Photo: Press
The interface between electronic and classical music has been responsible for some truly awful travesties, not least of them the currently highly popular but ultimately dumbed down Hacienda Classical project. Luckily, the collaboration between Ninja Tune producer Darren Cunningham aka Actress and the London Contemporary Orchestra approaches the whole affair from a completely different direction, with vastly more adventurous and satisfying results.
The LCO have sensibly shunned the easy – some might say lazy - option of simply replicating the melodies of electronic music using a full orchestra, and instead have opted to immerse themselves deep within the approach and mindset. That’s what makes tonight’s date at part of the ultra respectable Proms series, with a live broadcast on Radio 3 no less, such an unmissable prospect.
The Tate Modern’s new performance space The Tanks – converted former oil tanks in the bowels of the iconic gallery’s new annexe – is the perfect setting for it too, a circle of brutalist, distressed concrete wall enclosing us. There are no seats, and a mix of clubbers in baseball caps and your moiré traditional Proms punters are free to sit, stand or wander between four stages around the room as we’re treated to a programme of pieces from a gospel performance re-imagined by eight singers all in different phasing patterns to a concerto for orchestra and an array of wine glasses all tuned to different notes. This is definitely not your average gig.
The climax of the evening is four selections from the joint Actress and LCO sonic adventure ‘Momentum’, originally premiered at the Barbican last year. Cunningham takes centre stage, manipulating an array of dials and buttons and squeezing strange sonic colours and resonant harmonics from his gear. Behind him, there’s a pianist whose strings have been dampened by heavy books, a percussion player playing a marimba that’s also been treated with the addition of blankets, and in front a small string section, a harpist and a clarinettist who, it transpires, is to add syncopation to the electronic grooves by blowing through his mouthpiece-less instrument. Likewise, once the music takes shape, the cello is slapped, the violins scraped and abused, and so on. In short, Actress has inspired them to get all manner of new noises out of their instruments rather than play them in the conventional sense.
The not-at-all catchily-titled ‘Audio Track 5’, recently released on Ninja as a single, comes into focus, and there’s even a hint of dancing happening in the room, and heads nodding in hypnotised abandon. While you could possibly draw parallels in the mix of organic and synthetic sounds with some of Luke Vibert’s early work or the splintered rhythms of Autechre, there’s not really any doubt that this music pretty much stands alone. It’s ironic really, that despite its establishment context and classical rudiments, this is some of the most fucked up and futuristic sound you’ll hear all year.
