I was honoured to be part of the second Purple Clouds, a furry music festival at a swinger campground in Hude, Germany. In a very real way this was my debut; I want to talk about what it meant to me.
First, the details. My main gig there was accompanying DJ WORLDWIDEWOLF on trombone and voice as he spun liquid drum ‘n’ bass. We’d done this fairly spontaneously at Aural Alliance in 2024; this time, I was on the bill. He even came all the way from Braunschweig (DE) to my place in Rotterdam (NL) to rehearse! Here’s the set.
I’ve always been kind of a loner. Honestly, I hoped I’d become one of those solo artists known for forging their own path. But in truth all those maverick types collaborated. Those I admire most — Björk and Bobby McFerrin, for example — are actually the most collaborative. I also realised that I love spontaneously playing along with recordings — or, better, live musicians. (My theory background really helps here: Once I pick up the chord changes it’s just a matter of listening and playing idiomatically.)
But to find those collaborators, you first need to pique their interest by showing what you can do. I’d quietly tried a few streams on my Twitch channel but didn’t feel any of those performances held together. I didn’t want to be judged by them, so I hid them all. But playing live… that’s the stuff.
At Purple Clouds I played three times. First, an unannounced, off-the-cuff solo ambient set at the end of Friday’s program, at 3am. This was on trombone and my little Akai MPK Mini Play MK3, with lots of reverb throughout. This really caught everybody’s attention. Although nobody was in the stage/dance area, it could be heard throughout the 400-person camp, and some even came from their tents to see what was happening. I got lots of positive comments. (My favourite was from someone who said it sounded like their were in VRChat.) As far as I know there’s no recording of the whole thing, but here’s a snippet.
The second gig was at 1400 on Saturday, with WORLDWIDEWOLF. We make a good team! I have criticisms of my own performance but you know what? You can come to your own conclusions. I’d love to hear what you thought of it in my Telegram chat.
Finally was an impromptu party at the Howlheim, a group of Germans with their own little tent community in the corner of the campground. I’d had my ear open for music I could play along with and when I heard traditional German “oom-pah” music (as it’s called in America), I knew I had to be a part of it. So I asked them if it would be O.K., got my trombone, and came back to play for an hour with their DJ. It was fun!
I could write quite a lot more about it and maybe I will later. (In short: well run, leaky tent, pretty sober crowd, lots of nudity and sex.) It was the right place for me, and I’m glad I went. Thanks to Keenora and ALL the Purple Clouds staff & volunteers for making it happen!
