Not often will a crowd sit in complete silence, awestruck at the musical genius they are witnessing before them but at the Union Chapel on a cold Thursday night in North London, that is exactly what happened.
The venue, a Grade 1 listed church by day and award winning, independent performance space by night was the unique setting that played host to two of the most intriguing and mesmerizing musicians currently plying their trades in the industry. The first to take to the stage was Norwich based electronic music producer Luke Abbott and under the beam of a single spotlight he immediately set about creating an electrifying atmosphere, with layers and layers of digital synth and bass sounds that came together to generate a deeply emotive ambience.
Only pausing twice throughout his entire set, Abbott’s wandering bass lines and skippy hi-hat beats flowed through the air of the church surroundings exquisitely and like a conductor leading an orchestra, he had all his electronic sounds working together as a harmonious ensemble building an incredibly powerful one man symphony.
Headline artist Hauschka followed and picked up where the hugely talented Abbott had left off. After reassuring the audience that even though his piano was perched on the very edge of the stage in order to bring him as close as possible to the audience, he was not going to fall off, he proceeded to play a host of tracks from recent album Abandoned Cities. He was also keen to tell the audience that he would be playing remixes of his tracks saying, “waiting for the song to be exactly like it is on the record, I think that, for me after 100 shows that is extremely boring, so I will give you little bit of a different view on how I work“.
Hauschka plays the ‘prepared piano’ which sees him fit the strings and mallets of the piano with items such as aluminium foil, leather and other metallic objects to create a unique sound that makes it seem as though there are a number of instruments joining him on stage. He is clearly a man who is very enthusiastic about what he does and this came across strongly during his performance as his sweet sounding, melodic, classically influenced compositions conveyed his passion completely.
Having caught the audiences imagination with his dramatic exploration through classical experimentation, Hauschka ventured further down his unique repertoire and after removing the additions to his piano, he proceeded to fill the instrument with table tennis balls. The result was an almost electric, harpsichord-like sound that captivated the onlooking crowd and on occasion saw the table tennis balls bouncing around and leaping out of the piano as though the music was bringing them to life. Once he managed to remove all the table tennis balls, Hauschka played an exquisite classical piece in an encore that concluded his set and brought the evening to a mellow, tranquil close.
Stating a number of times during the course of the evening that he loves to play shows in the UK, it is surely only a matter of time before Hauschka returns to enlighten more minds and showcase just what can be achieved when the boundaries of what can be created with a single instrument are thrown out of the window.
You can purchase a copy of Hauschka’s latest album Abandoned Cities via iTunes here and follow @hauschkamusic on Twitter to keep up to date with tour information and new music.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
Latest posts by Matt Tarr (see all)
- WATCH: Gigslutz Spotlight presents… Jammin - July 21, 2016
- PREMIERE: Drey Cheekz teams up with SNE for ‘New Girl’ - June 24, 2016
- LISTEN: Chase & Status unveil new track ‘Spoken Word’ featuring George The Poet - June 20, 2016
