'Karbido - The Table'
5 November 2007We started last weekend by going to see four men playing a table! If you've ever drummed your fingers on a table you will be aware of the musical possibilities it holds. Now imagine attaching a microphone to the underneath of the table top and turning up the amplifier so that every gentle stroke, scrape or tap on the surface resonates around the room. 'Karbido' are a quartet who sit around a square wooden table creating the most amazing sounds from it. As well as exploiting the percussive qualities of the wood, they place items on the table (a metal bowl which sounds like a bell when struck, a selection of half-filled wine glasses which sing when a finger traces the rim, a spinning coin etc.) and use other items attached to the sides of the table (metal plates which can be struck or played with a violin bow, guitar strings, flutes and a didgeridoo). In an hour-long performance they create a wide variety of musical styles and sounds including alap, congotronics, throat singing, ambient/new age and heavy rock. Some sections would stand alone as musical tracks - others are more fascinating in terms of the choreography of the four players reaching across the table and across each other. The audience - seated in the round so that we could all see the faces of one or two of the musicians - moved from bemused anticipation through amused appreciation to enthusiastic acclaim. And once the players had left the stage the audience surged forward to spend ages peering and prodding the star of the show and its four wooden legs. Bizarre and captivating - take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWik13ZyjbM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vDTy_W6ors
posted by Robin Simpson @ 3:50 pm
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