Anna Phoebe
Norwich Arts Centre
To the Arts Centre, for an excellent Sunday evening’s entertainment by violinist Anna Phoebe and her two accompanists: Richard Bundy and Jake Downs. From the start all three performers exude a relaxed, informal warmth, and their two sets - comprised mainly of songs from Phoebe’s 2021 album Sea Souls – passed in a haze of lockdown-inspired reverie.
Yes, this was another artistic product of state enforced quarantine, a fact that Phoebe apologetically acknowledges at the outset, recognising that the audience are probably bored of hearing musicians referring to their pandemic experiences. And certainly, hers seems to have been a pretty good lockdown, as they go, with walks along the Kent coast and the occasional dip in an unusually warm English Channel.
The music inspired by this opportunity for quiet reflection evokes a palpable sense of calm. Accompaniment on piano, electric piano, singing bowl, by wordless vocalising and, towards the end of the concert, an electronic backing track is, for the most part, deft and understated.
Some sections of the performance are improvised, including a strange interlude in the second half when Phoebe appears so mesmerised by Bundy’s extravagant piano playing that she decides against adding anything at all to the piece, standing poised, violin in hand, for several minutes without ever playing a note.
At another point she has to call Bundy back to the electric piano as, she suggests, he has become distracted by a backstage glass of wine. When Phoebe announces that she has some LPs and CDs to sell but has forgotten her card-reader, so has left her bank details for anyone who takes anything to transfer her some money later, it’s completely in keeping with the evening. She, Bundy and Downs appear as warm, friendly and relaxed as the music they create.
During the interval I overhear a couple of young men remarking on information gleaned from Phoebe’s Wikipedia page. On reading that she is married to a journalist, one of them ventures that their household is surely so sophisticated that the couple eat their dinner off plates; on the evidence of the charming, assured performance she gave at Norwich Arts Centre last night, I’d say that’s almost a certainty.
