Urban Sax

In July 1984, the otherworldly entourage of over fifty musicians of Urban Sax swarmed across the coastal town of Pori, Finland, to perform a historic concert at the Pori Jazz Festival. The masked musicians, veiled in space suits and fencing masks, arrived at the scene of the concert in the Central Pori Church by fire engines, forklifts and water buses from all over the town, followed by an ecstatic and bewildered crowd of festival-goers and amazed locals alike. For those present, the explosively apocalyptic spectacle, envisioned by the Urban Sax mastermind Gilbert Artman, completely subverted the conventional notions of what a concert can be, unfolding a total artwork. What we have here probably is one of the the finest documents of a recorded culture shock, with repercussions being felt to this day.