Lauren South & Jude Rees perform for Coventry Food Union
Review
Last night saw the fifth of Coventry Food Union's intimate fundraising gigs in the Wyley Chapel which is in the crypt of the ruined Coventry Cathedral.
Back in June if you recollect, I was fortunate enough to be at the third which featured Izzie Derry & the Silver Wye and last night I just managed to get one of the few seats remaining to see Lauren South & Jude Rees.
That the cause is worthy is beyond a doubt and you'll know from my previous article how the space is ideal for certain gifted performers whose work in close up rewards even more than usual: it is a space for enhancement of nuance and sensibility.
Oddly, despite my considerable enthusiasm for attending live Lauren performances, this was the first time I'd seen her wholly solo without any of her distinguished collaborators popping up. It just went to prove that her songs are so strong that they work just as compellingly in reduced arrangements as well as beautiful spaces: her live attraction really is based upon her voice & her equally skills on a variety of instruments. That said, I did note the odd tweak in arrangements where her voice explored a lower register, perhaps in response to a need to adapt the arrangements?
This is my first Jude Rees review for the magazine and presented me with various challenges: which is what I like. Much of her performance was based in the thirteenth & fourteenth centuries as far as texts (in medieval Latin & Catalan) and instruments (old English bagpipes & a cluster of shawms went. That alone is of worth as a subject but the other aspects were all contemporary: looping and synths to the fore. She played four songs across forty minutes so each was a very constructed pieces with loops from the instruments & her voice gradually building before singing began. The final piece in fact was pretty much all vocals. Quite remarkable as you might say.
Drones were the basis of much of this so the effect of each was hypnotic which really added to the sense of experience which the environment had already engendered.
I'd love to catch this imaginative & unique artist again but to be honest, so perfectly was her music aligned to the crypt that I wonder if I could ever recapture the moment again. And for that matter, Lauren's intimate performance was just as well wed to the space: I'd seen her twice in the preceding fortnight in much bigger spaces (tents) in front of audiences at least ten times as big and enjoyed both enormously: but this was a little bit special.
The Food Union gigs in the crypt are taking a break until October I gather, but I'm looking forwards to a concert on August 31st featuring Izzie Derry at their Sherborne Allotments base: my first time reviewing at allotments.
