Wildbirds & Peacedrums, The Lexington, London

Wildbirds & Peacedrums

August 26, 2010

On the way to this gig, a friend asks for a description of Wildbirds & Peacedrums. “They make your insides shake,” we tell them. He raises an eyebrow. Another friend adds “but your heart is in your mouth.” He looks faintly suspicious as we arrive at the (lovely) Lexington.

Vocalist Mariam Wallantin and drummer Andreas Werliin formed  Wildbirds & Peacedrums whilst studying improvisationl music together at the University of Gothenburg in 2006. Four years, three albums and a marriage later, the couple’s sound is still rooted in structured improvisation and experimental collaboration.

Tonight, the Lexington is populated by an audience of bearded industry types, eager to pass their personal judgement on Rivers, released this month on the Leaf label. The album brings together previously vinyl-only  EPs Iris and Retina.

The duo open with ‘The Wave’, a bluesy track off Rivers featuring steel pans. Like The Gossip played at the wrong speed, it’s a swagger of signature-shifting simplicity. Next up is ‘Chain of Steel’, which we are told is the first song they ever wrote together. A vocally-led incantation, the track draws on Wallantin’s Iranian roots in its Persian rythyms and patent emotional intensity.

The unique dynamic between the two is made explicit on ‘My Heart’ (with Wallantin repeating the key lyric “I am lost without your rhythm”). There’s a mutual support between the two that extends farther than a purely musical partnership and allows for vulnerability in performance. And with the support of Werliin, Wallantin offers us an incredibly generous performance – at one point even abandoning the microphone and with it any mediatised divide between audience and performer. Like Bjork, her eccentricities are sometimes classed as affectation – yet it’s clear that this is expression rather than pretension. She means it.

A sore-throated Kate Bush collaborating with a loose-limbed Chris Corsano. In the best possible way. Sore-throated in a rich, husky, enviable way – rather than spluttering and sick. Loose-limbed in a spacious, instinctive way – echoing the vast Scandinavian landscapes from which they hail.

By the encore, my insides are shaking and my heart is in my mouth. My eyebrow-raising friend and the bearded industry types are cheering like they mean it.

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