Erland Cooper Queen's Hall Edinburgh 200th Anniversary 20th January 2024 Review
Image credit: Andrea Fumana
Erland Cooper: The Queen’s Hall 200th Anniversary premiere tonight says it all in the title really. This special concert at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh celebrates 200 years of the building itself.
Originally opened in 1823 (this concert was held back a little to fit in with Erland’s touring schedule) as Hope Park Chapel (a chapel of ease), the chapel became a parish church in 1834 and Newington Parish Church served generations of people in the Southside of Edinburgh. The church was dissolved in 1976 and was adapted and reopened as a performance space in 1979.
It was somewhat appropriate that a building originally designed for people to hear the spoken words of a sermon should tonight be hearing the spoken words of Edinburgh poet Ellen Renton. With “Inheritance” and “Passing” (both from the collaborative “Lord of The Isles” project) and other works this evening, Ellen is clearly someone who not only loves words, but the way that, if you let them, they will play with one another and often combine in the most unexpected of ways to make something very unique and special.
For this special event, Erland Cooper premiered a new work for string quartet, not amplified but letting the natural acoustics of the hall carry the sounds as this building was designed to do. The second half of this show included work from Erland’s back catalogue including “Folded Landscapes” and his critically acclaimed “Orkney Trilogy”. Erland Cooper was born and raised on Orkney and it is obvious from his music that there is almost a spiritual connection between himself and the natural world around him, including a great interest in wildlife and bird-life in particular. The latter became obvious when Erland asked the audience to use their smart phones, and find and play under his instructions to the music that he was performing live, the sounds of these birds, and in doing so turning the audience into his own “Gannet Choir”. On paper this looks an insane idea, but Erland obviously has an insight into sounds that few people have, and it worked so well.
Erland Cooper is obviously a gifted musician who is often inspired by the sounds of the natural world, and protecting and preserving all of this is clearly important to him, and soundbites of the damage that we are doing to the fragile eco-structure of this planet, including Greta Thunberg’s words, "This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean” added weight to his often ethereal music.
Trying to describe in words Erland Cooper’s fusion of electronic and classical based music is almost impossible as the only real way to do so is live as an almost immersive experience. There is something about Erland’s music that re-connects us back to nature and hopefully makes us all a little more aware that we are not above nature, simply a small part of it, and like every other living creature on this planet, we are extremely fragile and at its mercy. Anything and everything that we do to upset a delicate balance of what we do not even properly understand or comprehend will ultimately have devastating results for us and everything around us.
Somehow, through sound, Erland Cooper is able to capture some of the sounds of a living world that most of us never hear or, if we do, never listen closely enough to.
This may be a little biased for a review, but as someone who is at this venue a lot over any given year listening to an incredibly diverse selection of music and spoken word, there is something special about this venue and the acoustics of the building, something a little special about the feeling that you get when you are there and like any music venue it can only survive with the support of its musicians and audiences (and a great team behind everything). So please, keep supporting the Queen’s Hall as a live music venue as often as you are able to do and help secure the next 200 years of this building.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Originally opened in 1823 (this concert was held back a little to fit in with Erland’s touring schedule) as Hope Park Chapel (a chapel of ease), the chapel became a parish church in 1834 and Newington Parish Church served generations of people in the Southside of Edinburgh. The church was dissolved in 1976 and was adapted and reopened as a performance space in 1979.
It was somewhat appropriate that a building originally designed for people to hear the spoken words of a sermon should tonight be hearing the spoken words of Edinburgh poet Ellen Renton. With “Inheritance” and “Passing” (both from the collaborative “Lord of The Isles” project) and other works this evening, Ellen is clearly someone who not only loves words, but the way that, if you let them, they will play with one another and often combine in the most unexpected of ways to make something very unique and special.
For this special event, Erland Cooper premiered a new work for string quartet, not amplified but letting the natural acoustics of the hall carry the sounds as this building was designed to do. The second half of this show included work from Erland’s back catalogue including “Folded Landscapes” and his critically acclaimed “Orkney Trilogy”. Erland Cooper was born and raised on Orkney and it is obvious from his music that there is almost a spiritual connection between himself and the natural world around him, including a great interest in wildlife and bird-life in particular. The latter became obvious when Erland asked the audience to use their smart phones, and find and play under his instructions to the music that he was performing live, the sounds of these birds, and in doing so turning the audience into his own “Gannet Choir”. On paper this looks an insane idea, but Erland obviously has an insight into sounds that few people have, and it worked so well.
Erland Cooper is obviously a gifted musician who is often inspired by the sounds of the natural world, and protecting and preserving all of this is clearly important to him, and soundbites of the damage that we are doing to the fragile eco-structure of this planet, including Greta Thunberg’s words, "This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean” added weight to his often ethereal music.
Trying to describe in words Erland Cooper’s fusion of electronic and classical based music is almost impossible as the only real way to do so is live as an almost immersive experience. There is something about Erland’s music that re-connects us back to nature and hopefully makes us all a little more aware that we are not above nature, simply a small part of it, and like every other living creature on this planet, we are extremely fragile and at its mercy. Anything and everything that we do to upset a delicate balance of what we do not even properly understand or comprehend will ultimately have devastating results for us and everything around us.
Somehow, through sound, Erland Cooper is able to capture some of the sounds of a living world that most of us never hear or, if we do, never listen closely enough to.
This may be a little biased for a review, but as someone who is at this venue a lot over any given year listening to an incredibly diverse selection of music and spoken word, there is something special about this venue and the acoustics of the building, something a little special about the feeling that you get when you are there and like any music venue it can only survive with the support of its musicians and audiences (and a great team behind everything). So please, keep supporting the Queen’s Hall as a live music venue as often as you are able to do and help secure the next 200 years of this building.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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