This Sunday, Un Festín Sagital was featured in a new session of the great gigs organized by the Galería Callejera ("Street Gallery"), which not long ago had seen a performance by Thanatoloop, Michel Leroy's (Festín Sagital's frontman) solo act. Due to the geographic dispersal of the band (Leroy lives in La Serena, in Northern Chile, while percussionist Gonzalo Díaz and bassist Horacio Ferro live in Santiago, in the mid part of the country), Un Festín Sagital's live performances have been scant lately, so occasions like this are a must-go, particularly when the format is also especial, as in the case of the Galería Callejera.
Despite the above, what really gathered the curiosity before the event was, perhaps, the addition of thereminist Lucina Paz (Colectivo NO, Gatas Come Moscas) and saxophonist Julio Cortés (Fracaso, ojO, Pétalo Bisturí) to the band's usual lineup. At this stage, the core formed by Leroy, Díaz and Ferro has completely solidified (Ferro is the band's most recent member, and he entered in 2013), so the language that the band has developed throughout the last three years as regards improvisation can seem impermeable to any external element. And yet, both guests were up to the challenge.The setlist featured only two songs, each one of which extended for nearly half an hour. They opened with "Bajo un Sol Inclemente" (part of the album Kosmodynamos). As always, this piece began with forbearing peacefulness, patiently weaving the overcast that gradually announces that a storm will take place. Early on, Lucina Paz's theremin dispelled any doubt regarding her inclusion in UFS's formula, flawlessly fitting into it by contributing with subtlety to the perfect equation whose intensity grows at a steady pace, unnoticeably, up to the point in which the foretold storm is unleashed. And then, the liberation, the chaos, the cathartic noise with no limits. In that moment, Cortés strikes without hesitation with a frantic improvisation in the sax, in perfect tuning with the band's spirit and once again confirming the idea of how well chosen these guests were.
The second half of the show consisted of "Asesino del Sol" (from Las Bestias Solares). With a more dissonant character, this song repeats the formula of its predecessor, with a subtle progression from a state of rest towards absolute unruliness, towards the dissolution into a noisy and monumental improvisational chaos. This time, the improvisation shows greater progression –as if we had been live witnesses of a band that begins to mutate into a quintet– and becomes a repetitive and deafening mantra, which then resumes its early calmness and suddently leaves us thunderstruck in the face of silence.In this way, with only two pieces, Un Festín Sagital achieved a thorough, monolithic and hypnotic presentation; another item to be added into the band's impeccable record. Both guests managed to read perfectly the main trio's language and contributed artfully to the powerful cathartic exercise that Un Festín Sagital seem to always undertake. On the other hand, in addition to these inputs and the well-chosen setlist, the context is also worth of mention, no doubt. As regards this subject, it is a merit that must be granted to Galería Callejera and the valuable concept that it represents, because instead of making this music a niche, here it was all about public and open space, which makes it possible for people to be exposed to other forms of art, something that is always very valuable. —IMF
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