Live Review: Luke Howard, Tilman Robinson

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised that the Luke Howard & Tilman Robinson gig hadn't started by the ticketed time of 9pm. It finally got going about twenty minutes later, with audience members still casually arriving after the musicians had taken up their instruments. I soon found out the reason why - the composers Tilman Robinson and Luke Howard experience time and sound different to the average mortal.

Tilman kicked off the concert, standing behind his mixing desk tweaking sounds and obviously enjoying the work he'd produced, some of which sounded like recorded bagpipes played backwards through a funnel. Although it was hard to believe that his music complied with any conventional methods of composition at all, at times he stood conducting forcefully, marking the beat in 4/4 time as beside him, sharing the stage, a string quartet laboured intensively to produce vigorous accompaniment.

A slew of interesting sounds followed, enhanced by moody lighting and graphic visuals on a huge video wall that was responding to the music. The audience applauded in quiet moments, presumably the breaks in between the pieces, some of which from his latest album Deer Heart, but no one was really sure. 

About half an hour in, Tilman was joined by his headlining collaborator Luke Howard to play a piece written for the charitable compilation Our First 100 Days, entitled Requiem For 2016. Composed in London on the day of the Brexit vote, the music was a haunting and anxiety provoking soundtrack to living in a precarious post-Trump Anthropocene, full of echoey piano and chaotic electronic noise. 

The rest of the night was devoted to Luke Howard's music which was pleasantly atmospheric with soothing piano arpeggios and sustained notes, however, problems with feedback plagued his performance. The highlight of the night had to be percussionist Daniel Farrugia who played drums like the kid out of the movie Whiplash, with a stunning solo on high-hat at one point. It was unfortunate his drum kit was set up at the back of the stage, obscured by the string's music stands.

Overall it was an ambitious night that didn't quite hit the mark, but an enjoyable contribution none the less to the Dark Mofo festival program, where audiences seem to be more open to the creative process which by default involves a fair amount of expecting the unexpected.