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Jon Hinchliffe
Mask - Bar-Ginglik, Shepherd's Bush Green,
London 14 Oct 2004
This is the first gig I have attempted a review for in a long time. Mainly because I have a train journey home for the first time in ages.
Mask are Marvin Ayres and Sonia Kristina.
Sonia was in Curved Air and Marvin and I have been chatting to for years because he said "Hello" in e-mail one day. It was purely by chance he answered an advert and got in touch with Sonia who happened to be in one of the bands I liked.
Marvin produces albums of sonic textures using his electric cello. Tonight he was also using his electric violin and a keyboard. Sonia was on vocals but also electric guitar.
Bar-ginglik is a member’s only club actually under the green at Shepherd's
Bush. According to a friend of Sonia’s who has known her since they were in
their late teens the venue used to be a
Like Sonia's solo gig in Deal Mask had images being projected on them. There was actually video too but this wasn't too visible on Mask themselves. Luckily the venue had a large TV screen should people have been curious. I didn't pay too much attention but it looked like some the images were from the forthcoming Mask DVD.
I have both of Marvin's soundscape albums so I was aware of the field he comes from. I also knew the evening was not to be like a Curved Air gig. I was opened minded but didn't really expect to get too much from the gig. (Having said that as I am tidying this up to put it on my web page I am playing Marvin’s Cellosphere again and quite enjoying it would be too strong but I am not disliking it. I guess it is mood music since in the right mood I am happy listening to it but at other times I haven’t got the patience for it and just want to rock. )
As it happened it was much more up my street than I anticipated. The first two songs in particular had me thinking of Sonia's “Harmonics of Love” album. Another track had me thinking of “Songs From The Acid Folk”. I assume everything was completely new to me but I did wonder if one or too lyrics were familiar. I would guess not. It was probably just Sonia's delivery.
Not all the songs were songs mind. The third piece was more like a Marvin solo piece. He clearly has got Sonia interested in his field of music. I seem to recall this piece was Marvin on his Cello and Sonia vocalising without words. On their very professional looking flyers it says “Mask are … an exciting blend of intuitive pieces, created by strings and voices and mixed spontaneously, fused with down tempo songs, which melt into a subtle and bewitching weave of sound.” I guess that is a reasonable description really.
Another piece towards the end of the 1hr set (I hope it was only an hour I had to catch a train so missed the last number) was just Sonia building up vocals using a delay pattern. These bits interested me less than the songs with lyrics but they were what I expected and I found it an interesting experience and atmosphere to be in.
Considering the pieces were performed by just Sonia and Marvin I thought they came across really well. There was a Mac on stage so there were extra effects but it was always clear what Marv and Sonia were actually playing Live.
I have to say I really enjoyed seeing Marv playing the Violin and Cello in more conventional ways than on his albums too.
I am now looking forward to the release of the DVD and single. Apparently the mix is in 5.1 so this should be an interesting new album experience. (These are now out check out the Mask website)
If you can make a gig and fancy something different check them out. Their album "Heavy Petal" is/was due for release on June 13th 2005
