- Held over ten days in November, Eindhoven's STRP is a festival that combines music, art and technology like few others. Housed in the Klokgebouw ("clock building")—a onetime Philips factory located in an industrial area just outside the city centre—the annual event has proven itself as one of the most interesting stops on the Dutch festival circuit. Headlined by Aphex Twin, STRP 2011 featured a reasonably straightforward roster of acts, with the likes of Amon Tobin, Jackmaster and The Field all featuring on a lineup thick on local artists. The first weekend—the only one at which I was present—was the more low-key of the two, with DVS1, Motor City Drum Ensemble and Mathew Jonson placed alongside Matthew Herbert, Michael Mayer and James Holden—by no means a lackluster selection of artists, but packing comparatively less punch than the following weekend's double-header bill topped by Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin.
Just a short walk from a station one stop away from Eindhoven's central railway terminal, Klokgebouw plays host to a variety of events, ranging from large-scale parties like the techno-centric Awakenings series, to rock concerts and contemporary art exhibitions. Its cavernous interior, which was cleverly manipulated by the STRP organizers to seamlessly populate the numerous artworks, ranging in size from big to small, among the otherwise music-ready space.
Rather than kept as some separate feature far removed from the music, these exhibits were integrated into the festival's landscape, creating a peculiar kind of dynamic between attendee and venue. In one corner, groups of ten or more milled around a revolving speaker which was controlled by the movements of those around it. Elsewhere, just meters away from a bar, films were screened behind black curtains and in tucked-away rooms, while, upon entrance, attendees walked past a kind of bleak artificial forest "growing" inside a disused shipping container.
On the first night, while all of this was going on, Matthew Herbert and Motor City Drum Ensemble were doing their thing. The former kicked things off, putting together a mixture of UK bass and more traditional house for a set that did little to get a small but growing crowd moving. MCDE followed, and closed the night, with two hours of punchy and bass-heavy disco, eventually getting introspective with The Other People Place's moody anthem "Let Me Be Me."
The following night saw DVS1 and Mathew Jonson and play to a newly opened main room, which was at least five times the size of the side room that had hosted Herbert and MCDE the evening previous. Both played as they'd be expected to—early on, animated opener DVS1 rinsed obscure house and beefy techno to a thin crowd, after which Matthew Jonson's live set sounded as crisp as it ever has ("Marionette" and "Learning To Fly" came as highlights). Michael Mayer, James Holden and Nathan Fake and then each took their respective crowds through to the early morning, capping off what was, overall, a solid start to a unique and distinctive festival.