Antiphony of the Trees - Laura Cannell NNF 2024
Music which harmoniously harnesses the sounds of nature
N&N festival
Born in Norwich, but now living in Suffolk, composer, violinist and virtuoso recorder player Laura Cannell is one of two resident artists at this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival. Those who visited the Guildhall over the Festival's opening Welcome Weekend may have watched her video filmed performance of 'Revoicing The City Witches', in which she invokes the spirits of Norwich women accused of witchcraft in the 16th century, some of whom were chained to the walls of the Guildhall before being led to Lollard's Pit near Fye Bridge, to be burned at the stake.
On Sunday night, however, Laura was in person at Norwich Cathedral, and performing right underneath the mighty cathedral spire to an audience seated in the transepts and the choir stalls. Goodness knows what those peregrine falcon chicks were thinking as her field recordings of birdsong filled the sacred air whilst we took our seats.
The concert began with four pieces taken from Laura’s seventh solo album, 'Antiphony of the Trees', and provided a chance for us to marvel at the way she uses the recorders (sometimes two at a time), along with electronic looping and decay enhancements, to transform an instrument of which I still have primary school nightmares into one that can produce music that is beautiful, compelling, and even slightly spiritual. And why not? After all, Vivaldi wrote some fabulous recorder concertos way back in the 18th century.
The album's title track was especially composed for International Dawn Chorus Day, which this year fell on Sunday May 5th, and was originally performed to the birds in the trees inside Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, and it cleverly mimics the call and response of wild bird song. 'Awake From Your Feathered Slumber' is gentler, and with a melody line borrowed from a traditional folk song.
The set also includes 'Simultaneous Flight Movement', a piece composed from inside the lamp room at Southwold lighthouse in 2016. Once again, it is inspired by birds, but is also infused with a sonic mimicry that invokes a mental image of that huge rotating lantern.
'Revoicing The City Witches' is followed by a stripped-down ambulatory version of 'Hidden In The Marsh Thistle', another antiphonal piece in which the sound of just two recorders seems to rise, float and completely fill the vast cathedral spaces above our heads. If only our prompted attempts to harmoniously hum along had been as tuneful.
The concert ends with 'We Borrowed Feathers', a reference to the habit of magpies to line their nests with 'stolen' items, 'The Fiery Spirit' (from 2014's 'Quick Sparrows Over The Black Earth'), and a closing return to the beauty of 'For The Gatherers'.
If you get the opportunity to hear Laura Cannell perform live at any time I sincerely urge you to do so. Put aside those recorder nightmares and prejudices, and you will be rewarded by music which harmoniously harnesses the sounds of nature, and infuses it with a charismatic blend of Steve Reich minimalism and medieval richness.
Laura Cannell will be performing alongside Norfolk Folklore Society in 'Dark Tales From The Guildhall', in Norwich Guildhall on Wednesday May 15th at 7pm, and in 'Modern Ritual', in the Adnams Spiegeltent, at 8.30pm on Sunday May 19th. Tickets available through the Festival box office or from www.nnfestival.org.uk
