Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Liverpool’s International Jazz Festival held at the Capstone Theatre continues to go from strength to strength and its ability to be greater than the sum of its parts is something in which Liverpool’s music community should take immense pride in; especially when it is fuses the music on offer within its walls to include a hybrid of sound so full of quality that its overflows the senses for the first time listener and holds close to its amalgamated heart those that have followed it for a while.

The fusion of Western Jazz and the clarity and beauty of Indian music is perhaps not one that a lover of any type of music would think could be possible, but Simon Thacker’s Svara Kanti is about realising the impossible and making it stand out in such a way that you cannot help but hold your breath as the infusion and involved mixture of Tabla, guitar, cello and the generous harmony of a voice singing in a language verging on the exotic and cool is enough to send the senses completely out of control, whirring into a new realm of exploration.

With outstanding Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska, the cultured and musically sophisticated Sarvar Sabri on the tabla and Japjit Kaur’s haunting and resonating voice filling the Capstone Theatre’s auditorium, Simon Thacker produced an afternoon with great beauty.

The sheer drive to produce something that might sound strange to both ethnic cultures should be congratulated but it also binds a growing thought that along the way the ties that have made both India and the U.K. such close friends have been slowly forgotten and like the relationship with the Scandinavian countries which sits in the blood of many in these islands, is one that should be renewed and held as tight as the sound of a finger vibrating on a tabla like a tough spider dancing with a cheeky grin on warm coals.

Tracks such as Dhumaire, Nirjanavana, Tappe, the superb Dil Dil Pakistan, the wonderful Aruna and Shava Ghund Chuk Ke made the afternoon at the Capstone complete and abundant, but also fresh and stirring, a triumph that must be repeated as soon as possible.

Crossing boundaries is a skill that few are able to pull off with any type of true justice to the heritages they transcend, bit sir Simon Thacker, it is a measure of the respect that it is obviously held for him that these boundaries are welcome to being blurred and adored.

Ian D. Hall