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Kono Michi @ The Caves, 27 October
As a virtuoso violinist and regular collaborator with Yo Yo Ma, there is an expectaiton amongst the small audience in The Caves this evening for Michi Wiancko's side project, Kono Michi, to be interesting and confidently arranged. Yet the results are to the contrary, and often staggeringly so.
Surrounding herself with session musicians, Wiancko adopts the plural pronoun of a solo artist attempting to blend into the romanticism of the band dynamic. However, the claims of 'we are..' and 'our new record is...' lose currency when she forgets the surname of bass player Richard Crawford in her introductions.
In this live setting, Wiancko's clearly exquisite playing gets lost in some truly boring attempts at full band arrangements. When successful, as on Cherry Blossoms from her album 9 Death Haiku, her brooding sound is comparable to that of an unsettling lounge act from a David Lynch film. However, for the most part, these live adaptations are overwhelmingly disappointing, dirgy, and obvious.
Comments (4)
Add a comment »Sorry? I'm at a loss as to why the reviewer has chosen 1. to wilfully ignore the enthusiastic and overwhelmingly positive response from every audience member I applauded/whooped/whistled along with after each song, and 2., to use the inadvertent forgetting of a surname to damn the whole endeavour of an artist developing their mode of self-expression (thus revealing his immature, anti-'crossover' bias). She was fantastic, so were the band and we were genuinely stirred. No way was this a two star gig.
Posted by | Monday November 2011 @ 13:00
Report to moderatorVery puzzled by this review. It seems almost that the reviewer and I may have been at different events. Music is obviously subjective to some extent, but I can't understand how two people's impressions could be quite so different. I thought the band and Kono Michi herself were terrific, and my impression was that the audience thought so too. Would certainly see them again, and recommend them to my friends. This was a rich and varied set, compelling and exciting, in my opinion.
Posted by | Monday November 2011 @ 14:43
Report to moderatorWhat a great gig. Certainly something a wee bit different. A pleasure to the ears and eyes. We can only disagree whole-heartedly with the reviewer - possibly one of the best gigs in Edinburgh this year.
Posted by | Wednesday November 2011 @ 07:36
Report to moderatorThis was a great gig and I loved it. Kono Michi had a real rapport with the audience (minus 1 person obviously - see above). Check out their music if you want to experience something really special.
Posted by | Wednesday November 2011 @ 13:35
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