Music / Alt-pop
Review: Mesadorm/Sailing Stones, The Forge
This was a largely unplugged evening, though not entirely intentionally, and in the intimacy of a crowded Forge the gentler acoustic ambience seemed to draw the audience more closely together. This attentiveness suited much in the lyrics of both acts, making for a confidential exchange of personal insights and wrestled contradictions.
Sailing Stones – Dan Moore, Jenny Lindfors
Sailing Stones had not meant to be unplugged, however, with Dan Moore’s keyboards set up and singer-songwriter Jenny Lindfors strapping on an electric guitar. But during the first number – the easy Americana-flavoured Free As I’m Gonna Be with its ethereal synth ambience – a gathering thunderstorm of static crackling in the PA foretold problems. Dan moved over to the upright piano for the next track, Shadow, and thereafter the sound grew progressively more unprocessed, with Jenny often simply accompanied by her own adroitly handled acoustic guitar.
is needed now More than ever
Her songs held a rueful optimism about life’s challenges faced with assertive frailty – as in Blazing Sun’s exploration of bereavement, or the metaphorical unpicking of the nativity behind Joe – and her clear-ringing voice had something of the swoops of Joni Mitchell or Cara Dillon, an Irish lilt perhaps. It’s always a shame when technical problems prevent people making the music they intended but there was nothing diminished about this performance.
Mesadorm: Jo Silverston, Blythe Pepino, Daisy Palmer
Guitarist Aaron Zahl’s pedal bank notwithstanding there was serious acoustic intent behind Epicadus, Mesadorm’s latest album. The collection is dominated by stripped back reimaginings of their debut Heterogaster, with all those synths and crash pads dumped in favour of that upright piano and a double bass. What remained, of course, was the essential quality of the songs and Blythe Pepino’s highly original imagination. What had grown was the richness of the vocal harmonising, sometimes involving all five performers in a fulsome but restrained chorale that, woven into the spare sound of bowed cello and bass and gentle piano accompanying One Of My Friends, genuinely made several couples in the crowd reach for the other’s hand.
Mesadorm: Jo Silverston, Blythe Pepino, Daisy Palmer, Dave Johnston, Aaron Zahl
To say the set was a model of restraint wouldn’t do justice to Blythe’s capacity for freedom as a vocalist but, given the latent power of drummer Daisy Palmer the understatement in the percussion made her occasional flourishes all the more noticeable. A high point – as ever – was Easy, Blythe’s Larkinesque rumination on family life with its ridiculously catchy chorus, particularly fine harmony vocals and poignant glockenspiel. Laid bare, the song felt like another accomplished step towards an artistry of emotional honesty. Other notable moments included Jo Silverston’s soaring cello for Epicadus, a neo-classical piece with (conscious) echoes of Michael Nyman, Dave Johnston’s loping bassline for new song Someone’s Gonna Pay (an untypically ‘big’ Afro-funk novelty) and the closing number …
… Rendered simply by Blythe, with solo piano and vocal harmonies, The Joy It Joins Us Up was a coalescence of the set around her almost fragile voice with lyrics speaking of the gradual acquisition of something like wisdom in a confusing world. It was heard with the breath-held pin drop attention that left a spine-tingling echo hanging in the air, a lasting reminder of Mesadorm’s ability to frame moments of extreme beauty from life’s complexities.
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