St James Cavalier

Electronic Music Malta

Earlier in 2015 Electronic Music Malta (EMM) founded itself out of Maltese music enthusiasts, and yesterday night we joined friends for a performance in St James Cavalier, Valletta. Before appreciating the performance itself, I was impressed by St James Cavalier itself and how "the war machine has turned into a cultural center", with a sparkling cultural life in the walls of the old gun battery. It reminded me of the of B-05, just that of course in the middle of a beautiful city like Valletta, such efforts are by far more easy going. For the electronic music itself, I found the electronics more fascinating than the music at first. Most of the equipment in use, is built and assembled by the artists themselves, and it is far ahead of anything you may think of when it comes to entertainment audio equipment or commercial DJs. The repertoire was covering legends like Jean Michelle Jarre, a piece from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon,  Kraftwerk to Depeche Mode and others. I can't say, it is my kind of music. But without it, there would be no electronic dance music either. And without that there would be no pop music the way we know it. So, I appreciate electronic music as a research lab with all its experimental features which go beyond creating only tones by electronic means.