Live review: In C – Matthew Herbert and Stargaze/Pantha Du Prince and the Bell Laboratory with visuals by the Joshua Light Show, Barbican, London
Monday, October 7, 2013
The retina scorching, psychedelic sights, if not quite the sounds, of New York’s legendary Fillmore East venue circa 1969 came to the Barbican on Friday night when the Joshua Light Show made its UK debut accompanying two interpretations of Terry Riley’s iconic 1964 minimalist piece, ‘In C’, performed by Matthew Herbert and Berlin-based Pantha du Prince.
As part of the Barbican’s eclectic, barrier-crunching Transcender series, the audiovisual performance of ‘In C’ was inspired, in part, by last year’s Sun Ra Arkestra Barbican show where the music was accompanied by the exploding oils and op-art slides of the UK’s Mystic Lights. 
Preceding the beats-anchored second half interpretation by Pantha du Prince and the Norwegian Bell Laboratory (pictured top), whose church-like hand-bell sections were in stark contrast to the rigidity of their thumping house-beats, Matthew Herbert and the Stargaze collective took a more captivating, ethereal, approach. Using a violin section, vibes, woodwinds and laptops to play ‘In C’s’ 53 musical phrases, Herbert sampled and reworked elements into the live mix, creating an even more kaleidoscopic layering and repetition of the phrases, which shifted texturally from dark drones to pastoral moods and astral soundscapes. Riley’s original recording of ‘In C’ has been an influence on generations of sonic genre-benders from Miles Davis (Pangea and Agartha) to Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, the 1990s New Age movement and, more recently, Portico Quartet.
The synergy with the Joshua Light show, who back-projected their organic, optic symphony of overhead oil dishes, wet slides, mylar and mirror effects, was a masterstroke, creating an intense, hypnotic, light sound dimension that pulled the audience into its time-warp world, and made you wish that sugar cubes were on sale at the bar rather than beer and wine.
– Jon Newey (story and photos)