Confluence @ Anteros Arts Foundation

Sarah Cannell makes vibrant and bold paintings of marshes and broads that are filled with life and colour. Adrian Lever is a talented pianist. Bill Vine is a sound and visuals wizard.  Alison Harvey creates animations that make you see nature in a very different way. Tonight they come together in a project called Confluence, looking at the joining of rivers and bodies of water from their different areas of expertise and perspectives. We are all made of water, we need water to live, there is water all around us, and it's perhaps something we usually take for granted, so a timely reminder is due.

The performance at the Anteros Arts Foundation on Magdalen Street begins with one of Sarah's landscape paintings being lit slowly upon the wall, like we're waking up to the scene. Adrian on the piano creates a sombre, delicate and ponderous mood. The painting fades to make way for an animated portion of the show,what look like drops of rain, then paintbrush strokes sweeping across the wall turns into the sea sweeping across sand. There's a glitchy brightly coloured section and then an extended monochrome abstract part with black sections moving around that I can't quite work out. It's not until 10 minutes have passed that I realise it's live footage, in negative, of Adrian's head.

The music rumbles and tumbles around like the sea, sometimes striking a mournful tone, sometimes rollickingly playful and carefree. During the glitchy section Adrian manually plucks the strings inside the piano creating a harsh, raw sound. Bill accompanies the piano at times by breathing into the mic, looping some of the piano's refrains and creating gritty but delicate background noises that really add depth to the performance, all whilst handling the complex visuals with panache. The natural and created sounds melt together and compliment each other smoothly.There are moments of absolute pin-dropping silence here tonight within these whitewashed walls, as well as moments of beautiful, violent passion. It's mindblowing that Adrian plays without music, improvising and creating as he goes for 40 minutes without stop and it's a treat to have the time and mindspace to sit quietly and really disappear into a piece of artwork, whether musical, animated or painted. I keep seeing new things within the paintings and the visuals the more I watch, and listening further into the music. The performance ends with another painting before the light fades. The music at last rounds up with a return to the original theme, slowing and becoming more internal until it stops entirely.

A spell is woven between performers and audience alike, and it feels special to share this experience all together. Humans. Nature. Art. Music. Technology. To work together is to create beauty, and we felt it tonight.