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Here's a selection of what the press have said about Ensemble Bash:
This could only have been a concert by Ensemble Bash, who make playing
percussion the coolest, noisiest and funniest occupation on earth."
They are a British four-man percussion group whose name does scant justice to their subtlety, virtuosity and global outlook, though it does hint at the mad humour and looselimbed jiving that enlivens their shows. here they joined forces with that most adventurous of pianists, Joanna MacGregor, for a programme which, with minimum musicological fuss, pointed up the parallels between folk music of many cultures and the 'alternative' art music of this century. Thus it was educational, if you wanted it to be, but also richly entertaining. And the fact that the performers actually spoke wittily, to the audience (the arena was packed, even at 11.30pm) was a huge plus. It should happen more often. Yet sometimes the links between 'folk' and 'art' were left to announce
themselves. For instance the opening dance from Ghana hypnotic rhythms
played on folk xylophones and drums dovetailed perfectly into Steve Reich's
Music for Pieces of Wood. That made Reich seem less a minimalist pioneer,
more a late convert to a drumming tradition as ancient as music itself."
But unlike the Modern Jazz Quartet or Kronos, they don't have an ensemble 'sound'. The nature of their calling means that each member plays at least a dozen different instruments ~tuned and otherwise~ from all over the world. What makes Ensemble Bash distinctive is their way of doing things, plus a variable but expanding repertoire of percussion quartet pieces they have built up through commissions and adaptations. And however adventurous Ensemble Bash's programme might be, they had
the commercial nous to include at least one classic work by a dead composer.
Second Construction, by John Cage, was a highlight of the concert, given
an appropriately sensitive and reverent performance in the beautiful ambience
of Christ Church." |
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