- Last Friday, there was a humid air of curiosity at The Jazz Café in London. Spring had reached peak blossom, and it was the hottest April on record in more than 70 years. As I made my way up the backstairs to the venue's mezzanine bar, I counted three older heads wearing Boards Of Canada T-shirts. It was precisely 20 years to the day that the Scottish duo, real names Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, had released their studio opus, Music Has The Right To Children, and tonight the British trumpeter Byron Wallen, accompanied by a nine-part gamelan ensemble, would be performing it live.
Admittedly, I wasn't aware of Wallen before Friday, but my interest was piqued as soon as the show was announced—Music Has The Right To Children is one of my all-time favourite records. Some friends I spoke to in advance were a little dubious of the concept, calling it just another "contemporary orchestra plays classic album" money-grabbing exercise, but after seeing the excellent Moondog For Gamelan project at Unsound last year, I was thirsty for more gamelan action.
I wasn't let down. Wallen's hybrid performance—which included trumpet, synthesisers, bass guitar, drums, conches (shell trumpets) and, of course, the gamelan—was an enthralling celebration of a very nuanced album. Supplementary tracks, written by Wallen and inspired by the record, gave the performance its own unique identity, coupled with the fact that this was the first time Wallen's gamelan had been seen publicly in 13 years.
Wearing a loose red shirt, Wallen took the stage alongside his ensemble, all of them teachers and pupils from The Bridge Academy, a school where he currently teaches. The venue was plunged into silence. Bathed in blue and red light, he began with a trumpet solo of his own, "Dialogue." Watching from above, I felt like a fly on the wall in an eerie club scene from David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
Different parts of the ensemble came to life at different points. It wasn't until the fourth track that the bronze metallophones of the gamelan came into play, sounding out the poignant opening bars of "Turquoise Hexagon Sun." Hairs sprung up on the back of my neck, and the audience screamed with appreciation. A keyboard and a Novation Bass Station synthesizer took centre stage for a huge extended jam on "Kaini Industries." At this point, the pace rose and the audience began to dance and whoop feverishly—I was cautioned by a floor attendant for being too animated on the gantry. Later, Wallen performed a beautiful rendition of "Bocuma" using a set of conches made from seashells that he'd foraged on the beaches of Java.
Wallen then addressed the crowd, first to introduce the band and then to tell the story behind the performance. He'd spent four months on it, a process made particularly difficult due to the spiritual and cultural challenges of working with the gamelan, which has two different scales. He revealed how happy he was to be back in Camden Town, where he first found a piece of a gamelan and was inspired to travel to Indonesia to purchase the full, custom-made thing—no two are the same. (The instruments at The Jazz Café performance only made up a small portion of the whole set, which had previously filled the stage at London's Royal Opera House.)
Inevitably, the closing track was "Roygbiv," one of Boards Of Canada's most recognisable tunes. It sounded sensational, and Wallen slowly faded things out with a trumpet solo, bringing the performance full circle. After thanking the crowd and the venue's booker, Lev Harris, for pitching him the off-kilter project, he and the ensemble left the stage, only to return for a quick encore, titled "Oslo To Olsen." The warm bars drifted on the air like the mellow light of the Friday evening sunset.
Photo credit /
Joe Golden