Skip to main content

Change of city - initial experiences in Durham

After our sojourn in Worcestershire, M and I have now relocated to Durham, north-east England. Still early days but I am slowly finding venues and event listings. The end of June saw us at Hill Island Microbrewery's mini festival at Alington House - fruit beers!! Shades of Ottawa, especially the raspberry.... The last week, along with summer (yay!) saw the opening Streets of Brass from this year's Brass: Durham International Festival. Walking in along Framwellgate Bridge on Saturday 6th we were greeted by the enthusiastic and entertaining performers from Brassy B, whom we could hear down in Fowlers Yard. Fowlers Yard had a 10th anniversary festival/open day; we tried the delights of Leonard's for lunch, plus a swift drink from the Hill Island folk. Our brief Brass experience continued with Oompah Brass in the Market Place. Fantastic playing and also very, very funny; treats included covers of Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', plus 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' from Queen.  


Stillaphone

On the experimental side, yesterday I headed off to Durham Cathedral for two of the Brass: Pitch events. First up was John Kefala Kerr's Book of Bells in the Monks' Dormitory Library. This meditative piece mixed digitally manipulated brass, bell and choral recordings with audience interaction. The effect was something like a minimal, occasionally discordant soundscape - entirely different to my perception of the original material as somewhat more 'traditional'. The addition of the interactive element - a book quiz with ringing of small bells - provided an immediate, random aspect to the piece, which had a distance to it. Really interesting and peaceful - recommended! 

After a stroll around the Cathedral, I then headed to The Music School next door for louie+jesse's project, Stillaphone. Simple brass household items - pans, kettles and so on - into which randomly timed water droplets fell. Simple but effective.    
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 .
4 comments
Read more

Hidden Witness

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable.  After a short break -  in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...
2 comments
Read more

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...
Post a Comment
Read more