Erja Lyytinen, Another World. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Another life, we all claim it as the ultimate reset, the chance to do over from all that we have endured and perhaps taken part in, and atone in some way, or at least see Another World in which we are the hero, in which we are the true player within our story, and with that tentative but hopefully confident, step into different territory we might find a way to create an alternative version of ourselves, even if it just a slight variance in how people see and respond to us.

Erja Lyytinen, Another World. Album Review. full post

(432 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Anne Leith & Les Oman, Poets. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The poet only insists on capturing the thought and the scene before them, any music that is laid down afterwards is not in their hands at the time when the image presents itself, when the feeling of absolute opens up before them and the setting in which they exist hears nothing but solitude and wonder.

Anne Leith & Les Oman, Poets. Album Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

The Bodacious Balalaika Band, Gig Review. 92 Degrees, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool. Threshold.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Bodacious Balalaika Band, Threshold 2019. photograph by Ian D. Hall.

You have to go a fair distance to find yourself in Runcorn, it is not just a case of crossing a bridge out of the country of Merseyside, it is the will to hear something new and unusual and then think back to that the moment in just a few short years and see how influential it was. The first airing of the Russian instrument the balalaika, that debut moment when the astonishing aspect of power that three strings can bring to your soul, to fish in the waters of a memory that delighted you and now makes you completely hooked and wanting more.

The Bodacious Balalaika Band, Gig Review. 92 Degrees, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool. Threshold. full post

(512 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Camilla Sky, Gig Review. 92 Degrees, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool. Threshold.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Camilla Sky at the Baltic Triangle’s 92 Degrees. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Above us there is only sky, if the songwriter is to be believed, and yet down to Earth Sky exists in harmony with her surroundings, the gentleness of a voice that is not afraid to conquer, to soar and float as if possessed by a butterfly caught on the breath of the wind but who can control the path of a hurricane, a Sky that can illuminate their surroundings must be praised for the beauty it reveals.

Camilla Sky, Gig Review. 92 Degrees, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool. Threshold. full post

(373 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Baptiste. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tcheky Karyo, Tom Hollander, Anastasia Hille, Barbara Sarafian, Talisa Garcia, Alec Secareanu, Boris Van Severen, Clare Calbraith, Omar Baroud, Zachary Baharov, Trystan Gravelle, Gijs de Lange, Anna Prochniak, Jessica Raine, Camille Schotte, Boyd van Den Bogert, Mihai Arsene, Nicholas Woodeson, Marc de Hond, Maja Laskowska, Martha Canga Antonio.

Baptiste. Television Review. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Dumbo (2019). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Alan Arkin, Nico Parker, Finlay Hobbins, Roshan Seth, Lars Eidinger, Deobia Oparei, Joseph Gatt, Miguel Munoz Segura, Zenaida Alcade, Douglas Reith, Phil Zimmerman, Sharon Rooney.

When the lid to Pandora’s Box was ripped open, the hinges almost groaning with delight as all the evils of the world came storming out, chasing down humanity with thoughtless plagues and the possibility of soul-minded destruction, nobody paid heed to what came fluttering lazily out after Hope had been urged to rescue the minds of all, the almost burned-out wings that carried the act of the live action remake, the guise in which imagination is lauded but in which sits unhappily reflecting upon the demise of the searing height of new imaginations being allowed to take hold.

Dumbo (2019). Film Review. full post

(530 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Bottleneck, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Daniel Cassidy.

It is only in recent times that we have urged survivors to talk about the events they have witnessed, whether in terms of clarification so that disasters, tragedies and acts of systematic neglect in terms of  safety and the general public can be assessed and never, hopefully, happen again, or so that those same people who saw the catastrophe take place can ease their burden, have the weight and sense of guilt of history taken from their blameless shoulders, start the long journey back to hopeful recovery; never realising that the nightmares perhaps stay with them at each anniversary, each memory that went before analysed and examined, The Bottleneck of emotions that cannot be contained.

Bottleneck, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Eddi Reader, Starlight. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The art of the short story is one that is often undervalued by a society that acts almost as if it is loitering with intent by the writer to hammer out more information from them, the questions rapid, almost unceasingly, there is no care to understand that the words on the page contain all they need to see the story through, no extras, no different alley in which to watch a character act in a different manner. All that is required is the act of attention for a short period, to register the difference between the reflection of the moon which bathes the world in nightly reassurance, and that of the Starlight that reminds us there is more out there to be persuaded by.

Eddi Reader, Starlight. E.P. Review. full post

(509 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The winter is behind us, from across the southern moor that acts a warning for what is likely to befall the unseasoned and weary traveller as they venture into England’s two remote counties of Devon and Cornwall, comes a sound of majesty, of the calling card of the Folk tradition and beauty that regales in tales lost and wars won; all with the testimony of the odd murder here and there which really lights up the room as the clocks steady themselves to bring nature and the wisdom of standing still together in a fashion of tranquillity.

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Betty Moon, Hellucination. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We have visions of where we want to be in live, the delusionary spell of wanting to live out our fantasy in places we can only at times ever dream of seeing, it is the same in how we wish the world to be, at one, harmonious, in keeping with nature and free from the phantasms that crow and screech in ill- tempered voices when all Hell breaks loose.

Betty Moon, Hellucination. E.P. Review. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)