Múm
8 out of 10 - Great. Good show.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Church of St. Paul the Apostle, New York
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The Wordless Music Series continued to deliver its singular concert experiences with the November 9th show at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, a few blocks away from the bastion of high culture that is Lincoln Center. Entering that lovely, spacious (and functioning) Roman Catholic church, with its soaring sky-blue ceilings and solemn iconography, out of the miserably chill and rain, started the night out on a positively warm note. The audience gradually grew to capacity, with people filling in the pews from the center aisle and out, their collective chatter glowing pleasantly in the space mingling with the inexplicable but not unpleasant reggae tunes that would continue to transition us between sets. Clearly, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Wordless series is getting the chance to experience music in a different context, not only in terms of setting, but in terms of the crowd as well. People seem to be nicer! They don't talk throughout whole sets! They don't spill beer on your head! They actually seem to be listening! Sure, I love a high-energy, loud concert in a beery hall too, but this is a fine change of pace.
In their first New York outing, the Montreal instrumental trio Torngat opened the evening with an appealing, dynamic set. The members are fluent multiple instrumentalists, though much of the music is horn-driven, with burbling rhythms from synths and exciting percussion. It's difficult to describe Torngat's sound — it can range from the ear-friendly, patterned sounds of a more eclectic Broken Social Scene to wildly wandering or contemplative. There's definitely more sun than cloud to it all though, and there's an enjoyable playfulness to Torngat's syncopations and unexpected meters as well as their instrumentation. At one point, with Mathieu Charbonneau keeping a bass line going, Pietro Amato (also of Bell Orchestre and Arcade Fire support) on the French horn and Julien Poissant on the trumpet walked up and down the aisles of the church, coaxing whimpers and wheezes from their horns, sounding a bit like a dialogue of wounded, keening elephants and whales, but somehow keeping the act in tune with a musical form. Most of the set seemed to be off Torngat's first full length as a trio, You Could Be; it's a shame that their CDs got held up at the border.
Cellist Jihyun Kim provided the classical portion of the evening, offering J.S. Bach’s first cello suite and György Ligeti’s Sonata for Cello. Series founder Ronen Givony informed the audience after her performance that Kim had been in the hospital not too long ago and had cancelled many of her dates except for the Wordless concert — if she was feeling subpar that night, there was no way to tell through her playing. Her skills seemed top notch and her bio backs that up. I have to say “seem” though, thanks to the acoustic situation of sitting towards the middle of a church — everything she played reverberated in that large, bouncy space to come back to my ears sounding impressionistic, which Bach and Ligeti simply are not. Kim’s rendition of the Bach was feathery and lightning fast, but it sang and it moved, if rather quickly. The Ligeti came across haunting and knotty, very interesting harmonically — being new to the work, I wish I could have heard it a bit clearer. Perhaps a bit of well-chosen amplification wouldn’t have hurt here.
Finally, Múm took the stage and played their “mellow” set (saving their non-mellow set for the next evening), including lots of songs off their latest release, Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy, a new song and "Mother's Last Word to Her Son," a gospel song the group had sung with Tom Brosseau on tour. Here was where the acoustics of the church fit the bill, especially for the vocals which were really put at the fore. With the departure of the sisters Kristín Anna and Gyda Valtysdottir and the new record’s direction, plus the atmosphere of the evening, Múm gave us melodica galore and less of the electro-stuff and breathiness. Relative newcomers added considerable spirit and sound to the group, with Mr Silla (actually, Sigurlaug Gíladóttir) contributing an astounding voice which went up to effortless, crystal heights, and Hildur Gudnadottir whose cute dances, middle voice and strings-playing added great texture. The vocal harmonies and multiple instruments of the women and Gunnar Tynes sort of put to mind an Icelandic, more twee version of the Dixie Chicks, but I mean this in a good way. Múm played a beautiful, energetic set and proved to be incredibly gracious human beings, repeatedly thanking everything in sight before and after their encores — the church, the audience, for being there, for listening. Whether you prefer Múm’s earlier discography or not, which to me is a bit more detached and cool, hearing them play “Blessed Brambles,” voices echoing in the church, pop-py noises ablaze, it wasn’t hard to feel a smile.
Setlist:
Slow Bicycle
Moon Pulls
I Was Her Horse
Oh, How the Boat Drifts
Sit Down
Asleep In A Hiding Place
Guilty Rocks
Winter (What We Never Were After All)
Mother’s Last Word to Her Son
A Little Bit, Sometimes
Blessed Brambles
Marmalade Fires
Encores:
The Ghosts You Draw On My Back
I’m 9 Today
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