News
05/05/2010Reviews CD and Gig - Birds and Beasts
Source: The List Date: 4 May 2010 Written by: Kenny Mathieson
Mr McFall's Chamber - Birds & Beasts
A quintet of classical string players both thinking and playing out of the box, a jazz pianist and two drummers, and a piper with both folk and jazz leanings – it can only be Mr McFall’s. The music is equally eclectic – two compositions by Fraser Fifield (the piper in question), Martyn Bennett’s once lost ‘Piece for string quartet, percussion and Scottish small pipes in C’, and a half dozen arrangements by violinist Robert McFall from Bennett’s music.
The McFall’s have a track record in adapting Bennett’s ground-breaking folk-meets-techno experiments for this instrumentation, and it is good to see it now on disc. Tunes from Bothy Culture and Bennett’s stage music for Knives In Hens lend themselves well to the treatment (the later, even more studio-dependent Grit could have been a trickier proposition), and they capture the excitement and vitality of Bennett’s creative thinking in convincing fashion, while Fifield’s fiery ‘The Beast’ is a virtuoso achievement all round.
The Scotsman: Gig review: Mr McFall's Chamber
By Kenny Mathieson
QUEEN'S HALL, EDINBURGH
****
****
MR MCFALL'S Chamber are well acquainted with the music of the late Martyn Bennett, and have long since found an accommodation with many of the problems inherent in converting Bennett's unique folk-meets-techno experiments for a line-up that features a quintet of eclectic classical musicians, folk-jazz piper Fraser Fifield, pianist Phil Alexander, and drummers Tom Bancroft and Ian Sandilands.
The occasion for re-visiting this material is the imminent release of Birds & Beasts on Paul Baxter's admirable Delphian label, and they gave us the full contents of the recording in this concert. They opened with the iconic Cuillin, probably Bennett's best known tune, a high-energy workout that slid into the gentler The Miller, one of the themes from Bennett's music for David Harrower's play Knives In Hens.
Much of the music was drawn from Bennett's theatre work and the ground-breaking Bothy Culture album, material which is more amenable to this kind of arrangement than his later studio work, which was even more intensely focused on electronic manipulation of all kinds.
The precisely-titled Piece for String Quartet, Percussion and Scottish Small Pipes in C (Bennett might have given it a snappier title had he lived) is receiving a premiere recording on the disc, and took centre stage in the set here, although for sheer fearsome virtuosity, Fifield's aptly named The Beast eclipsed anything else on the night.
Bennett's multi-faceted legacy is being advanced on several fronts, and this is a very worthwhile addition.
The occasion for re-visiting this material is the imminent release of Birds & Beasts on Paul Baxter's admirable Delphian label, and they gave us the full contents of the recording in this concert. They opened with the iconic Cuillin, probably Bennett's best known tune, a high-energy workout that slid into the gentler The Miller, one of the themes from Bennett's music for David Harrower's play Knives In Hens.
Much of the music was drawn from Bennett's theatre work and the ground-breaking Bothy Culture album, material which is more amenable to this kind of arrangement than his later studio work, which was even more intensely focused on electronic manipulation of all kinds.
The precisely-titled Piece for String Quartet, Percussion and Scottish Small Pipes in C (Bennett might have given it a snappier title had he lived) is receiving a premiere recording on the disc, and took centre stage in the set here, although for sheer fearsome virtuosity, Fifield's aptly named The Beast eclipsed anything else on the night.
Bennett's multi-faceted legacy is being advanced on several fronts, and this is a very worthwhile addition.
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