Standing Waves, Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester Guild Hall, Friday 28 July, 2023.

4****: David Gray & Paul Gray

Core and founding member of this versatile and flexible ensemble, violinist Roger Huckle and keyboardist Marcus Davidson, clearly enjoy a great rapport and communicate this as performers. They delivered a chilled set in an informal cabaret setting. This was perfect music to wind dow after a hard day’s festival-going.

Billed in the programme as world fusion music, they kicked off the performance, just the two of them, with a South Asian influenced Tabla Dance which, it was explained, had been inspired by a chance encounter with a player of the instrument. It was a lively piece, evocative and effective.

Throughout the evening their music was at is most effective when referencing rhythms from other cultures. When this was not the case, they had a tendency to fall back on a kind of lounge music jazz drum riff that felt a bit self-consciously cool and got a little repetitive.

For the second piece, they were joined by vocalist Kat Kleve. There were some balance issues in this number. The singer would have benefited from a bit more amplification. They were then joined by saxophonist, Edward Leaker. At this point the performance took a serious turn towards the world of contemporary jazz.

The most intriguing piece of the evening used as its starting point some plainsong by Hildegard of Bingen. The violin introduced the plainsong which then passed to the voice, while the other instruments ornamented around it. It was a bit reminiscent of compositional techniques used by Machaut in the early 14th Century, proving that nothing is new in this world.

Four excellent and accomplished musicians, they delivered a polished and slick collection of well put together music, much of which was quirkily entertaining.

Kat Kleve – vocals

Roger Huckle – Violin

Marcus Davidson – Keyboards/sounds

Edward Leaker - Saxophones