Music / Alt rock
Review: The Fantasy Orchestra album launch, St George’s
After some seven years of chaotic evolution The Fantasy Orchestra finally have an album to launch and this was to be the night. That seems like a long wait but when you see their electro-acoustic 60-plus ranks assembled it’s more understandable – apparently they’d needed to set up in six different studio rooms, including the kitchen and the amp cupboard. But since their emergence as an Ennio Morricone project pulled together by Jesse D. Vernon in 2012 they have developed a distinctive repertoire philosophy, becoming an introductory playlist to brilliant music many people may not have come across.
Given the sprawling enormity of the whole choir and orchestra ensemble (motto: ‘more is more’) it was a good idea to spend the first half of the evening in a Young Person’s Guide to the (Fantasy) Orchestra, with different sections taking the stage for a couple of party-piece numbers each. Thus the choir drifted through the auditorium to a minimal reading of Santo & Johnny’s moody instrumental Sleepwalking while Jesse conducted a stage of empty seats, the wind section (‘Honking Geese’) bravely covered a Three Cane Whale tune in the style of Michael Nyman, the strings donned ludicrous moustaches for Bohemian Rhapsody, the percussion explored a clatterfest in 7-time and the brass lovingly rendered Robert Wyatt’s atmospheric Sea Song in rich harmonies.
is needed now More than ever
What with the colourfully mismatched costumes and slightly chaotic changeovers (masked by Jesse’s seasoned onstage whimsy) it all had a carnivalesque feel but after the interval, with the full ensemble on stage together things definitely tightened up for the album run-through. Which is not to say too much, of course, and after Disasterpiece’s mellow, Glass-eyed tune Flow the album’s title track The Bear combined deliciously evocative imagery with onstage antics as a string of vocalists filed past, each delivering their one line to Jamie Harrison’s jaunty nonsense song.
The Orchestra has a French counterpart and guest Parisian vocalist Abi did an amazing job with the elliptical lyrics of Buke & Gase’s Split Like A Lip, No Blood On The Beard over pulsing woodwind and sweeping strings. It was a definite high point, as was the affecting duet of Bristol singers Katkin and Graham on the powerfully atmospheric Caetano Veloso song Empty Boat. The arrangement of the latter was a fine use of the range of sounds available, wistful flute and haunting cello giving way to a rocking guitar solo – Jesse’s one indulgence of the evening (unless you count the whole exercise).
Jimi Hendrix was represented, of course, and figured twice. Third Stone From The Sun introduced itself fairly conventionally, the choir intoning the distinctive guitar riff before Jesse took the whole thing into one of his improvising games. Summonsing different sections with a variety of hand gestures they washed away the tune in a flurry of swoops and warbles, contriving a live remix that somehow never quite lost the plot but provided a wave of cathartic relief as the whole thing kicked back together again. There were two Sun Ra tunes, equally inevitably, with the ‘spooky’ October managing a slow descent into the kind of cabaret schmaltz only so well-orchestrated a bunch could pull off.
All in all it was a splendidly eclectic range of music that entertained and enlightened throughout, the overall sense of playful enjoyment never getting in the way of quite challenging musical and lyrical ideas. For my taste it was a homegrown moment that drew the best from the Fantasy Orchestra – Brackish guitarist Neil Smith’s time-shifting cinematic Kurtle with its scattered moments of individual playing not so much solos as glimmerings. It captured the integrity of the project, drawing out the likeminded unity of a ragtag ensemble happily gathered in its own left field and welcoming us to join them.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
