Manu Delago is a musical master chef — with what looks like three woks in front of him. He plays the hang, something like an inverted steel drum or UFO and played with the hands. There’s the metallic resonance of a steel drum but much softer and more expressive. The instrument was created a little more than a decade ago and Austrian-born Delago has become one of the most sought-after players. He works in popular music with Björk, in jazz, world music, classical and electronica. So in Saturday night’s Collaborations concert, Delago’s wok cooked up a stir-fry of styles.
From the “classical” recipe book came the most beautiful piece: CHS for hang and the 21-strong female choir from Iceland, Graduale Nobili. The choir sang soft resonant chords and counterpoint plus articulated sounds — rolled “r”s or a whispered “s” — while, inhabiting his own resonant soundworld, Delago added rhythmic and melodic accompaniments. It’s a daunting task to take up an instrument with no repertoire but wonderful to create something as original as this.
From the world recipe book came the collaboration with Circle of Sound: Indian in flavour, with Soumik Datta on plucked sarod and Bernhard Schimpelsberger on drums. These two are a well-matched duo and their piece with Delago had one focusing on melody, another on rhythm and the third adding harmony. Also very London— two Austrian percussionists resident here and a Londoner of Bengali heritage.
It was ear-splitting percussion and electronics for the heavy main course. Knalpot feature another Austrian percussionist, Gerri Jäger, with Raphael Vanoli on guitar and electronics. The latter donned what looked like a welding mask as if sparks might fly from their industrial production line of music.
Rhythms were repeated and disrupted, knobs were tweaked and pedals pressed with a little too much self-indulgence for some. It was a relief when the Icelandic ladies returned like a choir of angels.