Music / alt folk
Review: Concinnity, St George’s
On a day when things in the world seemed to be starting to fall apart it was good to take breath in the gentler calmness of this acoustic music combination. Concinnity means ‘the skilful and harmonious fitting together of the different parts of something’, a perfect description both both performances on offer at St George’s.
Pete Judge (piano) under Kathy Hinde’s visuals (pic: Tony Benjamin)
First was piano + film, the combination of Pete Judge’s piano music and visuals from Kathy Hinde. Known as the trumpeter in Get The Blessing and Three Cane Whale, Pete surprised many people when he released his first album of solo piano pieces in 2019. His second release – piano 2 – earned the acclaim of The Guardian and others, and now a third collection is under way. Long-time visual collaborator Kathy Hinde had plundered her extraordinary resource of eye-catching films of the natural world to create a ‘filmtrack’ for a selection of Pete’s tunes. Thus, as Pete unfolded his typically meticulous and reflective compositions on St George’s Steinway, the screen held long shots of raindrops on water, murmuring tree branches and even melting ice. Each image was paced to match the delicate unfolding of the musical ideas, creating a hypnotically meditative experience. The compositions themselves usually combined layers of insistent repetition with evolving harmonic underpinnings, themselves evocative of place and atmosphere and, while the cascading notes of Sluice were well suited to the rushing swirl of water, the calm flickering of a static tree caught in time-lapse through a day for the Nymanesque stateliness of Gurney’s Oak proved completely riveting.
Alex Garden (violin) and Harriet Riley (vibraphone. (pic: Tony Benjamin)
When the combination of The Drystones folk fiddler Alex Garden and ubiquitous percussionist and vibraphone player Harriet Riley (Tezeta, Spindle Ensemble, ParaOrchestra and many others) first announced itself it was difficult to imagine what music would result. Their 2020 debut album Sonder revealed a set of intricate compositions evoking a mix of early music, folk, contemporary minimalism and jazz in a soundworld all their own, with the addition of Stevie Toddler’s bass another striking element on some tracks. The freshly launched follow-up Sonder II showed them developing their ideas further with more melodic daring and rhythmic challenges, all of which were on display for this gig, delivered with flawless musicianship. Starting with the obviously folk-derived Shyvelights, with Harriet’s pulsing vibraphone motoring along under the brisk violin tune they moved into the more ambient balladry of Phosphenes. That tune’s ethereal opening, created by bowing the vibraphone bars, slipped into a brisker duet , swinging into moments of restrained quietude and it was followed by the three way intricacy of Forelsket’s inclusion of the gravitas of Stevie Toddler’s bass.
is needed now More than ever
Stevie Toddler (bass), Alex Garden (violin), Harriet Riley (vibraphone) (pic: Tony Benjamin)
It takes great self-discipline to balance the sound for acoustic performance, especially for such contrasting instrumental voices, but this was impeccably done, notably on the painstaking arrangement of Spicula with its gradually enriching harmonics and the addition of Pete Judge’s unobtrusive flugelhorn. The same foursome also sailed through the complex timing of Tryst with confident fluidity and, lest all this sounds over-technical, the unerring melodic strength of Through The Paddy Fields, growing from a fugal opening to a lovely duet between fiddle and vibraphone, was deeply (and straightforwardly) moving.
Pete Judge (flugelhorn), Stevie Toddler (bass), Alex Garden (violin) and Harriet Riley (vibraphone (pic: Tony Benjamin)
There is no doubt that the Sonder project is a fusion of remarkable talents with the capacity to open up new areas of creativity and musical discovery. While all concerned are busy performers it is to be hoped that they can find the time to continue to explore the opportunities their coming together makes possible. Beautiful music may not be able to affect the ways of the world directly but for the audience at St George’s it at least provided a momentary respite from the horrible events unfolding in Eastern Europe while we sat there.
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