Review: Kevin Figes’ Sound Dimensions, The Mount Without – a fascinating and unusual evening

Bringing the worlds of jazz and 20th century classical music together meant there was a pleasingly full house for Sound Dimensions. Hopefully both elements of the audience felt suitably rewarded by Kevin Figes’ ambitious foray into formal composition. His elaborate scores required the string and wind sections of the Bristol Ensemble and their percussionist Harriet Riley as well as Kevin’s regular bandmates – vocalist Brigitte Beraha, pianist Jim Blomfield, Ashley John Long on bass and Mark Whitlam drumming – augmented by electric guitarist Jerry Crozier-Cole.

Kevin Figes’ Sound Dimension (pic- Tony Benjamin)

There were also notable electronica contributions from Gaz Williams, who opened proceedings with a spectral solo recalling the haunted sound of an ondes Martenot. It was a prelude to a wash of smooth string music in the style of Bruno Maderna, one of three Italian composers from the mid-20th century in tribute to whom the Sound Dimensions project was conceived. A second piece – Maderna 2 – was more fractured, using diverse sound elements to assemble a larger contrasting sound that was surprisingly jaunty. Maderna 3 deployed even more contrasting textures, rich string (dis)harmonies prefacing a delicate duet of Mark Whitlam’s glockenspiel with Harriet Riley’s vibraphone, then a lively clarinet bridge falling into a plaintive flute – all very 20th century sounds.

Kevin Figes’ Sound Dimension (pic- Tony Benjamin)

The more familiar territory of Ennio Morricone, the second inspirational composer, provided a fulsome, filmic sound of subdued strings over which vocalist Brigitte provided an ethereal wordless lyric. It was an effective pastiche that caught the style of Morricone’s 60s film scores, followed by another longer composition (Morricone 2 – he really hadn’t wasted time thinking up titles). This was an assemblage of highly connotative sounds like eerie swerving strings, distant church bells, insistent percussive clicks, rumbling tympani toms and snappy snare drum. The Gothic atmosphere of an Italian giallo horror film was splendidly assisted by the sun setting behind the Mount Without’s towering stained glass windows to a pipe organ theme and wind-effect synth sounds. It was a perfectly atmospheric soundtrack to the venue’s nicely ruined ethos. A later Morricone piece – No 3 – used a breezy Bossa Nova groove and Brigitte’s easy vocal style to evoke a lighter cinematic moment – maybe an open-topped car sweeping down a sun-drenched coast road.

Kevin Figes’ Sound Dimension (pic- Tony Benjamin)

Luigi Nono was the third featured composer and Kevin had adapted the Italian’s idea of multi-part choral singing to string instruments. Thus the Bristol Ensemble’s eight string players each had separate parts, making an interweaving whole in which elements and themes were exchanged or developed in their different voices. It had the effect of a complex kind of canon and was thoroughly absorbing to listen to. Nono 2 had a more conventional harmonic underpinning, separate themes of strings and wind layered together into a richly tangled fusion that ended unresolved.

Kevin Figes’ Sound Dimension (pic- Tony Benjamin)

By exploring these very individual composers Kevin Figes had devised a thoroughly interesting and varied programme, clearly the product of some intensely hard work. He even threw in a lighter piece inspired by Bristolian film composer Roger Webb, a breezy slice of cool vibes and electric guitar over brushed drums and deftly rhythmic bass. The two standout moments, however, relied on Brigitte’s vocal contributions, one being the library music style of Morricone 4, a smooth groove under improvised voice and embellished with electronic bleeps and keyboard flourishes. The other was the closing piece: Nono 3, essentially a found sound collage put together by Kevin and Gaz punctuated by quotes from A.C.Grayling’s The Meaning of Things read out with perfect clarity by Brigitte. It made for a spellbinding ending to what had a been a fascinating and unusual evening that really deserves to be repeated for a wider audience if at all possible.