Music / Particles of Light, Luminescence Chamber Singers. At The Vault, September 11. Reviewed by SARAH BYRNE.

The Vault is a new venue to me, and one that worked particularly well for this multi-media performance by the excellent Luminescence Chamber Singers, guided by long-term collaborator Roland Peelman.

A large blank and windowless space, the acoustics were great, and the empty walls allowed for various projections of the titular particles of light on the surrounding surfaces.

The ensemble started with the sure-fire choice of the madrigal Quel Rossignol, de Wert’s 1588 setting of Petrarch’s 1374 sonnet. Plangent and melancholy, it hit, literally, all the right notes.

Other highlights of the program were the world premiere of Room, by Andrew Greenwell, to a text by Jordie Albiston, and a reprise of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Lichtmarchen, composed for Luminescence’s 10th anniversary last year. Also truly beautiful was tenor Dan Walker’s arrangement of Nardi Simpson’s Yarrager Mayraa, and Andrew Ford’s Hear the Bird of Day, to a text by David Campbell.

Some other pieces I was a little less enthused about, and in analysing these I think it came down to a disconnect between lyric and music, where I struggled to grasp the reasons why certain notes or dynamics had been chosen to complement the text. These occasional perceived disconnects were sometimes heightened by the projections.

While, the entertaining piece Illuminations, another world premiere, by Patrick Baker, for the trio of male voices, was well-suited by the choice of abstract starry images, the otherwise lovely Evening Morning Day, by David Lang, for the trio of female voices, was for some reason removed to the far left of the room, away from the stage, leaving most of the audience gazing directly at a set of projections with a distracting influence of Georgia O’Keeffe.

I could not find a designer listed in the program, but was reminded of how well this device worked for their wonderful concert of Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns. Overall, I hope they will continue to develop it.

Luminescence continues to bring a singular virtuosity to their performances, and are champions of genuinely interesting and sometimes challenging new work.

This concert was no exception and I am glad to have had the opportunity to experience it.

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