josephine foster & the victor herrero band: live at platform, glasgow

Glasgow’s inaugural Eastern Promise festival was not, as you might expect, a celebration of Asian music; instead, the two-day event was put together by ex-Delgados member Alun Woodward to highlight the burgeoning arts scene in the city’s East End. The first night was a truly international affair, from local Leith artist Wounded Knee (aka Drew Wright, performing for one night only as The Orchestra Of The Age Of Austerity – the orchestra being his array of loop pedals) to German and American pianists Nils Frahm and Rachel Grimes, with a headlining set from Colorado-born musical chameleon Josephine Foster and her Spanish husband Victor Herrero.

Ten years have passed since Rachel Grimes was last in Scotland, arriving in the suburb of Easterhouse for the final date of her European tour with Berlin-based Frahm. Describing him as a “kindred spirit”, she joins him during a set of restrained yet intensely emotive piano pieces, leading the way in a dazzling four-hand improvisation before talking to the piano alone. With her neoclassical band Rachel’s in “deep hibernation”, the Kentucky pianist is here to play the entirety of her recently released solo album Book Of Leaves, a collection of fourteen pieces inspired by a stint at a retreat with the Sisters Of Loretto in her native state. The woodland cabin proves to have been a conducive place for composing and the inter-related pieces, interspersed with birdsong, create evocative autumnal shades; you can sense the foliage, feel the breeze, and almost smell the mossy ground.

Taking to the stage, Foster, Herrero and fellow band members Jose Luis Herrero and Jose Luis Rico waste no time in setting an Andalusian mood, performing tracks from the recently released Anda Jaleo. Formed of newly arranged traditional songs recorded by legendary Spanish writer and dramatist Federico García Lorca, the album seeks to recreate and rediscover a music long neglected and the band effectively conjure a sierra of the imagination, taking us deep inside the flamenco caves of Lorca’s native Granada. Foster’s singular voice is complemented by the signature Spanish musical motifs: flamenco guitar, castanets, a lute, heel-stomp percussion and even a harp. Having spent much of her time living in Spain in the past few years, Foster is very comfortably immersed in the material, so much so that between the songs sung in Spanish her English appeared to be deserting her – but who needs explanations with music so evocative and rich? Granada may not be at all easterly from Glasgow (indeed, it’s directly due south), but tonight delivered all the promise of its title and more.

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Photos by Michael Gallacher. See more photos from the Eastern Promise festival here and here.

Written by: Lucy Brouwer

Tags: book of leaves, eastern promise, josephine foster, rachel grimes, rachel's, the victor herrero band

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 12:19 pm and is filed under live reviews, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.