After pushing past posters and billboards for Jesus Christ Superstar and Chicago in Q Theatre's foyer, two flights of stairs took me to the Loft for a concert of new music by 175 East on Sunday.
We have few groups that can rival the almost political dedication of these musicians, taking on the more challenging music of today, delivering it in extraordinarily finessed performances.
It was good to revisit the ingenious textural paradoxes of Philip Brownlee's 1999 Tendril and Nebula. Reclaiming the sonic world of the electronic studio for acoustic instruments, he deals out whispers as well as explosions, lovingly gradated by conductor Hamish McKeich.
Britain-based Dorothy Ker was saluted with both a premiere and the revival of an earlier 175 East commission. Her 2004 Le Kaleidoscope de l'obscurite came with a daunting programme note that tags Proust and talks of shadowy space between material definition and immateriality. Despite difficult words, the sound world is imaginative and welcoming, from the scurrying percussive dance of Katherine Hebley's cello and Bella Zilber's double bass to the flying skirmishes of Donald Nicholls and Andrew Uren's clarinets. Ker's new work, Reef, reflects her exploration of the volatile patterning effects of time and water on our coastal environment.
The filigree was unimpeachable, built around flautist Ingrid Culliford, her alto flute drifting from languor to flutter, her pert piccolo standing strong against ghostly string chords.
