Friday 24 December 2004
Unknown Pleasure – Silent Night edition
live: GOR (Francesco Banchini) + Pinknruby
W2, Den Bosch (NL)
On Christmas Eve two atmospheric acts from the Prikosnovenie label played in the nice W2 venue during a special edition from Unknown Pleasure called Silent Night. Unfortunately people took this title too literally, because a disappointing number of visitors showed up. The people who stayed at home around the Christmas tree were wrong, because they missed two excellent acts.
The duo Pinknruby played an intimate acoustic set. Their soft music is best suited to listen to in a seated theatre, but the audience was respectfully quiet. Both the vocals and the acoustic guitar playing of the Slovenian Mihaela Repina and the British Paul Bradbury were of a high quality. They played various songs with a lot of feeling of their debut album ?The Vast Astonishment?. The atmosphere was dreamy and poetic, enhanced by the creative outfits they chose for this night.
The other act performing on the evening before Christmas was GOR from Italy. This is mainly the project of the experienced musician Francesco Banchini, who also played with Ataraxia before. The music of GOR is a mixture of medieval and Arabic influences, perhaps comparable to the later work of Dead Can Dance at times. Banchini was supported by two other musicans, who took care of percussion and accordion. Apart from his diverse singing (often in Latin) Francesco played various flutes and also guitar on a few songs. A convincing concert, which was swinging at times, especially in the more rhythmic Arabic songs. It was nice to see how much the band enjoyed playing, their spontaneity made you forget the minor (percussion) mistakes. Francesco Banchini is also a good performer, who knows how to make his audience enthousiastic.
There will be a second opportunity in the Netherlands for people who missed these concerts: Pinkrunby and GOR will also perform at the Elf Fantasy Fair in April 2005 at a castle near Utrecht…
Inbetween the bands I played some music as guest DJ (playlist).
