Murcof - Corsica, London, 2/12/2007

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 11 / 1 / 2008

intro

Dan Cressey watches Californian musician play an enthralling set of his ethereal, abstract electronica against a background of specially commissioned abstract films at the Corsica in London

After playing in planetariums earlier in the year Murcof turned up at the more earthy Corsica Studios, under a bridge arch in one of the dirtier ends of London. Although they have shoehorned an impressive sound system into this small venue it will never be describable as glamorous. Any worries, however, that the ethereal abstract music of Murcof would be somehow less impactful here than under stars were quickly dispelled. Against a background of specially commissioned abstract films he produced a set of enthralling electronic melodies that held the audience in a rapturous silence. While the films swirled shapes around in a riot of lines and movement – like a late 80's screensaver updated and given the run of a supercomputer – under the arch in this dingy backwater Murcof proved again that he is able to take remarkably simple ingredients and turn them into far more than the sum of their parts. A perfect complement to the outwardly simple films, the music rises and falls to its own incomprehensive but persuasive logic while Murcof stood calm amid it all, less like a music producer and more like a composer directing the movements of his sounds to fulfil some unknowable master plan. A stunning way to end 2007.

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