The cold of the nights,
The chill of the wind,
Purple lips
Slipping out beautiful sins
The curses at the sky
Replying to its bitter sweet lies
As society hits her with a label
“The local lunatic” or “mentally unstable”
The howls at the moon
Crying what do I do
I’ve been stranded on this world for two decades
I just want my body to disintegrate
Society ate everyone’s brain
The Internet,
Consumerism,
It’s driving us insane
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Ingrid Frøsland was in unique company as she stood on the stage at Studio 2 on Parr Street. Not only did she meet head on the hopes and expectations of the abundant crowd who had come to see her perform but she slotted herself perfectly into a night of female led revolution as part of March’s Strings and Things. She carried the Norwegian flag high alongside Mari Hajem and Nora Konstanse, an image which would not look out of place if the Norwegians had been allowed to lead the storming of the Bastille.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
In an evening of music supplied by Stillhet’s Strings and Things, an evening in which the order of the day was showing female talent that resides in the heart of the city of Liverpool, the Nordic beating heart of atmospheric Noir-like pop tones with shades of the Progressive cleverly interwoven throughout every sinew, may not have been the first thought in many people’s minds of what to expect on the first day of the month in which the freezing cold is meant to be banished back to its Antarctica cave.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Say what you will about the modern age, moan about it being over commercial, intrusive, noisy to the point of petulant or even just plain out of step with how you remember it from your childhood but as a marketing tool to get you sit up and take notice of life outside your front door, the modern age is unsurpassable.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Jazz still has this wild, perhaps unfounded large target placed upon its broad, rather muscular shoulders, that it is all about the improvisation, or worse the same detractors will then start shouting the odds on how it perhaps placed firmly into the stale arena. This is partly in thanks to the limited knowledge of those who wander in off the streets without at least reading up, even slightly, on the extensive and abundant subject.
White Canvas at the Capstone Theatre (2015), Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
From the planting of a single tiny acorn, White Canvas has flowered, grown and developed a sound that in two short years is so good it practically wears a halo and has no need for repentance for anything it does.
Two years after making their debut as part of the Liverpool International Jazz Festival at the Capstone Theatre, White Canvas returned to the stage inside the acoustically captivating building. What transpired, what was placed before the audience was music of an intrepid, fearless and enjoyable nature, resolute in undertaking, serious enough to appeal to the purist and yet with the subtle side wink of the cheeky added to give it body and grace.
Mavis “The Shredder” Stockdale always wanted to be a renowned guitarist,
one who could take the simplest of ideas laid down by the songwriter
and burn the opposition to the outskirts of Hell
and leave audiences gasping in the wake of a lover letter placed chord
and suffering the beauty of a well plucked string.
Above all, Mavis knew she could duel banjo, guitar, mandolin and violin,
but with sad reflection not the cello as she had seen a God play with perfection
one night in the Cavern one night, her hair flowing red but shimmering with depth
March stands on the precipice of life and dislikes the view.
The infant King, fawned over, lauded, feted and feared in equal measure,
the tyrant teenage regal monster and the early despot in waiting
rages. His senses coloured, polarised by anger, unhappiness and sorrow,
understands only too well that for all his blustering fury, this is not
what he was meant to be to the people in his shadow.
The blackness of the sky, the rage and fury, the odd measure of calm
in another wise incensed frenzy in which ships shiver in still icy waters ,
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.
Nicola Farnon, International Jazz Festival, Liverpool. 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
If art is being performed with an abundance of passion then gravitate towards it with as much passion in return, for sparks and genuine appreciation will certainly run back and forth for the entire time the performer is on stage.