h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

With just a couple of days to stay in York, careful planning was required to make the most of the entertainment on offer and difficult decisions had to be made about which places to visit, which restaurants & pubs to sample and which concerts to attend.

One night I was torn between going to see 3 Daft Monkeys, (one of my favourite festival bands), or going to the National Early Music Centre to take a chance on an interesting sounding gig with musicians I'd never heard of. So I headed across town to the NEMC to find out more. The ticket desk was empty so I started chatting to a man sitting in the lobby nearby, passing the time with his laptop. When I explained my dilemma, he said he thought the NCEM concert would be interesting, then explained he was one of the musicians...

Taking the chance encounter as a good omen I bought a ticket for the evening show and returned later to watch the Brazilian pianist and percussion duo, Benjamin Taubkin and Adriano Adewale. Turned out to be an excellent choice. The entirely improvised concert was an unexpected delight, listening to the two master musicians weaving together multiple melodic, harmonic and rhythmic ideas into coherent music, alternately joyful, meditative, playful and lyrical. Adriano sat surrounded by huge numbers of percussive instruments and objects that he selected from as the mood took him. My favourite appeared to be just a simple ceramic pot, but in his hands it produced mellow notes. Benjamin sat at the piano apparently away in his own world, but clearly both musicians had attention only for the soundscapes they were jointly creating. Lovely stuff.

[Amy P]