Unofficial Cambridge Film Festival [#UCFF]

Friday, 13 May 2022

Bluebell season : When the colours start to fade

Bluebell season : When the colours start to fade

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

13 May

Bluebell season : When the colours start to fade

Nothing is for ever ~ Gösta Kraken

There are still sporadic bluebells to be seen

Occasionally, they are yet in full flower - and, in some places, can even be seen en masse

They are, however, last flowerings – the dying embers of their lively showing

For another season, the time to be with them in bright profusion has passed

In woodlands, the mantle or torch of colour has, nonetheless, been handed on

These flowers, now in blooms, have their own eerie luminescence

More individual, they seem less dependent on available shade and the direction of light

Nothing is for ever ~ Gösta Kraken

The song 'Candlemas Eve' - on one of Kate Rusby's Christmas albums, Sweet Bells - catches this feeling well

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

An evening of their special kind of folk from Flook at Cambridge's The Junction (work in progress)

An evening of their special kind of folk from Flook at Cambridge's The Junction

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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11 May

An evening of their special kind of folk from Flook at Cambridge's The Junction at 8.00 p.m. (work in progress)

Although it's highly variable as to pitch and intensity¹, there's nothing quite like the deep, oceanic boom of the bodhran, or the soaring flute-and-pipe combination that is part of what audibly defines Flook and the appeal of the group, underpinned by a reedy rhythmicity of the guitar-line, on which bodhran and the woodwind instruments dance, swoop and glide.

Whether, as to open the first set, it's a march and a reel, or a set of gigs, this is music that enlivens, bringing to us a sound-world of otherness - of lively possibility and the possibility of maybe just being in some related, but other, universe, to reach which the facility and expressiveness of Brian Finnegan's playing, ever in close eye-contact with flautist Sarah Allen during significant passages, helps us and lets us find refuge.

Guitarist Ed Boyd likened us² to The King's Singers and – in a good way – an early Syd Barrett demo

Invigorated by the opportunities for live performance (Allen told us that Flook's latest album, Ancora, is three years old, but that few gigs to promote it had been possible that year), members of the band were expansive, in their introductions to sets of tunes, in referencing old Cambridge venues, including Cambridge Folk Festival, and around three decades of instrumental tuition in a summer school in Burwell (Burwell Bash, a connection that had caused pieces to be written in the past, and to some of whose present and past organizers dedications were made).

The craic - the story-telling, the anecdotes that put a set of tunes in context – is all part of the gig

It was clear how strongly the band had missed such places, being able to appear before an audience, and other performers and organizers to whom they also dedicated sets of tunes. Towards the end of the first set, we heard, in this connection, how they were used to being invited to play in Japan, arranged by someone called Yoko, and that one meaning of this name is Ocean Child, the title given to a piece that had echoes and the wider dimensions of folk rock, and of swirling, funky flights above the percussiveness of guitar and bodhran.

With our attention suitably drawn to the existence of merch such as long-sleeved T-shirts, tea-towels [sticking with the 'T' theme ?], beanies, and even CDs and an album on vinyl, Flook whirled us to the end of the first set and the interval...

The second set began with something of a tapping effect from John Joe Kelly and a more resonant guitar-tone (Boyd had two instruments available to him), around which the interlocking steps of flute and pipe could weave, in a number that built in both tempo and intensity and which, as they circled around it, made a generous impression, but with an occasional beat's rest per tutti that kept us – as well as the players – focused.

Next, a lovely initial tone on transverse flute from Finnegan, then joined by Allen and a gentle undertow from the rest of the band – as earlier in the gig, Finnegan could be seen, approaching and adjusting the distance from the microphone to alter the quality of the sound. Likewise, we saw and heard the ease with which Kelly strikes the sweet spot and also maintains, for the phlegmatic notes of pipe and flute alongside it, a steady pattern – especially in the more lively second and third tunes of the set, which, again, felt as though we were occupying some other space, where Joy and Jollity ever abound, and the percussion elements got louder and louder.

One tribute, to fiddler Andrew Dinan, was a lullaby from Austria – breathy, quiet and reflective

Kelly had evidently been working hard under the hot lights. Wanting to check on the football results³, he had 'sat out' that dedication, but rejoined the ensemble, as – with a bouncy style of attack from Allen – she started the band on another set of jigs :

This was a beautiful melding of flute and pipe, with a fairy-harp style of guitar accompaniment, and then, with a vigorous start from Kelly, the second tune was set up, which became a very pleasingly foot-stomping number !

More to come...

End-notes :

¹ As John Joe Kelly was skilfully and amply to demonstrate in a solo slot (a drum solo with a big difference), before the last official number and the encore.

² In, collectively, parping the trombone theme that features on the first of a set of tunes on the album Rubai, we had been encouraged to better the audience in Newbury the night before. (Boyd had warned the newcomers to a Flook gig, in what was then the front row, that they might not have expected what would happen next...)

³ He is from Manchester, and a City fan. Quietly, but with clear satisfaction, he signalled digitally at an appropriate moment : 4 – 1.

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Friday, 11 February 2022

Pandora's Box, but under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ?

Pandora's Box, but under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ?

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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4 November

Pandora's Box, but under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ?

Now that there are two reports of Covid-19 jumping across to infect other species, ridiculous and unjustified UK relaxations plus one UK death, so far, from Lassa fever, perhaps time for 'Pandora's Box, but under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ?' :https://t.co/IICFZlA3gD https://t.co/OLDPFYEiD8
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 12, 2022

Oh, 'eck, Bill !

Now *that's* a sort of thought that one wouldn't want to correlate as part of the contents of one's mind* - so taking a further step towards Pandora's Box under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ! :(

* The Medusa Freq., referencing H. P. Lovercraft [sic]. https://t.co/wGf4PMqddF pic.twitter.com/nMpDfmaUOp
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 5, 2021

Nothing, much, to do with horses, let alone Shaffer's horsey play*―

A neo-liberal who leads by whipping his party, as 'twere, seems both v. insecure and denying his tenet.

* A strange, unstated atmosphere after die Eltern had seen that play : one knew that they'd 'seen stuff'.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 5, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

The ICYMI Tweets

The ICYMI Tweets

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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11 January

The ICYMI Tweets

Oscar* would have known what ICYMI means :

'I can't yield my intellect'

* Wilde.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 10, 2022

I did.

What was it... ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 18, 2018

Or, even, 'Manufacture' ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 18, 2018

On any view, saying ICYMI is wholly redundant :

What it says is subsumed by ICYMBI

When gigs have 'a last few tix', expect an empty hall !
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 21, 2017

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Monday, 24 January 2022

Rain Man (1988) Re-visited - but not in a good way

Rain Man (1988) Re-visited - but not in a good way

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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24 January

Rain Man (1988) Re-visited - but not in a good way

At that time, he studied for such roles and won praise, but this also won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay :

The humanity in The Elephant Man (1980) seems worlds away, plus is this film any more insightful, or less of a parody, than As Good as It Gets (1997) ?

2 / 3
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 25, 2022

Whether it's what Dr Bruner or the doctor in the small town say, it's a limiting view of autism :https://t.co/3RoOTM7xJp

* Even if Raymond knows that he went to Wallbrook on 21 January 1965, for other reasons this was in Worcester, on the night of Sunday 19 March 1989.

3 / 3
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 25, 2022

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Sunday, 16 January 2022

Tweets by way of review of Branagh's Belfast (2021)

Tweets by way of review of Branagh's Belfast (2021)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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16 January

The Reggie Perrin Tweets

Maybe Branagh's 'most personal film', but it's unclear that what should have won Belfast (2021) a Golden Globe was his screenplay :

Stagey speeches, two given to Caitríona Balfe (Ma), and one to Ciarán Hinds (Pop), are most out of place in what isn't Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 17, 2022

That, and without (despite Hill's best) enough to maintain interest in Buddy's life at school or in love, using films (on t.v., or at the cinema) is meant to function as in Radio Days (1987), whereas Belfast has Van Morrison tracks around which to cohere - and not a Judy Garland.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 17, 2022

Cute though Jude's naive Buddy¹ was *meant* to be, too often it just set up Norman-Wisdom-type mishaps / misunderstandings, and I heard very much laughter for some weak jokes².

¹ Once I heard that he wasn't called Billy, I guessed why - if not at a song sung so sentimentally...
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2022

Jamie Dornan's Pa also rather too closely physically evokes Sir K. ?

² There are two, maybe three, unforced laughs in the whole film, and a whole lotta schlock to soften The Troubles - Benigni's La vita è bella (1997) worked, where this doesn't, plus it's no Jojo Rabbit (2019).
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2022

'[W]hich unfolds on a terraced-street set knocked up on an exhibition-centre car park in Hampshire, and looking every bit of it.'

Along with much else in the review, sadly accurate, e.g. the word 'speechifying', and on 'slip[ping] in footage from Zinnemann’s High Noon' !

2 / 2
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 23, 2022

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Friday, 7 January 2022

If #Titane is 'worse' than Raw (2016), which had potential that it squandered, then Life's too Short

If #Titane is 'worse' than Raw (2016), which had potential that it squandered, then Life's too Short

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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5 January

If #Titane is 'worse' than Raw (2016), which had potential that it squandered, then Life's too Short

* And previous feature, which veered away (a) at the beginning, by abating the vet-school menace in favour of the private, er, snacking, and (b) into, at the end, what *might* have been a tag for a sequel, etc., but just repeated the worst of The Shining's resolution (in 1980).
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 7, 2022

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Monday, 3 January 2022

Proposition : Films set in space, but not really about space, are weird (work in progress)

Proposition : Films set in space, but not really about space, are weird (work in progress)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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3 January

Proposition : Films set in space, but not really about space, are weird (work in progress)

* At whatever stage that may have happened - maybe even before what would have been a better film was able to get (fully) funded ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 4, 2022

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

How not to Tweet about a claim in an Employment Tribunal ?

How not to Tweet about a claim in an Employment Tribunal ?

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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21 December

How not to Tweet about a claim in an Employment Tribunal ?

->

* I.e. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) [https://t.co/e4hzuD4o6M] as Respondent in a case brought by the claimant, Tarique Mohammed, in The Employment Tribunals [https://t.co/NBwacixukZ] :

Sufficient real justification for displaying the CPS logo in the original Tweet ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 21, 2021

Note :

'[Crown Prosecution Service] did accept that it treated [Tarique] Mohammed unfairly by not allowing him to work from home two days a week and leave work at 4pm to help him manage his condition, and by removing him from court duties, meaning he will receive compensation.' https://t.co/XZFLpcVLEJ
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 21, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Shiny : How to make one billion pounds sterling sound like a large amount of money !

Shiny : How to make one billion pounds sterling sound like a large amount of money !

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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Winter Solstice (21 December)

Shiny : How to make one billion pounds sterling sound like a large amount of money !

* It was 6.0m SMEs in 2020, but seems to be 5.5m in 2021 ? :

£1,000,000,000 divided by 5,500,000 = £181.82.

** What are the admin costs of both administering and obtaining 'the available' £1bn ?#TwoHundredQuidBailout

2 / 2
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 21, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Monday, 13 December 2021

C'mon C'mon (2021) : The [spoilery] view from Bi-Polar Land (work in progress)

C'mon C'mon (2021) : The [spoilery] view from Bi-Polar Land (work in progress)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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13 December

C'mon C'mon (2021) : The [spoilery] view from Bi-Polar Land (work in progress)

In a not a very humble opinion, claiming bi-polar / schizo-affective rights*, Th'Agent will say that :

C'mon C'mon (2021) is mightily deserving of your non-generic attention, and

Excellently acts as a companion to Her (2013) - they talk to ea. oth.

* Or bi-polar depression ? pic.twitter.com/g0u6drg8WF
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 13, 2021

The latter's in the representative (for once !) trailer, plus another reminder of the excellent ethos and work of Kirsten Johnson, whose @Cameraperson16 (2016) is now overdue for #UCFF to re-watch :https://t.co/bCV1CpatBd

['All the raw edges, but with respect and compassion']
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 13, 2021

Impossible to think in such terms ?

However, in C'mon C'mon (2021) - with the words Buy / BYE, above each other on a nearby building and backgrounded by the cab - Jesse gets into the back, with barely a word to Johnny.@cmoncmonmovie has at least six other verbal cues / clues !
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 20, 2021

Knock-out reading of Star Child here ! :https://t.co/6Mo38orB7V https://t.co/3CbrWOqJyl
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 15, 2021

But, of course, Butler's tale and its telling are themselves beautiful, wise and useful to us - if we knew of their existence.

The link, in #UCFF's case, must have been either Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice or from somewhere in the tales and re-tellings of Jorge Luis Borges...
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 15, 2021

[...]

More to come... ?

[...]

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Monday, 6 December 2021

Three predictive Tweets on Matrix 4 : One, Zero, √-2

Three predictive Tweets on Matrix 4 : One, Zero, √-2

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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6 December

Three predictive Tweets on Matrix 4 : One, Zero, √-2

Not (necessarily) in Eliot's 4Q sense, but do we know the end from the beginning ?

The trope's there in the predecessors, and Alice, so patent in The Matrix (1999) - with, from memory, 'Wakey-wakey, Neo !', 'Follow the white rabbit', and 'See how far down the rabbit-hole goes' - is resurfacing, as also the dissenting voices when The One goes back to The Source.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 7, 2021

The hazard is that, when those dismissive of The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and / or The Matrix Revolutions (2003), baulked at the service's apparently irrelevant stopping-points, or what they deemed its graphic failures, it all exactly maps on the Carrollian universe !
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 7, 2021

Postlude cum Prelude :

Goin' good, on Matrix Released Day, and #UCFF is - in its true sense - trying to anticipate the Carrollian Twists and Turns that, who knows, might take us to the Isa Bowman acrostic (and beautiful poem) in Sylvie and Bruno ?

Three predictive Tweets on Matrix 4 : One, Zero, √-2
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 9, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Why to watch The Last Bus (2021) [and wish that many award-winners matched this film's manifold qualities !]

Why to watch The Last Bus (2021) [if only big award-winners had this film's manifold qualities !]

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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5 December (and 8 December, etc.)

Why to watch The Last Bus (2021) [if only big award-winners had this film's manifold qualities !]

It transcends one melody- or plot-line, and operates interchangeably on multiple staves [a chamber orchestra, playing https://t.co/xGjMejFNNi [here, @BerlinPhil under Rattle] ?] - or much better than a 3-stranded documentary !#BusHero - #UCFF nearly forgot having noted the tag. https://t.co/ITDlL8Dcux
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 8, 2021

Now compiled, on #UCFF, at 'Why to watch The Last Bus (2021) [and wish that many award-winners matched this film's manifold qualities !]' :https://t.co/LvH5pknktW https://t.co/OeFxw7ZX33 pic.twitter.com/FoROwIDn3A
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 6, 2021

As they say, Timothy Spall's a piece of all right !https://t.co/G7lCxmmnpJ

With my usu. Cottenham companion for monthly cinema in its community cafe, a film :

* That surpasses Nomadland (2020) for breadth, consistency, layering of image

* Where Spall's conviction holds us
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 6, 2021

* Full of humanity, film savvy, and examples of courage or inclusion that don't hide from life's realities, beauties and brutalities

* To knock back flaccid one-hit efforts at screenwriting such as in On Chesil Beach (2017)

* Whose cinematic vision embraces #lagrandebellezza
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 6, 2021

Peter Mullan could have engaged as Spall does (and superbly did in Hector* (2015)).

* Seen, with gratitude, at @Saffronscreen, where a Monday-night film's very often been a good recommendation to watch in its own right [or Spall in The Journey (2016) : https://t.co/VMKsaCRInO]. https://t.co/ITDlL8Dcux
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 6, 2021

Since #CamFF, Th'Agent's been back in cinema-spaces for :

* The Last Bus (2021) [@lastbusmovie / #BusHero]

* The French Dispatch (2021) [@french_dispatch] x2

* C'mon C'mon (2021) [@cmoncmonmovie] x2

And would happily re-visit that real / unreal world in which Spall plays !
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 17, 2021

More to come (if time permits)...

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Friday, 3 December 2021

A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band (work in progress)

A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band (work in progress)

It was @byronwallen* at @camjazz earlier - his 'Four Corners' band of @Rob_Luft (gtr), Paul Michael (elec. bass), Rod Youngs (drums) :#UCFF didn't hear much of the first set, but the 2nd gave engaged playing, varied moods and thoughtful use of effects-pedals.

* Tpt, pf, perc.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 4, 2021

A second gig that, despite Cambridge International Jazz Festival's not going ahead this year, had been preserved by CMJ, clearly there had been those who took the opportunity of a Friday-night slot to come to town especially, which is a real encouragement for jazz in Cambridge.
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 4, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Thursday, 2 December 2021

Can’t wait to play for you... And it doesn’t feel weird ! : Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m. (uncorrected proof)

Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m.

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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27 May (posted 2 December 2021)

Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m.

Can’t wait to play for you... And it doesn’t feel weird ! [work in progress (uncorrected proof)]

Set-list :https://t.co/mQj3R9jQTH with a view
2.Time
3.Almost [From 'Two days ago ?', Clowes thought]
4.Amber
5.Morning songhttps://t.co/QCVjfjL12P idea
7.Just the Nesshttps://t.co/xJP5uOHLDc to fall [Ninety Degrees Gravity album]
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 1, 2021

Alongside fluency in and between registers¹, what one can also slow down to hear in Clowes' playing,

behind the clarity of her runs (which Clowes will elide to suit the musical mood or purpose),

is a measure of restraint, of careful placement

Jean-Paul Belmondo

The gig proper – a run-through, as one Covid-informed set, for 75 mins – begins with (1) a jaunty and literally up-beat opener, taking us immediately to the experience and expectation that syncopation, rim-taps, and an emphasis as well as on rhythmicity as on melodic line or material were the things around which this instrumentation-led group of music-makers coalesce and find their means of coherence.

So it was that an early electric-organ solo 'sounded the note of' funk, and Stanley then went on to provide a soft undertow to Clowes – any solos in this gig were just there, and were not in need of / did not invite the apparent appreciation of applause : in a gig like this one, and with a wholly engaged ensemble cast (albeit with Clowes as clear leader), it gets in the way of the ensemble (and mar what one would value).

(2) 'Time', by deliberate contrast, more resembled a ballad, gently, optimistically and unapologetically romantic in the form of its soaring statement on sax, but then, by way of a slightly Caledonian (Hibernian ?) groove and drone, there was an emanating sense of hours that hang a bit too heavily, which yet, by noodling on, one gets past.

Another outright, if brief, statement of the thematic material made way for a slurring and skirling of the tenor-sound, and took us into what, poetically, felt as if they might be the squalliness of sails, and that they (or we) were in the wind and the sky !

Tweet (to come)

(3) 'Almost' began in a free vein, in which the sensation continued of being connected with a world external to the physical venue, of seeing – or even being ? – a bird, coasting on thermal-currents, or of a brook, being followed upstream.

As to both overall content and Clowes' own tone-colour and ambit of palette, there seemed to be, in and beyond the music played, a personal and organic observation and reflection that saw the inner through the outer – or through the other – and its seeming exteriority.

A segue of rim-taps and alterations in tempo and rhythm brought us to the firstlings of Montague's and Clowes' playing off each other, which is one of this quartet's greatest depths. This approach to being present and open to, and as aware as possible of, each other, and – in gigging that already creatively extends the mere (pre)text of a song or tune – an act of addition that seems to exceed the available forces :

For, at times, perhaps we had glimpses here of something more certain or more visible than that which we know (or know that we know), and also the sensation, in the very instant of their vanishing, that other things do and can become tangible.

In (4) 'Amber', a new work from, with or for an old-established cellist collaborator² (and written in the name of the person behind Donate4Refugees), Clowes gave us elements of note-patterns³, and a querulous riff, which, with Montague, became a call-and-response of riffs, before a switch of time-signature [...]

Writing, and performing it, with a sense of place and of its intenseness

(5) 'Morning song' proved to embody tonal uncertainty in what, at first, seemed an open and frank tune from the heart, and which when Montague picked it up, became as if that now-uncertain heart had lurched into a sudden and terrifying perception of the vertiginous actuality of the moment. (Those who have ever experienced an unspecific, but doom-laden, anxiety would have related to that dread moment.)

Moving past which, however, Clowes made a bluesily contemplative re-visit to the initial material, and, joined again by Montague, one could easily imagine a couple, smooching alone on the dance-floor, as evening breakers crashed on the shore-line. (Well, Th'Agent could !)

Again – as in the aside for 'Morning song' (with Clowes saying that it was so called because she wrote it in the morning) – Clowes could not resist describing (6) 'No idea' as 'Another amazing title' – and its start did seem to evoke seeking around, without finding (or else rooting around, but not giving up ?)

In any case, maybe a little as with Bridget Riley's Hesitate (1964) [alluded to above], the material then centres on a falling interval (which 'might' have been an echo of a bird-call* ?), but soon differently modulated, stressed or breathed through, before widening out into another rockin' / stomping section, full of creations and warmth, and a wealth of ideas and optimism.

Yet Clowes, keeping it back and under, and then seeming to resume with the initial thematic content - whereas, perhaps, it was only to bring on the abruptness of the number's ending ?

NB This is where the review 'collapses into' rough expansions / transcriptions / interpretations of the gig-notes...

(7) Riffy opening and to and fro, as to the lead playing, between Clowes and Montague. Then, more Morse-coded marks, gestures or tics led into what felt a haunted, echoic and ruminative soundtrack, perhaps for a noir that exists only on the level of sound ? (As Clowes confirmed afterwards having said on other occasions, she has found inspiration before in the cinematic work of a film-maker friend) – yet one, or of how we feel about ourselves in this (or any ?) world.

In a coda, in and during which the humour of Maddren, more and more theatrically and obviously shuffling and rummaging in his sticks – until all were brought into both hands, and then propelled onto the surface of part of his drum-kit, brought on a broader smile and a snort of appreciation.

Left with Montague, the tempo slowed, the texture broadened outward and into a feeling of nourishment, and a quiet close.

In announcing the final piece, Clowes made it clear that she had had our experience that 'The church sounds amazing !', and straightaway added to that comment A keeper ! (Afterwards, with friends, etc., there seemed to be agreement that the venue's carpeted flooring and other upholstery, as well as the natural construction of the space, makes for a very suitable acoustic.)

Arrival (2016)

(8) 'Free to fall' (from the album Ninety Degrees Gravity) had the feel of a ballad in a folk idiom, being breezily and calmingly mused over.

However, when we moved into the main section, at a fast tempo and with off-beats and the other features of the quartet's style, there was a hinting at bowing-out in a joyous and jubilant moment.

In fact, even if by way of a high-magisterial rock-style solo from Montague, there was a breathy and slow and calmed end to the gig.

The show was over, but we weren’t going to be done with thinking about the atmospheres that, on the isle of this shallow dais, Clowes and the My Iris Quartet had brought before us and, so, into being. Yet, not as Prospero to Miranda, but more the magic that Miranda found herself able to work on her embittered father in her direct and unenslaved response [even if Huxley got there and (cynically ?) subverted it] :

[…] Oh, wonder !
How many goodly creatures are there here !
How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t ! […]

End-notes :

¹ Which #UCFF tries to invoke as smokily burnished colours in the lower one, and a more lightly coppery timbre above... ?

² Lucy Railton, one assumes (in which case, actually heard live, some time, at Cambridge Modern Jazz) ?

³ Although, when asked afterwards by #UCFF, not actually in any conscious relation to birdsong.

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

1982 to 1984 Re-visited : Koestler, Hume and Bernard Williams

1982 to 1984 Re-visited : Koestler, Hume and Bernard Williams

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

2 December

1982 to 1984 Re-visited : Koestler, Hume and Bernard Williams

'I was a bit lost in the inner world that I had retreated into, but there was no sense of people trying to be curious with me or trying to empathise, and I found that more challenging than the experiences I was going through' https://t.co/fUl9ogYK2k
— Anne Cooke (@AnneCooke14) December 2, 2021

'The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion [...]'

[Scientific American at : https://t.co/IByHf3ruLh

* Koestler urged 'holistic' (Janus : A Summing Up), but it then became denuded of power...

2 / 2
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 2, 2021

The philosopher David Hume and others had dilated on this, e.g. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1948) (revising somewhat his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740)) :

More than a century earlier, they already knew how we automatically process information to cope. https://t.co/TBaap2pR42
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 2, 2021

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Unofficial Cambridge Film Festival [#UCFF]

Friday, 13 May 2022

Bluebell season : When the colours start to fade

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

An evening of their special kind of folk from Flook at Cambridge's The Junction (work in progress)

Friday, 11 February 2022

Pandora's Box, but under the cloak of opportunistic cynicism ?

The ICYMI Tweets

Monday, 24 January 2022

Rain Man (1988) Re-visited - but not in a good way

Sunday, 16 January 2022

Tweets by way of review of Branagh's Belfast (2021)

Friday, 7 January 2022

If #Titane is 'worse' than Raw (2016), which had potential that it squandered, then Life's too Short

Monday, 3 January 2022

Proposition : Films set in space, but not really about space, are weird (work in progress)

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

How not to Tweet about a claim in an Employment Tribunal ?

Shiny : How to make one billion pounds sterling sound like a large amount of money !

Monday, 13 December 2021

C'mon C'mon (2021) : The [spoilery] view from Bi-Polar Land (work in progress)

Monday, 6 December 2021

Three predictive Tweets on Matrix 4 : One, Zero, √-2

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Why to watch The Last Bus (2021) [and wish that many award-winners matched this film's manifold qualities !]

Friday, 3 December 2021

A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band (work in progress)

Thursday, 2 December 2021

Can’t wait to play for you... And it doesn’t feel weird ! : Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m. (uncorrected proof)

1982 to 1984 Re-visited : Koestler, Hume and Bernard Williams

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