Various

"Spire: Organ Works Past, Present & Future” was the deceptively stuffy sounding title for a series of performances in September of 2004 that were held at St Peter’s Cathedral, Geneva in several of its reverberant halls. The first and most traditional section of the concert "Structural Phase” featured Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson performing works by contemporary composers (Davidson, Jolivet, Alexandra, Gorécki) on the cathedral’s massive organ. The natural effects of presence, echo and reverb in the stone room give the impression of inhabiting the sound as much as hearing it. The later parts of the section, especially, reinforce this, playing upon the drone and sustain deep within the instrument. Section two, "Deconstruction Phase,” featured performances by BJ Nilsen, who used the organ and electronics, and Philip Jeck in the crypt employing his trademark vintage turntables featuring vinyl with organ sounds (naturally), heavy metal and the crackle of surfaces. A link between the traditions is established in the solemnity and ceremony of presentation, which is effectively and playfully undermined by Jeck’s guitar solo samples. In the last section, "Reconstruction phase,” Fennesz worked at fusing the organ and electronic sources into a canon-crossing drone. For a while "hip” and "stuffy” peacefully coexist.