Kronos in Glasgow: Matmos & Tanya Tagaq @ Old Fruitmarket, 14 May

Tonight’s programme is part of Kronos in Glasgow, a series of events organised by the vanguard quartet, and it bears the hallmarks of their tirelessly innovative vision. On the face of it, the Canadian Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, who opens the show, has little in common with Matmos’ conceptual electronica; but the sheer adventurousness of both acts functions as a unifying bond. Tagaq’s vocals, accompanied by viola and drums, shift with impossible rapidity between guttural beatboxing, ungodly grunts and operatic wailings; it’s an intense and often unsettling performance.

As such, the set connects well with Matmos’ opening piece. The San Franciscan duo have pursued no end of bizarre directions over the course of their sixteen-year existence, but tonight’s presentation of a ‘psychic choir’ is perhaps the oddest yet. A handful of singers, assembled on both sides of the balcony above the Old Fruitmarket hall, recite transcripts generated from a series of ‘psychic sessions’ conducted over the past four years. The resulting piece, overlaid with electronic accompaniment, is by turns mesmerising and disturbing.

Things become relatively comprehensible from hereon in: the rest of the set features tracks from two of Matmos’ most recent releases, 2008’s Supreme Balloon, and last year’s collaboration with So Percussion, Treasure State. Even these pieces, though, are marvels of sonic and conceptual complexity, and it’s testament to the boldness of Kronos’ programming that in this context they feel utterly accessible. Tagaq and Matmos might be a strange pairing, but in this context, they complement one another mysteriously well.