Monument Festival: Tracing the Echo of the Forgotten Valley

Monument is renowned for its aural light shows which seem to grow into metamorphosis each following night. Brought to life by an interplay of polychrome light, projections, and smoke, the visual team consisting of three members—Melissa F. Larsen, Joao C. R. Pereira and Mats Bekkåsen—depart the festival goers onto an other-worldly experience expanding beyond static imagination. After witnessing the festival’s signature light show firsthand, we delved into the creative process with the visual team to dissect this year’s visual concept. “Our performances blend cinematic elements, using light, darkness, and mood to create a sensory journey across the dance floor. We often transition from abstract to recognizable visuals, sparking the audience’s imagination—like when someone asked if they really saw a man rowing across the clouds! This year, we replaced metal trusses with repurposed telephone poles, which now serve as pillars for lights around the dancefloor. Over time, these will be adorned with carvings and features to further integrate with our hardware, enhancing the organic feel of the space,” revealed Melissa from the visual team.

Velvet Mornings in Mellow Meadows

The breeze of the night carries itself into the untouched morning as music makes an interlude for all to wander outside the dancefloors. Herds of sheep bleat across the river and the crystal body of water calls for a cold swim. An old abandoned railway, where wild strawberries grow, leads the way to a nostalgic train compartment, last used for passenger traffic in 1988, marking the end of the Numedal Line. Today, this restored red train serves as a time machine into the past life of Veggli, long before Monument.

Expanding on nature’s nurture, practices of mindfulness and well-being are thoughtfully integrated into the festival’s program. From Open Space sessions that invite participants to engage in their own practices without a teacher’s guidance, to the introspective Walking Eye-Gazing Meditation, each activity urges recognition of the present moment–welcoming the community to reflect and connect within and outside the self.

Clouds center on the sky, making the sun invisible to the eye. With ambiance and introspection, Celadon opens the third day at Varden, setting the stage for a dub techno and roots infusion by Tikiman and Richard Akingbehin. The afternoon unfolds, and the sun reappears with the Norwegian folk synth music makers, Naaljos Ljom, hosting a ritualistic dance at Haven, “where they had the crowd going wild in what felt like an event from hundreds of years ago,” adds Henning. In parallel, the echo of the Varden transcends from DJ Maria spinning the stage with a blend of trance-like psychedelia and cutting-edge sounds to a floor full of dancers. The day spirals towards its epilogue when the light show begins to synchronize with a cosmic set departing all the way from Detroit. Erika masterfully closes the main floor with hypnotic techno and authentic breaks, trailing the way to a lost highway of sound.

Sunday rolls in casting a feeling of collective melancholia as everything becomes more familiar to the senses. Monument puts on the final show with a pioneering lineup, intricately shaping the auditory field with sensory experiences within a layered narrative that captures both the communal and intimate aspects. Haven comes to life after dancers gather for DJ Nobu to deliver his unique sound originating in Japan. From Chateau Flight’s “Cosmic Race” to Fred P’s remix of Truss’ “Redbrook,” Nobu navigates through an oddball house set full of surprises concluding with an epic closing with Philip Glass’ “Etoile Polaire (North Star).”

A walk down to the main floor, Robert Leiner steps onto the triangle-shaped booth and the veil of gravity begins to lift off from the very own Source of Experience. His live performance whirlpools in sonic formations to an early vision of the past, a ‘90s classic, “Aqua Viva”, molding an emotionally sublime experience to a hypnotized audience. The ground pulsates in precision of his crystalline sound structures, elevating the dancefloor to an otherworldly realm, beyond the familiar. A lifetime trapped inside a fleeting hour of catharsis slips away from the touch as soundwaves escape into the unfathomable forest, leaving a memorable trace of his presence in the Varden. 

As the echo of the Source lingers, the Varden undergoes a transformation driven by the enigmatic Wata Igarashi. The lights shift in dramatic reds performing a psychedelic vortex while the last dance occurs. Sounds of distant waterfalls slowly become more audible as the music ends and we walk down the bridge of return. In a foreign land, clandestine kinships emerge between participants of a shared experience, “and a place once known as ‘The Forgotten Valley,’ is certainly no longer forgotten,” concludes Henning.

Listen to Orb Mag’s curated playlist of tracks played by artists at Monument Festival 2024 here.