Friday night at Volksbuhne time stopped. Sevdaliza took us all under her spell for one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen: The Great Hope Design.
Few minutes after 8, the whole theatre room sat in silence. In front of us nothing more than a stage, a bunch of tangled black wires and two white canvasses. The instrumental of Vodoov starts to play along with Sevdaliza’s unique vocals. Slowly, as the light touch the wires, a camera starts to project on the canvas the struggle under them.
“How, how beautiful
How soothing, oh
That everything is as it is
Not as I wish I wish I was like that too”
By the end of the song, Sevdaliza untangles herself from under the wires and the live performance continues with Libertine from ISON album.
For one hour and a half, we were under her spell. We traveled across a lost Persia, broken dreams, delusions and new hopes.
We had the privilege to listen to 4 new songs, all of them with a minimalist set-up but deep impact. Volksbühne became a live laboratory right in front of our eyes. The cello (Jonas Pap) filled the room with profound twisted minor chords while the drums (Anthony Amirkhan) gave the night a keen rhythm. Along with Sevdaliza, a splendid talented dancer (Elodie Augur) completed the choreography with endearing movements. Both were helped by the light show (Bruce Moerdijman) that emphasized the atmosphere. As promised, our artist delivered her vision of an alternative heart-led reality with the help of the highly acclaimed choreographer Julie Magneville.
For me, it was the first time seeing Sevdaliza live. It was more than one hour of soul goosebumps and my heart couldn’t stop feeling more alive than before.
What I liked most of all was the fact that she gave every song something new, a personal touch for the Berlin audience.
When the concert ended, all the Volksbühne got up and clapped for a number of minutes. We were so grateful for everything she shared with us and made us understand.
We felt the same from her side
RedBull Music Festival did a great thing for bringing Sevdaliza to this year’s edition. We celebrated the triumph of good music combined with art and passion in a very authentic live performance.
