Alash Ensemble in Sandwich

Wednesday 25th September 2019
St. Mary's Arts Centre, Sandwich

Holly was running this gig as Will G was supposed to be in Cornwall. Will ended up staying in Kent and enjoyed the event with us, but Holly did a great job of pulling everything together. I'd volunteered to do the door, always a nice way to connect with everyone at a gig. At the last minute, someone realised there were no sounds prepared for before/between/after acts, so I threw some mixes together rather quickly (but thoughtfully):

Clair from Lunatraktors did a support set (no loops, just vocals and minimal percussion/harmonium) including a stunning "Raglan Road". Alash were transcendental, as expected. I was rather surprised by the electric six-string among the traditional Tuvan instruments... the three of them wove their playing together (throat singing, bowed and strummed stringed-instruments, drums and percussion) so effectively that a lot of the time I couldn't tell who was playing what. In fact, a lot of the time it sounded like there were more than three of them!