Musical Language from West to East

After Vinyl Tap Stories, the exciting mix of music and words at this autumn's Writers Festival kept the audience enthralled. I didn't see the Marshall McLuhan Centenary event on Friday 21st October, but heard some of the accompanying music by Hilotrons' Mike Dubue. The Marshall McLuhan Concerto, performed on cello, electric guitar, vibraphone with effects, was indeed captivating.

Moving straight into the following event, Musical Language: The Songwriting Circle (presented by CBC's Alan Neal) proved very popular; Louise Burns, Ann Vriend, Matthew Barber and Emm Gryner together supplied first-class entertainment; Ambre Mclean was also there to perform 'So Over', the winning song from the All In A Day competition. Fitting in with the theme, they are all singer-songwriters, but within that the songs showcased on Friday encompassed indie-folk-alt country, different styles of guitar accompaniment and piano-based songs. Out of all 4, I most enjoyed Ann Vriend's songs - from 'Tin Man' and 'Don't Cry' to 'Everybody Sings In Nashville', they seemed to encompass a vast range of emotions and styles as well as showing Ann's versatile voice. Emm Gryner's song 'Gold Soul' also made me smile with its Sheffield reference! Alan Neal organised the evening's chat/performance into sections ranged around writing; setting/location; characters; the All In A Day songwriting competition; artists' challenge; easiest/hardest song.

The funniest part of the evening was definitely the artists' challenge, wherein each of the 4 artists had to cover a song chosen at random from Alan's IPod... Matthew struggling with the words to 'Into The Groove' and Ann singing Joni Mitchell's 'People's Parties' to the tune of The Dukes of Hazzard theme! For further listening: Matthew Barber and Louise Burns play The Black Sheep Inn on 12th November; Emm Gryner follows them on 25th November with Jenny MacDonald.

Steadily moving east, from Canadian songwriting talent to the Ukraine on Saturday for Musical Language: Ukrainia. The band played a relatively short set but within that the mix of traditional Ukrainian songs with a more modern twist, hints of Spaghetti western, klezmer and Black Sabbath made for a very entertaining evening.

By the evening of Sunday 23rd, the festival reached Russia and a completely different style of music. Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets was a captivating mix of biography and performance. Hosted by Julian Armour, the evening featured Wendy Lesser showcasing Shostakovich's life through his string quartets, interspersed with performances by Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc. Broadly chronological, the movements selected were played brilliantly; I enjoyed them all, but for audience engagement the 'allegro non troppo' from String Quartet No. 3 in F, Op. 73 and 'largo' & 'allegro molto' from String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 stood out. Lesser's book, also entitled Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets, looks like a must read! The Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc has recorded a 7CD set of the complete Shostakovich string quartets with XXI-21 which is apparently due out in November. Until then - the Pacifica Quartet have just released 'The Soviet Experience Vol. 1' containing Nos. 5 and 8.

Music, Poetry and Cake (Gateshead and Lanchester)

Piano at the ready! (by M) After a good few months prep, the concert Piano Music and Poetry (organised through the Gateshead Piano Workshop folks) came around pretty quickly. As one of the participants, I was excited and also a little nervous about the prospect of a Paying Audience. The work paid off, as all the performers were excellent! Well appreciated by the compact audience. The format was in relation to National Poetry Day which was on 2nd October. Each performer chose a poem either in direct or indirect relation to their piece. A summary of the programme: Alan - Liszt Consolation No 4 and Mozart Adagio in B minor Graeme - Chopin Nocturne Op. 62 No. 2 with 'Uncertainty' by Adam Mickiewicz me - Clara Schumann, andante con sentimento with 'Clara Wieck und Beethoven' by Franz Grillparzer Jim - R Schumann Kinderszenen 1 and 7 with 'My child, we were just children' by Heinrich Heine Ernie - Debussy Clair de lune with excerpt from 'Fêtes g...

Sounds of JUNOfest

Classical JUNOs performers Something of a musical melange weekend but an excellent set of events! Eschewing some of the bands and artists we knew, we chose less familiar sounds for our JUNOfest experience. First up was the Classical JUNOs in Concert event at the National Arts Centre , featuring both nominated performers and composers. The mix of contemporary music was brilliantly played by Christina Petrowska Quilico , Susan Hoeppner , Heather Schmidt and the New Orford String Quartet . Quilico amazed the almost 100-strong audience with her performance of Derek Charke's Sepia Fragments in a reduction for piano; I found this piece a really captivating mix of earthly and ethereal elements. Quilico's second performance was of Ann Southam's Glass Houses No. 5 , an hypnotic piece which sounded both fiendishly difficult to play but also very clean and unembellished. Susan Hoeppner's excellent performance of Eldin Burton's Sonatina for Flute and Piano got the po...

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

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