Unquiet - Carmen Villain with Manchester Camerata Ensemble
Carmen Villain with Manchester Camerata Ensemble, and CARBS
This was magnificent. I came to it with little idea what to except and left completely transfixed, unsure whether to be frustrated that a performance like this wasn’t selling out a much larger venue or thankful that, more by luck than judgement, I’d been able to experience such incredible music in the excellent, intimate setting of the Arts Centre.
The evening began with a set from CARBS, a collaboration between Ben Corrigan and Robert Ames, who, as well as being a violinist and co-founder of the London Contemporary Orchestra, curated this show. Their immediately arresting set was largely electronic but did feature occasional bursts of violin amongst the thick synthesiser textures – the addition of the slightly Max Richtery strings to the dense William Basinski like churn is a smart move. The performance was completely beguiling and over all too quickly…
…to be followed by the Manchester Camerata Ensemble who performed pieces by four contemporary composers: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Afrodeutsche, Philip Glass and Bryce Dessner. This section of the evening – which itself consisted of two halves, as the chamber music ensemble narrowed down to a string quartet after performing Afrodeutsche’s ‘He Sings Over Me’ – was particularly stunning. An amazingly varied selection of pieces called for some virtuosic playing, which culminated with the startling ‘Aheym’ by Dessner – this short piece spasmed into life, sprang around restlessly and was gone, leaving an indelible impression on me, and an eagerness to listen to it again with the same level of rapt attention.
Carmen Villain’s solo set followed. This was subtle and assured, heavy on synthesisers and what appeared to be adroitly worked in field recordings. The effect, particularly in the aftermath of what we’d just experienced, was completely beguiling. I was so drawn in to the peculiar soundscapes that it made little sense to me that this section of the show must be coming to an end when I started to notice the Ensemble players resume their seats through the dry-ice like mist wafting around the place.
They turned the lights on their music stands on, one by one, over what felt like a period of several minutes before accompanying Villain in a performance of a new work of hers called ‘Faces’. This was the perfect synthesis of the electronic and acoustic elements of the evening so far. Everyone involved in staging the performance had already more than earned the right to expect that the audience would let themselves be transported by the flow of the music, and, from the brief snatches of conversation I overheard as I made my mesmerised way out of the venue, several other attendees were equally affected. As someone felt moved to shout after the conclusion of ‘Aheym’: bravo!
