It’s a fuddy-duddy attitude to decry the use of pre-recorded sounds as a means of enhancing the palette of expressive colours available to a live musician. These days everyone from Beyoncé and Kanye West to Nick Cave and Radiohead do so, and for the most part to great effect. But in a time when triggered sounds and backing tracks are such common onstage accomplices, seeing a small ensemble work hard to recreate the full scope of sounds from a studio recording has become a rare treat. Joanna Newsom and her four comrades are all elaborately well-studied musicians, and tonight each band member displayed their abilities while carrying out a multitude of instrumental tasks. The joy of watching this band committedly exercise their technical excellence cannot be overstated.
In the popular music setting, we’re perhaps more appreciative of songs than technical aptitude. As a result, advanced instrumental activity is often perceived as overly showy. However, if that was a worry ahead of tonight’s show, as soon as Newsom began working the harp strings on Bridges and Balloons, all reservations disappeared. Adopting a tone of rambling quirkiness, Newsom and co. took us to a happy place. Along the way, there was not a single out-of-place harp pluck or superfluous vocal melisma – at least not as far as the senses could detect.
Newsom spent much of the night sat astride the glorious pedal harp she’s near-synonymously associated with. An earset microphone allowed her to move freely without worrying about losing any of the vocal. Her latest album Divers filled half the setlist, and the album’s heightened focus on the piano led her to regularly hop over to the grand piano at the back of the stage. Elsewhere, her band members made use of violin, viola, electric guitar, tambura and drumkit.
There were several moments of resplendent novelty. At fleeting occasions the drums pounded with carnival necessity, making a striking impact. During one song two circular mbiras (African hand pianos) were utilised to echo Newsom’s harp lines; while another song saw the three musicians to Newsom’s right each pick up a recorder (two sopranos, one bass). For many, the recorder remains a primary school grievance, but the three played in unison created a wonderful distorted sound that wasn’t too dissimilar to a soaring violin.
From the winding sequences of Monkey and Bear through Divers highlights Anecdotes and Sapokanikan and Have On Me triumphs In California andthe title track, we were enveloped in a world of Appalachian dreaming and baroque colour. As the end drew near, one felt encouraged to closely observe the various instrumentalists so as to fully soak up the mastery on display.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Photo by Ian Laidlaw
Loved: Skill.
Hated: Ineptitude.
Drank: Peaches, plums, pears.
