Stella Natura

I just got back last Monday from the Stella Natura festival outside of Nevada City and I'm only now feeling like I've somewhat recovered.

I still haven't fully processed the experience--It was an incredible and intense weekend, made all the more surreal by the severe sleep deprivation due to travel and work in the week prior.

The setting itself was beautiful and bizarre--the grounds themselves seemed to be a Girls' Summer Camp, with a small creek and waterfalls in the woods around the site itself.

The whole thing felt like some sort of Hessian version of Summer camp, with hiking and swimming during the day, and winding horn, ritual drumming and blackened noise echoing through the woods by night.

The performances themselves ran the full spectrum, from Black Metal to Folk to Ritual Ambient and every point in between and were (for the most part) absolutely incredible.

Ruhr Hunter was the main reason I decided to attend--Stella Natura marked Ruhr Hunter's first performance in the 15 years it has existed, and it was beyond description.

Chet and I have corresponded a bit over the last couple of years, and it was a pleasure to finally meet he and Rachel in the flesh.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Chet was planning on Ruhr Hunter becoming nearly completely an acoustic project, and if this performance was any indication, I can hardly wait to hear what is to come. Much respect to their craft.

Fauna's performance is the one that people will remember the most, I'm sure. It was the usual Fauna ritual (or so I am told--I hadn't seen them prior to this), with the addition of members of CoRE suspended from the trees surrounding the amphitheater. It was incredibly intense (the one word that seemed to be on everyone's lips after) and the sound was amazing. To be honest, though, the whole flesh-hook/suspension thing was a bit of a distraction for me, giving a slightly theatrical edge to an otherwise deeply affecting performance.

Halo Manash from Finland were the biggest and most pleasant surprise, performing twice during the festival. As the first performers on Friday, they set the tone for the rest of the weekend. They were the final performance in the outdoor amphitheater on Saturday night, with an unhurried set that was the absolute highlight of the weekend. Strangely, there was a lot of synchronicity with this performance and the work that I've been making lately, and I feel like I came away from it understanding my own work better. For want of a better term, it was a magickal experience.

I took very, very few photographs during the performances. Out of respect to the intentional space the performers were building, flash photography was prohibited (funnily enough, I was blamed during Fauna's set for someone else's flash. oh well...), and mostly I just wanted to be present in the moment, not worrying about image-making.

To give a sense of the performance space itself, here are a handful of the photographs I did take:

Halo Manash:

Velnias:

Fauna:

It was fantastic getting to spend a weekend in the woods with old friends, meeting new ones, and connecting with friends previously known only via the internet. Many thanks to Adam and Joshua for organizing this festival (not to mention helping me sort out my travel issues in advance). Perhaps we'll all meet again next year...