Live review: Elliot Galvin – The Ruin, Hot Tin, Faversham

The Ruin, Elliot Galvin’s celebration of 21^st century bleakness, is a complex electro-acoustic album conceived in the studio. Realising it as live performance for this launch tour was inevitably going to mean compromises but, in the event, Galvin’s core musical ideas proved strong enough to survive the necessary economies.

Thus violinist Mandira de Saram stood in for the recording’s Ligeti Quartet, joining Ruth Goller on bass and vocals and Sebastian Rochford drumming, with Galvin providing piano and electronica. After a few explanatory words of welcome, the pianist assumed his customary hunch over the piano keys, opening the piece with an extended introspective solo. His playing became increasingly assertive, ushering in a free-feeling collective wall of sound within which Goller’s distinctive wordless vocals hinted at a warning, echoed in looping violin reverb and explosive drumming.

Ebbing and flowing through shifting soundscapes, the music continued uninterrupted for some 50 minutes, the elements of individual performance woven into a sonic whole. The playing was flawless, with Goller and Rochford’s empathy underpinning much of the dynamics and de Saram’s shrewd use of effects enriching the textures. Much hinged on Galvin’s deft deployment of electronics but even more on the writing that made this a truly integrated piece of music, perhaps more chamber classical than jazz, yet incorporating improvisatory freedom throughout. The Hot Tin audience listened respectfully, only applauding at the end, and it felt satisfyingly like we’d witnessed a premiere at a Prom concert.