Music / Reviews
Review: PULSION, St Stephen’s Church – ‘Classical meets creativity’
How amazing it is when one is taken on a sensory journey of music and visual arts under the roof of a grade I listed church in central Bristol.
PULSION, a totemic, ritual-based performance that moved through epic environments of existential dread and wonder, was an exhilarating show at St Stephen’s Church that took the audience through the vastness of the human experience.
Composed by Leeem, the musician Liam O’Connell, for double bass, bass clarinet, Bb clarinet, Eb clarinet and live electronic effects, it was set to a backdrop of shadows and puppets and stunning visuals.
Having known O’Connell for some time, I anticipated the night being something very special and quite possibly a little strange. I was right on both accounts.
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While sitting on the church pews, taking in the smells and space of the church, I imagined what was to come: music, puppets, cool visuals and all in the interior of a church over 750 years old. Bring it on Bristol!
Leeem Quartet is made up of O’Connell, effects coordinator and on double bass, Owen O’Neil on bass clarinet and effects, Tim Huijbregts on the Bb clarinet, and Lucas Dick on Eb clarinet, with Aracelia Cabrera Cacera as puppeteer and visual artist and Otto Cox on projections.
Quite simply, this was an amazing collaboration of inspiring and talented humans.
The deep and serious sounds of the double bass and bass clarinet combined with the playful and dreamy high clarinet took me on a hypnotic journey, twisting and turning through darkness to light, grief and hope, chaos to calm, running lost and found.
As the music took me on my own personal inner journey, the visuals, shadows and puppets added another element, forming new ideas with my relationship to the music.
Skulls, shapes and parts of the church projected on a big screen behind the musicians gave a psychedelic feel making the shift between dystopia and utopia more prevalent and the experience utterly immersive.
The music pulsed between raw physical sound and processed texture, creating a sonic landscape that felt both intimate and otherworldly, and the performance was visually expanded through the large-scale shadow work of Araceli whose moving forms echo myth, memory and transformation.
These shadows are interwoven with Cox’ live visuals, using multiple projectors to layer light, texture and motion across the architecture of the church.
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After the show, I was keen to explore what inspired O’Connell to create such a piece. He told me: “Composing is how I explore the feelings that words can’t express. I’m always hoping to explore and express what’s in my subconscious and create bridges between different music worlds.
“My inspiration was to explore writing for some of the best players I could find so my ideas could be unfiltered in their complexity, and I wanted to blend highly technical classical musicians with free improvisation and experimental jazz and noise elements.”
Judging by the sea of applause at the end of the show and the look on the faces of a very thrilled audience, I doubt I’m the only one who can’t wait to hear and see what Leeem will be bringing us next.
Main image: Leeem Quartet
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