- Last night from around 10 PM, a queue of mostly 20- and 30-somethings snaked around the southwest corner of Berghain. Dressed in the now-standard black, they were in a more upbeat mood than people usually are outside of the club, sharing cigarettes and trading jokes. The atmosphere was relaxed. When Ben Klock strolled by at around 11 PM, people pretended not to notice. Inside was Eröffnung Säule, the launch event for a new room on Berghain's ground floor. Announced in February but rumoured for months before, Säule is the club's third dance floor, and looks to be dedicated to experimental sounds. A low-key group of acts—Natalia Escobar, Yves Tumor, Deena Abdelwahed and Alessandro Adriani—were booked for the opening, but, as expected, most people seemed more interested in the space.
The entrance was around the corner to the left of Berghain's main door. It felt as though the bouncers had been asked to show mercy (not even my bright green North Face jacket was a deal-breaker), which meant most people made it inside quickly. Few, if any, were turned away. Located adjacent to the cloakroom in an area formerly home to a web of multi-level seating, Säule has the interior—high ceilings, concrete walls, metal handrails—found across much of the venue. Once past the cash desk, you come to the usual cloakroom area. From there, you enter through a narrow passage in the corner of the room.
The pillars that give Säule its name are the first thing you notice. There are at least eight of them, placed in pairs along the middle of the rectangular room. Most are a few metres wide. The DJ booth, close to the entrance, is on the left-hand side as you enter—from there, the room extends to the right, as though the DJ were placed at the head of a long table. Last night, most of the dancing went down between the pillars—the areas towards the back and to the side were more relaxed.
Säule has plenty of seating. There are small benches in clusters towards the back of the ground floor, while a mezzanine-style area to the left of the dance floor, accessed by staircases at either end, has even more. (It was busy yesterday, but there was always somewhere to sit.) This mezzanine might be the best thing about the new area. It offers a great view of the dance floor below, and is quiet enough to let you have a conversation without feeling disconnected from the music (downstairs is much louder). The lighting—a combination of soft reds and blues with the occasional strobe—was impressive. It changed constantly, but never felt distracting. The sound was exactly what you'd expect in a cavernous concrete space, with rumbling lows and sharp highs. Like Panorama Bar a few levels above, the best place to listen seems to be in the middle of the dance floor—you lose clarity further back.
More like a concert venue than a club space, Säule seems tailor-made for darker sounds. Natalia Escobar's warm-up set of slow-mo techno and industrial and Yves Tumor's walls of feedback hit hard through the soundsystem. Experimental-leaning parties such as Leisure System and Polymorphism, previously held on the Berghain floor, will benefit from its more intimate size. With acts like Sherwood & Pinch and The Bug set to touch down in the coming weeks, we'll soon get a better idea of Säule's potential.