Erland Cooper and Ensemble
All in all, another great evening at the Arts Centre.
Around half-way through his performance at the Arts Centre last night Erland Cooper asks the audience to take out their mobile phones, go to erlandcooper.com/gannet and play the recorded birdsong as a backdrop to the title track of his debut solo album, 2018’s Solan Goose. He conducts the digital gannet choir from the piano while the four members of the Scottish Ensemble, who on this tour are joined by the singer and cellist Midori Jaeger, assist him in his goal of conjuring up images of a voyage to Orkney.
I’ve never been, but on the strength of the performance, found myself googling ferries to the archipelago the following day. At another point in the evening, Cooper remarks that he should be employed by the tourist board and it’s clear that the awe inspired in him by Orkney, and by the natural world as a whole, is the central theme of his music.
And that music was beautifully realised on Sunday night, throughout a quietly powerful set. Cooper’s energy and enthusiasm is infectious; he bounds around, and off, the stage, at one point conducting the other performers while standing in the middle of the audience; he begins one piece with both lighting and amplification turned off; taped fragments of speech appear and disappear, Simon Armitage and Greta Thunberg’s voices among them; finally, at the end of a triumphant encore he returns to the stage to knock the string ensemble’s sheet music onto the floor.
All in all, another great evening at the Arts Centre. My only regret is that, due to factors beyond my control, I was unable to catch the opening set, performed by Jaeger; her beautiful contributions to Cooper and the ensemble’s performance, suggest that this must surely been a suitably excellent introduction to an evening of thoughtful, engaging music.
