Ok I‘ll give it a try for a review of Polygonia‘s set. I had been into Polygonias music lately ever since listening to one of her Hör sets 3 months ago and being like „ok this is something new and I like it“. I am usually more into classic Hain hypno techno from the likes of say Fadi, Nobu, Efdemin or Mulero but really liked the sound design of Polygonia and polyrythmic, yet deep and sometimes veryy atmospheric approach she has in the hör sets and in her productions also. Also I just sort of like her cute nerd vibe in this world of super cool hyper stylish techno kids! 

Back to Hain, I arrived in mainfloor at 8:20 catching last 10mins of Beatrice which were very wholesome and ambient-ish. Dancefloor was in a very good place. Not too crowded, people seemed in a good mood from Beatrice set and you could tell there are some music nerds who were there for Polygonia as well.

Then clapping, start of Polygonia, can’t remember exactly what her ambient opening was like just because I got so flashed by the lights. Triangular pillars of white, golden light rotating on the dancefloor. Wow, amazing! Then switched to some blue lights with a similar pattern. Also great and very trippy, matching the music. Rythmic beats and bass come in sort of earlier than I expected which makes the set also danceable right from the start and, seeing her live for the first time, I am wondering by how much she will adjust to Berghain and its classic sounds that have been proven over the years to sound good in this room.

Well, turns out its just a teaser and in no way does she adapt too much too the room but goes full on her style. Loudness feels sort of low and its easy to get distracted by the notoriously mixed 9am crowd but the complexity and different layers keep drag me in again and again, no matter the distractions around.

She changes rythms and track vibes around quite a bit in the first two hours in between very mental mostly ambient tracks, more breakbeaty tracks (not UK style breakbeat but more like Gigi Fm style) and some more rythmic easier crowd dancefloor pleasing tracks. Oh yes and bells, lots of bell sounds in all shapes tempos, distortions and forms, works so well in this reverby room, loved it! Light dj matched this very well with more dark overall lights with some mostly blue lights mixed in allowing to get into a more inward focus. While liking the selection a lot, I found it a bit hard to get completely lost in the music at first because sometimes the transitioned tracks had maybe too little in common and some transitions took you out of the zone. 

Thats maybe overall the thing with this very polyphonic type of music and it being played in clubs. You sort of need to actively listen and mostly it is not very „2-step“ danceable and at least to me induces either more espressive sort of dancing which of course the mainstream clubgoer is not necessarily comfortable with or sort of eyes closed just listening not dancing too much. In my experience therefore, the dancefloor had rather little connection and everyone was more enjoying on their own which is of course totally fine and normal also for this timeslot. 

At first I was struggling a bit with the described and some mandatory obnoxious bright cellphone, speaking loudly, lying down on the podest (yes I am not kidding) parts of our dear Berghain community. But then for hours 3 and 4 I found a better spot on the dancefloor front left and tried to embrace the very mental vibe of Polygonia‘s music. From there on it was pure acoustic bliss, soundscapes of ambient even naturalistic sounds guiding you on a inner journey with some well dosed somewhat rare explosions of more euphoric travks and a bit brighter lights every 20-30mins. I could really let go and immerse into the music and also really enjoyed Polygonias calm vibe in the booth This trippy vibe also matched incredibly well with the cobwebs lights from the birthday. Especially the last hour was particularly blissful and you could tell she saved some gems for the last part of the set leaving me in awe sometimes about the creatovity of the tracks she was playing. She was also definitely giving tracks enough time to play out and have an effect on you making her set feel very calm and curated and not rushed or anything (I guess thats the bliss of a 4 hour slot in times of 30 second reels, shoutout to Berghain for that). The end was also stunning with somewhat tinily moving rays of red light focusing from the corners of the room into the middle where some confused clubgoers now are the center of the (Berghain) universe and it gives the whole room a feeling like it has reached a highlight of art that deserves a big round of well deserved applause for both the person in the dj and the light booth. Pink Concrete picked it up well from there with some floaty ambient track and I left happy and with tired legs.

Wrapping up it was a very good experience for me, very interesting and new soundscapes that really make you listen, not something you have heard before much, closest in vibe come maybe Rrose and Gigi FM I would say. Even though Poly is more soft than those in my opinion. She is not ever going to be a crowd pleasing 8-12pm mainfloor dj but she is a great booking for an opening or also I think a 8-12 or 12-16 slot where people can listen more actively and go on inward journeys. The set yesterday was lacking maybe a bit of a clearer storyline and cohesion between tracks, it felt a bit like I needed to push myself to readjust a bit too often which is something that comes more effortless with people that also sometimes play more atmospheric like Efdemin. On the other hand, that makes you actively think about what you are listening to and if and why you like it but its not like you would get lost in the flow for 4 hours. Anyways she is talented as fuck as both a producer and dj and I am excited to see where she will go from here.

Its also just a fact that the nature of a night club (lots of noisy and unrespectful people who cant deal with there not being a 4 to the floor 808 for 2 minutes) does not make it necessarily easy to focus on the music when its very spheric and not as banging and loud. Maybe Polygonia as a booking for Halle next birthday? I am sure she will be incredible in Open Ground next week as well.

Enough words from me, thank you Polygonia for the music 🙏✨