Located in the Suffolk town famed for being the childhood home of ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, the Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival is one of the smallest events I’ve ever attended.
Put on purely out of love by members of the local and ambient music community, the festival featured a host of musicians and producers focused on creating atmospheric, minimalist sounds.
It was spread out into several different concerts, hosted across a selection of Woodbridge’s venues. I managed to attend three of them, the first of which was an event hosted by musician and Eno collaborator Tom Rogerson.
This took place in the Octagon Room of the town’s Methodist church. The venue gave off the sense of a 1960s or 70s university library, and its shape and lighting set-up were not particularly conducive to a concert. However, the music inside was jaw-dropping.
It started with a musician performing under the name Elegy for Good Dogs. Combining scavenged classical records with field recordings, the later parts of their set added a haunting soundscape of synths contrasted with the natural sounds of insects and birdsong.
He was followed by Jay Chakravorty, who began his performance with a warning that he typically performed with at least three strings players accompanying him, and his attempt to replace them with synthesisers might be, in his own words, “a bit shit”. Playing the piano, and initially developing a cinematic, almost Ghibliesque feel, Jay’s set was emotional, beautiful and surprising, with the calm giving way to heavy distortion which somehow still felt musical. Definitely not shit.
Tom Rogerson, the event’s host, didn’t disappoint either, performing pieces from both his current album, Retreat to Bliss and a new upcoming release. Featuring tones which reminded me of an 8-bit sound, juxtaposed with an underlying piano melody of byzantine complexity, his evocative and heavily textured music may have skirted around the definition of ambient, but was enchanting nonetheless.
The next event I attended was based in the Woodbridge Long Shed. While this venue is currently in use for building a full-sized replica of the famous Sutton Hoo Ship, the music was sadly isolated upstairs, in a space which felt more like a conference room than a venue. This however did allow the screening of video footage behind the performers, which was used to great effect by many of them.
Starting this show off was the VonTrapMix. A four-piece featuring a whispered female vocal line, accompanied by a harp, bass, analogue synths, and a homemade string instrument called a Kantele which’s design originates in Finland, this family band’s quiet subtle sound undulates between the harp and electronica. The music offers the sense of a journey towards a potentially unreachable destination, before, surprisingly, you actually get there. I deeply enjoyed this performance and really hope they can find the time to record some and play more gigs!
Heldar Rock was up next, with a raft of intriguing ideas. One of his tracks reminded me of a Victorian or Hollywood interpretation of heaven, all synthetic angelic choirs, birdsong, chimes and strings. Other parts of his set gave me the sense of the remote North American wilderness, using quiet flute samples evoking a misty endless forest, or experimenting with drones, chimes, and percussion that sounded like falling water.
Following him was Yggdrasil Music, named for the Norse tree of life. Now, arguably, this performance was not a nice experience. Glitchy, often non-rhythmical, scary, and tense Yggdrasil reminded me more of an abstract recurring nightmare than traditional music. Pairing the often watery sound with bleak footage from the local shingle beaches, while Yggdrasil aggressively challenges the definition of music, their performance was one of the most gripping sound art experiences of my life. I highly recommend it, even if it might leave you reeling.
After Yggdrasil, we were treated to a performance on the Mbira by Mbira Mike. Essentially a giant Zimbabwean Kalimba, Mike used his reverberant instrument and an assortment of technology to build up a wonderfully calming audio landscape. Accompanied by a video of a woodland scene shifting between winter and summer, Mbira Mike was a great palette cleanser after the somewhat overwhelming Yggdrasil.
We were then shuffled outside, where an abstract video was projected onto the side of the long shed, while a single flautist played a simple melody- sitting opposite the river from the famous Sutton Hoo archaeological site, I found the simple music leading my thoughts to the area’s ancient past.
The final act in the long shed was OfTheNightSky. Initially creating a peaceful springlike sonic environment, resonant with feelings of calm, and natural cleanliness, this set slowly developed more and more melody and rhythm until I suddenly realised it was fully danceable. Nonetheless, as the final act, the break away from ambience towards something more like psydub was a nice change after hours of metaphorically floating in musical space.
On Sunday, the Ambient Festival moved to Woodbridge’s community centre. A large brick space normally lacking in any form of ambience, the hall had been transformed by creative, Amy Wragg, with her forest jellyfish tent-made bunting hanging from the ceiling, and psychedelic liquid lights dancing against the walls. With the performers seated at three tables in the centre of the building, guests could watch the show in the round either standing, seated in a chair, or reclining on one of the many provided bean bags.
The first thing I saw was Electron Chorus. Playing a guitar, and accompanied by a chorus of electronic synthesisers, this trance-adjacent performance would have been just as at home on a dancefloor as it was in the hall, though sadly most people weren’t feeling throwing shapes just yet.
One of the organisers, Merlyn Bruce, was up next playing precision percussion on a wide assortment of tiny instruments, backed up by an ethereal soundscape. The performance gave one the sense of floating through a titanic and confusing futuristic space, catching little snippets of lives I don’t understand, and passing through different districts all with a different feel but the same core essence. Gentle and light, yet sonically rich, this introspective and subtle performance was truly enchanting.
Tom Rogerson then played a second set, this time more focused on synths and natural samples than the virtuosic piano which dominated his previous performance. After Tom had finished his thought-provoking yet calming set, Chris Mann of the Network of Sound project began to set up to play his Themes from the Wilderness album.
Twiddly, calming, intriguing and intuitive, Themes from the Wilderness slowly took us through a variety of musical and psychological places (surprisingly, not all the wilderness). Ploddingly slow and yet still tense and thick, every moment of listening feels laborious, but the rewards offered to an attentive listener are well worth it.
The final act taking to the stage was Sophia Space Agency. Creating a spectral, ethereal soundscape of quiet clicks and brief vocalisations, against a background of breathy drones, SSA’s cinematic performance brought to mind the sci-fi classic Dune’s fictional deserts of Arrakis more than any real place on earth. Dancing fluidly, and singing hauntingly at the beginning of the performance, it was a visual spectacle unmatched by anything else at the festival— a collaborator played a Gibson Les Paul with a bow adding even further to the show and soundscape.
Although the festival is fantastic as it is, I do have a little bit of feedback for the organisers and Woodbridge in general. My first complaint about the event is the venues— I feel that this festival would deeply benefit from being outside in nature, with the opportunity to camp in the countryside surrounding the town. Just across the river, the National Trust runs the Sutton Hoo archaeological site, and while I don’t know how willing the team there would be to collaborate with the ambient festival, the idea itself is very exciting.
Alternatively, Woodbridge has two incredible ancient churches which would (and have in the past) make perfect venues. I don’t know why they weren’t available but it is sad not to use them for an event they would suit so well.
This leads me to my second issue: the limited amount of support the town gave the festival. Attendance from locals was pretty low, especially considering the quality of performances on offer, and while a whole bunch of people from the area stepped up to help make the event happen, it seemed many were simply ignoring all the brilliance on their doorstep.
The residents of Woodbridge are extremely lucky to have an event like this, with unforgettable sound experiences like Yggdrasil and masters of their craft like Tom Rogerson and his friends being incredibly hard to find live in most places. While thankfully enough people came along to make it a smashing success, the locals shouldn’t waste this opportunity for an incredibly inspiring weekend. I really enjoyed The Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival, and would highly recommend coming to anyone who appreciates slow long-form music. I hope it carries on for years and years.
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