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February 18, 2015

PREVIEW: Olafur Arnalds @ The Glee Club, Tues 24th Feb ‘15

Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds comes to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Tuesday 24^th February – presented by Birmingham Promoters.

Doors open at 7pm with tickets priced at £20 + booking free. For more info & tickets click here

Touring nine venues across Ireland & England, Olafur Arnalds visits the Birmingham Glee Club in between dates at the Electric Palace – a reconverted cinema in Bridport – and the ABC nightclub in Glasgow. With a classically composed repertoire that’s ranged from ‘some overly dramatic prog rock’ to minimalist electronica, Arnalds is as potentially diverse as the venues that house him. During his UK tour Olafur Arnalds will also be performing at the Barbican (London) and the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester).

Starting out as a drummer for Hardcore/Metal bands in Iceland, Olafur Arnalds contributed three short incidental pieces to the 2004 album Antigone by the German Metal group Heaven Shall Burn – beautifully melodic blends of piano and strings, framing an otherwise intensely aggressive nine track thrash fest.

The success of Antigone, and the recognition of Arnalds’s incongruous contributions, prompted a call from the London based label Erased Tapes – who were busy mopping up modern composers such as Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick. Olafur Arnalds released his first classical collection, Eulogy for Evolution, through Erased Tapes in 2007, following with the five track Variations on Static EP a year later.

Defined by his haunting marriage of piano and strings, Olafur Arnalds found a firm place amongst the growing numbers of the ‘neo-classical’ genre. His sophomore EP, Found Songs (which was recorded & released as one song per day for seven days) displayed a confident melancholy over concurrent yet unique tracks – from the ivory lament of ‘Erla’s Waltz’ to the heart wrenched rising strings of ‘Allt varð hljótt’.

Arnalds’s subsequent Dyad 1909 EP, a special commission from British choreographer Wayne McGregor, would mark the artist’s more prominent foray into electronica – featuring broken beats and dark samples behind the ever present piano and strings.

This approach would be further evolved through Arnalds’s partnership with Janus Rasmussen, under the name Kiasmos, and later with label mate Nils Frahm. It would also be the driving (if not somewhat tempered) force behind Arnalds’s 2013 studio album, For Now I Am Winter – featuring vocals from Arnór Dan Arnarson.

But it was Arnalds’s second studio album, …and they have escaped the weight of darkness (2010), that would stamp the composer’s authority over the often avant garde genre he and his peers were helping shape.

Following a consistent and mournful narrative, the nine track collection continued Arnalds’s piano and strings led compositions, but using subtle layering and rising denouments with staggering effect. Co-produced by Barði Jóhannsson, the man credited for the more melodic endevours from the Icelandic surf band Bang Gang, …and they have escaped the weight of darkness was a seminal release for modern cross overs, arguably compelling a more widespread audience to dip their toes into classical compositions.

Subsequent score requests pushed Olafur Arnalds into the potentially lucrative world of soundtracks, including the Ron Krauss 2013 film Gimme Shelter and the current British TV series Broadchurch, before his last solo studio album, For Now I Am Winter, was released in February 2013 on Mercury Classics.

In October 2014 Olafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen released Kiasmos’s eponymous debut album. A further collaboration with pianist Alice Sara Ott, titled The Chopin Project, will feature nine recomposed pieces from the legendary Polish virtuoso – to be release through Mercury Classics on March 16th.

Olafur Arnalds comes to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Tuesday 24^th February – presented by Birmingham Promoters. Doors open at 7pm with tickets priced at £20 + booking free. For more info & tickets click here

Ed King will be there for a Birmingham Review.

For more on Olafur Arnalds, visit http://olafurarnalds.com/

For further listings from The Glee Club (B’ham), including all comedy and live music shows, visit https://www.glee.co.uk/birmingham/

For more form Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/

For more from Mercury Classics, visit http://www.mercuryclassics.com/

February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

OPINION: A return to the circus

Words by Ed King

I don’t vote. I did once, in 1997, but after the subsequent guard changing I never felt compelled to again.

In fact as my political understanding grew, in both detached and immediate arenas, I became firmer in my stance that voting was not the best way to change things. Or rather, not the best way I could help change the things I wanted to see change. To me charity begins at home, and I saw more power in both a non partisan approach and the private sector – whilst shouting in the face of a four year term ‘YOU’LL NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE.’

Plus I simply couldn’t endorse any political party on the hustings, or tow the ‘best of a bad bunch’ line all the way to the ballot box; it made no sense to underwrite something I didn’t trust or believe in.

I wrote the following editorial about this in May 2008: http://birminghamreview.net/opinion-bonkers-boris-and-the-state-of-the-nation/

I left the country shortly after (not because of) that editorial, effectively sidestepping the conversation I was so often unable to have in person. All I could do was watch from afar whilst Britain brushed child abuse networks under the carpet and refused to visit countries that were ashamed to sell sanitary towels. Ah, the glass house hangover of a debauched Pax Britannica.

But now I’m back in Britain on the run up to a dangerous general election; for the first time since Oswald Mosley we have real trouble as a candidate. And as Ed Miliband continues the Labour Party car crash with garrulous promises about apprenticeships (née YTS), whilst the coalition Government tear tiny strips of each other and bigger ones from frontline services, there’s a truth I may need to face – it could be time to get back on the electoral roll. Or, at least, to start having the conversation again.

There seems to be a lot of scared and hate filled rhetoric circling today, whilst the social climate (and even the economic one, if you’re prepared to see it) are better than in times of yore. And I know there is always a counter point to a counterpoint, but look around you; the lights work, the water’s clean, and Polio is now not much more than a Dickens reference.

But the middle class burden seems to weigh heaviest on those who have no reason to run, and apathy has once again has led to anger. We are once again, as a nation, blaming the poor, vulnerable or last through the door. People I have grown up respecting are starting sentences with “the credit crunch” and “I’m not racist but…” I feel, for the second time in my adult life, perhaps it’s time to politically chip in.

I asked my mother this morning what would be her most compelling reason to vote, she answered “…the NHS, whoever would be the best for state healthcare.” I can buy that. And whilst I’m not sure what will be the catalyst for me to once again put a cross down on paper, I am going to go through the top four manifestos.

I may still not vote.

Ed King is editor of Birmingham Review. Follow him at https://twitter.com/edking2210

February 9, 2015

REVIEW: Rae Morris @ Institute, Feb 5th ’15

Words by Ed King / Pics by Jonathan Morgan

I’ve travelled a long way to be here, waiting to watch Rae Morris perform in the Birmingham Institute – a venue that holds some of the more prominent plot points of my life. I launched one business in the attic and lost another in the basement. And now I’m fifteen minutes from seeing Atlantic Records’ rising balloon play to a sold out Temple room.

Which, by the way, is freezing – but the buzz within it is palpable; over familiar voices making references in first name terms, brandishing selfies and anecdotes. At the bar, where I am crouching tiger hidden dragon, an arrogant squabble forgets they’re not the only ones here tonight and invite ripples of sideways glances from everyone else. I’ve never understood how thick your skin needs to be, to be this rude. Even as they mouth and joke an over extended “ssssshhhhhhhh”. What precisely have they come here for? More first name terms flicker from their mouths.

After about half a pint the lights go down, the front row whoops, and the tick-tock of Skin – the opening track on Rae Morris’s recently release debut album – indicates the show has begun. The loud in the crowd continues.

Rae Morris thunders her sonorous voice out over the heavily compelling first track, filtering soft keys in between the metronome of prerecorded effects and loops. Her vocals are quite something, and as she drives straight into Grow and This Time I’m thinking of synonyms for ‘booming’ and ‘deep’. I honestly wasn’t expecting such an impressive live singer.

A short but endearing Lancashire drawl welcomes us to the gig, where Rae Morris intends to “…play the songs you like” before moving into the title track from her new album – Unguarded. Morris bobs around behind the keyboard as the chatter from the obnoxious bar brigade reaches an almost autistic level of detachment. I exchange my sideways glances for a stare, then a tap on the shoulder.

Rae Morris moves straight into Closer, which is click slick on the album but comes up a little short on stage; before the first keyboard led offering arrives in the newly produced Don’t Go, the first single Morris released through Atlantic in 2012.

It’s a welcome step down from the overzealous samples and production (do we really need wind noises?) and even the twats to my right (I lose my finesse when frustrated) realise we’ve not come to hear them. But it’s still a little flat, to me. I like my keys made of ivory and the people playing them to be alone under spotlight.

Then, with the always delicious irony of proving me wrong, Morris introduces a song she “likes to talk about, but will stop talking” and the firm lament of For You gets brought into the room by solo keys and vocals. Even when the band come in the driving force still drives, and for a few minutes I’m selfishly happy. That Rae Morris is talented and with something significant to offer has never been under question to me, but her direction sometimes has. Then as I watch her perform For You, with a band and sampler in tow, to a full capacity room in Birmingham, I remind myself not to worry.

Fryars, who is supporting Rae Morris on her album promoting endevours, then returns on stage to sing the second part vocals to Cold – presenting the precious pairing that made one of the highlights on Unguarded. Both artists worth some attention this year.

The rest of the set rolls through a few of Morris’ less memorable album tacks, including the disturbingly faux piano 90’s house riff of Morne Fortune, before an encore rounds up the evening with a remastered version of Not Knowing and the assiduously addictive Under the Shadows.

I skip the rush and make my way to the cloakroom before my purported hypothermia sets in (I haven’t tackled an English February in years). I am cold but happy; tonight has been a joy to attend. A lot has been achieved by Rae Morris, both at this gig (selling out in Birmingham on a winter Thursday is no mean feat) and on her path to get Unguarded recorded and released, and I am tick box content to have finally seen her live.

But the essence – the fishing hook that left me standing dumbstruck in my kitchen, making toast with my mouth open – was seldom surfaced tonight. And as the trajectory steepens for this artist I can’t imagine much will change. But as I quip to an old colleague I meet on the stairs, “I’m just a 37 year old with a Tori Amos hangover, and probably in the minority.”

I’ve also been listening to Unguarded on repeat for the past five days (albeit switching to her previous EPs once Cold has finished) and Morris’ ability to pen as well as perform her wares is a ferocious tool in her arsenal.

There is actual talent in Rae Morris, as a singer, as a songwriter, and as an endearing performer. She’s also on a label with a reassuring portfolio. And whilst I’m not the only one who’s travelled a long way to be here tonight, all I had to do was play airport hopscotch and drink duty free wine.

For more on Rae Morris, visit http://www.raemorris.co.uk/

For more from Atlantic Records, visit http://www.atlanticrecords.com/

For further listings from the Institute, visit http://theinstitutebirmingham.com/listings

February 6, 2015

BPREVIEW: Sid Peacock & Surge Orchestra @ mac, Feb 7th ‘15

Sid Peacock comes to mac Theatre on Sat 7^th Feb, bringing with him a twenty strong big band – Surge. In addition to adding further string players, Sid Peacock & Surge Orchestra will feature two musicians as soloists: pianist Steve Tromans and drummer Mark Sanders.

Doors open at 8pm. Tickets are £12 (£10), available through mac box office.

Supported by Jazzlines, Sid Peacock & Surge Orchestra will be playing original compositions inspired by Sid’s recent experiences working with Ulster marching bands, traditional Irish musicians and as a British Council musician in Chongqing, China, in 2014. The concert also marks the culmination of Sid Peacock’s year as associate artist at mac.

Sid borrows the phrase ‘Bog Gothic’ from novelist Patrick McCabe to describe his new compositions. “McCabe’s books Butcher Boy and The Dead School dig deeply into the farcical and macabre side of everyday small town life,” says Sid.

Surge was formed in 2003 with a commission from Paul Murphy to mark the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Birmingham. Since then the ensemble has released two CDs, Live in Birmingham 04 and La Fete, alongside performing live at Belfast, Cheltenham & London jazz festivals.

La Fete was recorded live for BBC Radio 3, with the track Hallucinogenic Garden nominated for a British Composers Award. The CD launch of La Fete, also at mac, featured Django Bates as special guest.

Reviewing Surge’s La Fete concert, thejazzbreakfast blog’s Peter Bacon said: “This band and this music has a clear musical lineage – that tussle of order and chaos, and riding the balancing line between them, was a crucial feature of the Charles Mingus band, is there in Hermeto Pascoal’s music, and fed the exhilaration in Loose Tubes.”

Cheltenham Jazz Festival programme advisor Tony Dudley-Evans further calls Sid Peacock “one of the most exciting composers in that difficult-to-define area between jazz, contemporary music and improv” and refers to his ”truly original voice”.

Sid Peacock & Surge Orchestra come to mac Theatre on Sat 7^th Feb ’15. For further information & tickets visit http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/sid-peacock-and-surge-orchestra/ or phone (0121) 446 3232.

For more on Sid Peacock, visit http://www.sidpeacock.com/

For more from mac, including a full events & exhibition programme, visit http://macbirmingham.co.uk/

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015

BPREVIEW: Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe @ Spotted Dog (Digbeth), Fri 6th ’15

In celebration of his birthday (albeit a couple of weeks late), Tell-Tale Heart is an evening dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe.

Held at the Spotted Dog (Digbeth) on Friday 6^th Feb, the one off event will consist of readings, films and the occasional cupcake to honor the literary figurehead. Doors open at 7:30pm with free entry all night.

Widely known for his gothic short stories (alongside an occasional accreditation for the defining the fiction detective genre) Edgar Allan Poe also contributed a significant portfolio of poems, literary criticism and satire in his relatively short life as a writer.

Indeed Poe’s first published short story, Metzengerstein, is an ambiguous prod at the then popular gothic genre – prompting questions around the original MO behind much of the author’s more recognised works. Poe was also prominent in the burgeoning periodical and newspaper industry of the nineteenth century, both in the UK and USA, and published much of his work though publications he contributed to or edited.

But it is Edgar Allan Poe’s dark tales that stand as the man’s legacy, with works such as The Raven (Poe’s first published success – albeit not a ‘tale’), The Fall of the House of Usher , The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit & the Pendulum and the Tell-Tale Heart still cited as influences with the kings of horror today.

And whilst the Cravens and Cronenbergs can respectfully pastiche the sound of skin against metal or muffled screams behind brick, many of Poe’s prominent and recurring themes, such as death, torture, isolation, insanity and being buried alive, are often attributed to the chaotic and self destructive life the author led. Orphaned at an early age, and consistent in his struggle with alcohol abuse (which directly claimed the life of his older brother and arguably claimed his own), Poe’s personal life was far from a happy one.

Later estranged from his foster family and ‘abandoned’ by the prominent women he knew, through death or desertion, Poe manifested a conflict with the world around him – falling out with many of his literary peers and accumulating a history of professional misconduct.

And despite laudable aims to live solely off his writings, Poe’s professional pretentions to start his own literary journal were never realised. His family and love live were perpetually unstable, in many cases due to his alcohol abuse, and the man now immortalized as the ‘master of macabre’ was found dead in suspicious circumstances at the age of forty.

But Edgar Allan Poe’s work lives on – influencing each cultural generation after the man himself passed away.

So sandwiched between his actual birthday (Jan 19^th) and the auspicious Friday the 13^th, what better way to celebrate the dark side of both literature and humanity than with The Tell Tale Heart: Edgar Allen Poe at the Spotted Dog (Digbeth) on Fri 6^th Feb.

Just watch out for a muffled du, dumm… du, dumm… du, dumm as you walk alone to the bathroom.

For more information on Tell-Tale Heart: Edgar Allen Poe, at the Spotted Dog (Digbeth) an Fri 6^th visit, http://www.spotteddog.co.uk/events/1119/the-tell-tale-heart-edgar-allan-poe/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/341593309358984/

For more about the Spotted Dog, including a full programme of events, visit http://www.spotteddog.co.uk/