People who were from different countries, spoke different languages , were different ages, have lived different lives yet were united by the common pursuit of music. Every beat brought you closer to the underground. It was a world foreign to what we experience on the surface. The undersea effect was heightened by subversive lighting and lucid sounds that lured you onto the dance floor, like a fish to the hook, you become instantly caught in the rhythm of the place.
Everyone moved in synergy. Synergy is an interaction between people that gives rise to a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Everyone moved in individual parts but the greater effect was one of unique collectivism. Everyone hears techno differently, the ears provide a filter and your body moves accordingly. A good DJ understands the art of layering, creating a sonic garden that allows people to pick their own path through. The first thought when you see a crowd of techno heads is confusion – how is everyone moving so differently to the same song? . Like a powerful river that is made up of many streams a good song uses a mix of different beats, creating a solid sound. As a listener you get to choose which stream to go down , maybe it’s the DUMPF DUMPF of the bass or the dodoododoo of the synths, you can watch the dancefloor and see how everyone moves to a different flow.
This process is one of extreme concentration, you must be aware of music’s different elements to pick the one that suits you. In Technosphere people gave you the space to respond, I didn’t feel restricted in anyway instead a deep sense of freedom. You could watch the crowd move in synergy when someone new entered the dancefloor, accommodating this new presence as if it had always been there. Dance is one of the most expressive languages, our bodies were one of the first vessels we used to communicate, its endurance through the ages proven by the fact that we still use it today. There is something seductive about good music , it lures you in , keeps you wanting more, makes you loose track of time and place, and importantly , it connects you with other people. In Albania tecno’s emergent status meant that the people were truly there for the music. The common pursuit of sound uniting you with every stranger in that room. The word connection comes from Latin ‘connexionem’ – a ‘binding together’. Music binds people in a way that still feels cosmic. Sometimes it happens that you choose the same stream of sound to follow as someone else , you see them match your pace , a question disguised as an invitation, would you like to dance together ?. In that moment you find a deep connection with someone you have never met, as your feat kick at the floor and arms move in in synchronicity you become bonded by the rhythm. In world plagued by division music’s ability to bring people together is a radical act.
Music is my belief system. the rhythm is god and I am the creator of my own experience.
