This Monday, the percussion quartet ensemblebash played the first of three concerts which they are scheduled to play this year at Kings Place in celebration of their twentieth anniversary. Over their twenty years, ensemblebash have come to be known as one of the most inventive and talented percussion groups worldwide. And they have just about earned the right to whatever typography they want.
The group began the concert by pacing around the room, playing their own arrangement of what the programme described as Siwe Bell Music. Played entirely on variously-tuned agogô bells – conjoined, originally-African cowbells – their arrangement moved from a slow, austere opening in which a melody gradually appeared from among the different pitches, into an exciting, rapid, polyphonic section which set the pace for the vibrant and dynamic performance ahead.
A majority of the pieces performed were group-specific commissions or, like Siwe Bell Music, their own arrangements. Howard Skempton's Shiftwork was written for the group, apparently with a very specific brief: it is a 'plastic bag piece', which means that all the instruments it requires can fit inside a plastic bag. A useful feature for touring musicians, I am sure, though perhaps less so when other pieces played in the concert required two marimbas, two vibraphones, and a set of tubular bells. But at any rate, the piece was a beautiful, soft study in rhythm and timbre, for sleighbells played with thimbles and ramekins filled with baking beads.
Just as beautiful was David Bedford's Bash Peace for two steel pans (shared between all four players). This fascinating composition featured dense, intricate harmonies which were given an intense and edgy glow through the instrumentation. Bedford died last year, and it was excellent to have this opportunity to hear some of his music live.
The one new arrangement played on Monday was of jazz drummer Max Roach's January V, a luscious, gently melodic piece performed sensitively by the group. It was followed by Steve Reich's Mallet Quartet, which also had a soft melodic quality, surprisingly for Reich. It's perhaps slightly odd that this – what must be one of Reich's most lyrical pieces – should be given as blunt a title as Mallet Quartet. The performance was energetic and exciting, but perhaps lacked the personal edge of the group's renditions of their 'own' pieces.