LIVE REVIEW

In The Dock presents
Rose Kemp & 7Hertz,
The Old Courthouse, Thirsk.

OUTSIDE the air is blowing wet with snow, inside Thirsk's redeveloped Old Courthouse it's ornate and stately.
Amid the candlelight, the cornice and coving, pilaster and frieze, an amazing young singer is impatiently fiddling with the pedals and devices that turn her electric guitar to a spangly sheen and her lone voice to a feedback choir of ethereal voices.
Later Rose Kemp will return to the floor in an act of keening, improvising an almost primeval outpouring of anguish like a mourner at a funeral.
This most beautiful but decidedly un-rock'n'roll of little venues can't have seen many nights like this.
Watching this headstrong young headliner a year ago from the back of Fibbers in York, a bigger, less grand music venue, Rose seemed as fearless in real-life as her music sounds on CD, a fullblooded cross between PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and whereever her own alternating moods took her.
Now this dark-haired figure appears nervous, as if she herself was on trial in this narrow, packed room as tall as it is wide, no gap between stage and audience.
Despite being top of the bill and feted by the likes of The Guardian, Rose performs only five or six numbers from her current debut album A Hand Full of Hurricanes on One Little Indian Records, some simply beautiful, others emotionally raw or melodically unorthodox.
There's enough to suggest we are in the presence of a great talent here but not enough to convince the doubters or, indeed, Rose herself, who never quite arrives at that centre of intensity where she loses herself and finds her muse.
It's a brave but odd way of promoting an album – and it will get even braver later.
The first act, a string quartet from Leeds called 7Hertz, classically trained and well mannered, had proven a more natural match for the white grandeur of the Old Courthouse, not that they're any less musically challenging than Kemp herself.
Four talented, likeable youngsters with a seemingly limitless command of not only their instruments but centuries of musical history, 7Hertz sound like minimalist composer Michael Nyman's houseband let off the leash.
Intelligent but not cold, clinical but full of attack and sly humour, 7Hertz are part Kafka-esque nightmare, part silent comedy and part garden tea party with sources ranging from classical and jazz, rural Americana, traditional spirituals and English folk.
Some of their mainly instrumental tracks toy with dissonance and empty space, others unwind slowly like an endless ball of string with multiple themes, a few sound like a mad chase with no hope of resolution.
Humour comes out on the playful Is It Because You're Polish? The patiently-building Wisniowka is deeply melancoholic while there's a rare spot of breezy vocals on the traditional song Ob Savi.
Although works of intelligence, 7Hertz are a pretty physical outfit, Seth Bennett's face turning red as he puffs away over his double bass, Lucy Frankel casting a beaming smile his way occasionally while playing five-string violin, Iwona Magda a model of concentration on the other violin, Helen Baines adding a sensual touch on clarinet.
Perfect for film soundtracks, you get the impression the brilliant 7Hertz could knock out an audio impression of a man falling down a flight of stairs or a ghost stalking the corridors of an empty house with a minute's notice.
With their flair for atmosphere, they should be a natural complement for parts of Rose Kemp's songbook, which may explain tonight's unusual collaboration on stage.
Designed to be short-lived; they're only doing six shows together before Rose reverts to her normal performances, this, it turns out, is only the second time they've tried it and Rose is still nervous.
Stopping and starting, complaining then apologising, her anxieties lend the evening, which has swung in mood and tone wildly from minute to minute, an unnecessary appearance of amateurishness.
But that's the risk of collaborations and improvisations, of pushing the boat into  experimental waters.
When it does come off, as in an amazing epic 'sea shanty' type of song with call and response vocals flowing between Rose and members of 7Hertz, it is a thing of  wonder and a joy to behold.
A true night of artistic adventure, it's been one of the best and boldest music events in our district for years, courtesy of local promoters In The Dock,  not because the show has been a complete success but because it dared not to be.
Graham Chalmers

9.9.03