PrettyInScarlett

Sifting through a bunch of emails and blog posts, I came across an interesting article on Sinfini Music earlier today. The title caught my eye by referencing Ólafur Arnalds - but the term 'dreamyism' intrigued me. Reading on, the article by Anna Britten describes a genre of music I very much enjoy, but sometimes struggled to describe. It's definitely worth a read for any fans Arnalds/Sigur Rós/Einaudi et al - not forgetting the somewhat 'dreamyesque' works of John Luther Adams ; The Light That Fills The World is a recurring favourite on my stereo. Moving on from 'minimalism with a heartbeat' to living in the present and today's blog post from Piano-Yoga founder GéNIA. Reading through the post, GéNIA's comments about performing 'in the moment' as a pianist immediately struck me as reminiscent of Barry Green's The Inner Game of Music . Green uses very different language from GéNIA but his book provides fascinating (and very very f...

Now for something quite different. Tuesday 13th we went to see Piano circus at Cardiff University School of Music . I was going to say 'new' but turns out the group (ensemble doesn't quite seem to fit) formed in 1989. Piano circus , who according to their website are named after the Latin for circle, perform works for 6 keyboards/pianos and have developed a varied repertoire (which is also listed in full online). One of the reasons for going (apart from pure curiosity) was to try out contemporary compositions. The set list comprised: Erkki-Sven Tüür-Transmission (2006), Conlon Nancarrow- Study No. 5 and Study No. 26, Colin Riley- Recast, Steve Reich Six Pianos, David Lang- Face So Pale (1992) and Lynne Plowman- Hall of Mirrors (2007). Lynne Plowman was in the audience & briefly introduced Hall of Mirrors as sampling parts of lots of other classical piano works (anything from 1 bar to a more recognisable theme) & threading them together. In terms of the works them...

Somewhat back to reality after Sigur Rós' extravaganza. Not in the least mundane, though! Wednesday 19th we went to Clwb Ifor Bach to see Cage The Elephant headlining (after their stint supporting The Subways earlier this year). A short word on the support (although we missed 1st band Bleached Wail so can't really comment -try their myspace ): average but pretty forgettable. Obviously friends of Cage the Elephant, Autovaughn were, all in all, pretty dull. They weren't awful, and were pretty competent musicians, but just didn't have any real variety or selling point. Not so with Cage The Elephant . I recall from their support slot with The Subways that they had a very confident prescence, and singer Matt Schulz then had a vague resemblance to a young Mick Jagger. Not any more (hair now shorter and blonde) but the confidence is, if anything, even easier. Handily, their songs (set was, bar 1 song, from current selftitled debut album) have a great combination of new and ...

Wolverhampton may not be the most exciting place to be, but it certainly gained some sparkle on 4th November as Sigur Rós came to town. M and I have been waiting for a while for this show, and it was more than worth the wait! A packed-out Civic Hall first showed their appreciation for fellow Icelandic band For a Minor Reflection , who from their chat are new to large shows. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed by this 4 piece, but they grew on me. Most of the crowd seemed to know them or had at least checked out myspace, as the short set was well received. No tardiness for Sigur Rós, they came on prompt at 9pm and played for 2hrs 45 minutes. No slouching on quality either, the sound set up was very good and there was some innovative use of two projectors and backdrops; at one point, there was a projection from various cameras set at or underneath the instruments! The lighting had been set up for maximum atmospheric effect, starting off with subdued yellow lights so the stage was very di...