THE critically-acclaimed pop duo The Blackheart Orchestra played to an attentive audience when they appeared at the Hub at St Mary’s.
Support for the evening came from singer-songwriter Beth Eliza.
Her singing and writing style took ion disparate musical threads and included pop and country elements.
With original songs such as Buried in the Sands and Fixated Dreams she is clearly a good writer and singer with an interesting way with words.
Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington are The Blackheart Orchestra and share a stage with 13 different instruments.
With ethereal keyboards and glockenspiel, along with tuneful and supportive bass and acoustic and electric guitars, their sound was original and had gothic undertones.
Chrissy has a vocal style that is part Kate Bush and part Tori Amos, while the keyboard and drone based nature of much of their sound owes a lot to 1880s styles.
The bass playing showed an innate understanding of melody. Although drum machines were used, many of the pieces lacked a steady rhythm. With overlapping keyboard parts during the instrumental sections a certain debt was owed to composers such as Jean Michel Jarre and the minimalists Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
With a recent release, Blood-Lines, their tour consolidates the many gigs and musical releases they have, defining and refining a sonic fingerprint.
Songs such as Sebastian and Keep the Light In were well received, Drown me Out was a soundscape full of melancholy and Astronaut, which was the set’s closing number, was a song about the ambitions we all had when we were younger.