First up were sonic alchemists Matmos.
When I saw them a few years ago, they were generating sound from the most unlikely sources, notably the spanking of a bare bottom and the pouring of beer onto a metal sheet.
For this gig they were augmented by an extra guitarist (though this being Matmos guitars aren’t played as such, they are bowed, or played directly into the hardware to be processed and manipulated) and by a member of New York’s So Percussion ensemble, here playing timpani, marimba, tubular bells, plant pots and bird whistles).
They’ve expanded their musical palette too: less driving beats, an infusion of latin rhythms, touches of contemporary classical, and generally more mellow. They were just back from Verona where they had been commissioned to produce an electronic version of Aida, and treated us to a couple of tracks.
For the finale we had a brilliant reading of a story from the libretto to Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives opera (from googling him today, I learn that Ashley is an avant garde American electronic / contemporary classical composer).
All in all this was a wonderful set, with moments of real imagination, touching on the sublime.
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