In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited, concert review: "A fitting tribute"
A mixed bag of performers celebrate the film director at London's Barbican
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Your support makes all the difference.David Lynch's genius for melding sound and vision has long been key to his TV and movie work, though this tribute is more about impeachable taste.
For "Sycamore Trees", a photo of mesmerising contralto Jimmy Scott, who passed away recently, is spotlit. No pressure, then, for Australian solo artist Sophia Brous whose more dramatic rendition is a revelation.
Music arranger David Coulter has corralled a mixed bag of performers to celebrate the auteur's songbook, relying on few visual tricks (including an almost subliminal projection of surreal TV drama Twin Peaks' Killer Bob), leaving us Angelo Badalamenti's gorgeous compositions and the director's favoured early sixties pop.
Lacking Lynch's regular ethereal songbird Julee Cruise, Villagers' Conor O'Brien delivers an inspired, fragile "Mysteries Of Love" while Savages singer Jehnny Beth provides jaw-dropping gothic intensity on "Into The Night".
Scouse folk-pop trio Stealing Sheep's giddy joy over-sugars "The Nightingale" , though they they provide fine backing as Tindersticks' Start Staples treads delicately on eggshells for "Falling".
Ever resourceful percussionist Seb Rochford is the pick of Coulter's scratch group, whose default louche jazz sometimes takes the uncanny edge off Lynch's intentions. Despite uneven quality, this is a fitting tribute to a film maker always taking risks.
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