Judith Wright Centre - Wed Aug 20

Melbourne duo ii begin this year’s instalment of Room 40’s ninehoursnorth mini-festival with three pieces straddling the boundaries between melody and dissonance. Utilising guitars, synthesiser, a drum machine and an array of effects, ii’s set is an outstanding example of minimalist pop, where lines between improvisation and composition are masterfully blurred. A reworking of Tropes from the band’s recent Landlakes album is a highlight, with gentle washes of panning sounds and guitar generated rhythmic patterns slowly leading into a dynamic crescendo.

Appearing to be suffering from jetlag at her first appearance of her third Australian tour, Paris based Japanese songstress Tujiko Noriko’s performance proves to be somewhat stilted. Performing works from her latest album U and a selection of older material, Noriko’s abstract pop songs are based upon a necessarily delicate interplay between musique concrete influenced instrumentation, vocal harmonies and pop song format. When each element synchronises Noriko radiates a torch singer aura within an avant-pop framework, however the disparate elements failed to synchronise in parts of her set. Noriko’s encore proves to be a highlight, with her sparse organic rhythms, stop-start counter melodies and ethereal vocals most successfully connecting as a singular unit.

ANDREW TUTTLE

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