Ian Waller expands his musical horizons with an evening of gentle trance at a wonderful Corsham venue
It’s always a pleasure to visit Pound Arts in Corsham, one of the best and most welcoming theatres venues, art centres and community hubs, with an excellent cafe too.
The reason for my most recent visit was to see Mara Simpson in concert, an artist who – to be absolutely honest – I was completely unfamiliar with but had been recommended to me by a friend. With a desire to expand my musical boundaries, it was one of those, ‘It’s Saturday night, the children are looked after, let’s give it a go’ moments.
The auditorium at Pound Arts is a wonderful spot for smaller, intimate gigs, with an always excellent sounds quality and a feel that even if, like me, you’re in the back row, you’re still closer enough to the performers to feel part of the show.
Mara Simpson was joined on stage by two excellent musicians in Jools Owen on drums and tenor horn, and Ellie Mason on synths and violin. The result was a tight, talented and incredibly creative almost trance style concert with ethereal echoes of other styles but all wonderfully stylish.
Many of the tracks included looped sources recorded both on stage and – with bird song – taken from the outside world to create soundscapes echoing elements of Mara’s own life, with the set telling her stories. Across the stage the musical talents shone, with all three exhibiting a touch and emotion for their instruments, Jools offering a sight I’d never seen before when playing drums and trumpet at the same time, and the highlight of the beautiful melodies when all three sang together.
While the lengthy repetitive nature of the loops and vocal patterns didn’t really work for me, making some of the tracks to appear a little overlong, this was still a positive experience, sometimes, I thought, best experienced with my eyes closed to allow a focus on the combined elements.
With the musicians swapping instruments and Mara showing her multi-instrumentalist skills, there was much to admire, both from a musicians’ and pure listeners’ viewpoint, all combined with Mara’s own hugely engaging personality.
For more great music, theatre, comedy and exhibits at Pound Arts in Corsham, go to poundarts.org.uk