The Art of Listening: How Daniel[i], Katatonic Silentio & VC118A Opened La Nature Festival

The opening of La Chapelle immediately established the festival’s intent. Hidden beneath the forest canopy, one of La Nature Festival’s most iconic stages slowly came to life through a three-and-a-half-hour live performance by Daniel[i], Katatonic Silentio and VC118A. Rather than delivering a sequence of tracks, the trio crafted an uninterrupted sonic journey that unfolded with remarkable patience.

Far removed from any pursuit of instant impact, the performance gradually revealed an intricate architecture of organic textures, evolving drones and richly layered ambient soundscapes. Every element seemed to breathe. Frequencies intertwined, while moments of silence became compositional tools in their own right, allowing the audience to fully inhabit both the music and the surrounding woodland.

Then, almost imperceptibly, rhythm began to emerge. A distant pulse surfaced before dissolving once again. Kicks appeared, vanished, then returned in different forms. This masterful control of time became the defining thread of the performance. Throughout the set, the three artists continuously manipulated tension, building it, suspending it, refusing immediate resolution before finally releasing it with almost cinematic precision.

This constant dialogue between ambient abstraction and techno energy gave rise to a performance of exceptional fluidity. None of the musicians sought the spotlight, instead, each contributed to a shared narrative where improvisation, composition and sound design became inseparable. As the hours unfolded, the boundaries between the three dissolved completely.

More than simply the festival’s first performance, it felt like an initiation ritual, gently preparing minds and bodies before the dancefloors fully awakened.

At a festival where celebration was waiting just around the corner, this opening embraced restraint instead. It invited the audience to listen before dancing, to observe before surrendering. More than simply the festival’s first performance, it felt like an initiation ritual, gently preparing minds and bodies before the dancefloors fully awakened. Beneath the trees of La Chapelle, La Nature Festival did not begin with a climax, but with a journey. And that is precisely what made the moment so unforgettable.

That slow-burning progression was no coincidence. Speaking after the performance, Daniel[i] explained that the project had been conceived around a simple yet demanding principle: listening. Rather than approaching the live set as three individual artists sharing the same stage, the trio sought to create a genuine musical dialogue where every musical decision emerged through interaction rather than predetermined roles.

To cultivate that chemistry, the artists spent a weekend together in Berlin ahead of the festival. Daniel[i] and Katatonic Silentio already shared a long-standing musical relationship, while VC118A was invited into the project for his versatility and improvisational approach. Instead of rehearsing a fixed performance, they focused on building trust, allowing each musician to leave space for the others rather than occupy it.

Their framework remained deliberately minimal. The performance would begin around 108 BPM, gradually evolve in tempo, alternate between ambient passages and rhythmic movements, and leave everything else to improvisation. “We kept teasing the audience” Daniel[i] explained afterwards. “Like bringing the spoon to your mouth, taking it away, then bringing it back again.” The deliberate scarcity of hi-hats and the constant oscillation between pulse and suspension became defining compositional tools, allowing anticipation to build without ever rushing towards release.

Behind that apparent simplicity lay an intricate technical ecosystem. VC118A‘s setup combined a Digitakt, delay and reverb effects, alongside a computer loaded with field recordings of water, wind and natural environments, a subtle nod to the setting itself. Katatonic Silentio expanded the palette with an MPC Live, a drum machine and two effects units, while Daniel[i] contributed synthesizers, Ableton live and an iPad, resulting in a hybrid dialogue between analog hardware and digital processing.

“We didn’t speak the whole three hours, It was just more like feeling each other out” explained VC118A

Despite this carefully assembled setup, the trio deliberately avoided assigning fixed musical roles. “We prepared certain pads and stems,” VC118A explained, “but we didn’t really communicate beforehand who was going to play what. It all came together through intuition and live improvisation.” Once the performance began, words disappeared entirely. “We didn’t speak the whole three hours,” he recalled. “It was just more like feeling each other out.”

For Daniel[i], that openness created the conditions for something impossible to script. “The harmonies just happened,” he reflected afterwards. “Maybe we were lucky.” Rather than relying on predetermined arrangements, the performance evolved through constant listening, trust and reaction. Moments of musical alignment emerged naturally because no one attempted to control the outcome.

In the end, the artists described the performance less as an execution than as a shared experience. Technology, preparation and technical expertise provided the framework, but the music itself was shaped in real time by intuition and mutual awareness. As VC118A simply put it, “For us, it was an experience.”

Looking back, what appeared meticulously composed was, in reality, the result of collective trust, restraint and attentive listening. The opening of La Chapelle demonstrated that electronic music can be as much about listening as performing, where silence carries as much weight as rhythm, and where the strongest connections emerge not through control, but through the willingness to leave space for others. It also gently taught the audience how to listen differently, with patience, curiosity and an openness to the subtle interactions unfolding between sound, space and performers.

Pictures (1) César Burton, picture (2) Kat Closon