NICK PYNN : RotatoR

 

 

Inspired by 2002, the Year of the Palindrome, Jane Bom-Bane and Nick Pynn have created a collection of new songs and tunes that explore the reversible delights of rhythm 'n' rhyme.

Using an unusual combination of instruments - harmonium, violin, dulcimer, mandocello, guitar and theremin - they perform forward and backward melodies, lyrics and stories based on their various interpretations of the palindrome.

They have just returned from an extended run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Jane Bom-Bane performs original songs and poetry to the accompaniment of harmoniums and mechanical hats.

She has worked with Linda Thompson, David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Jerry Dammers (Specials), Ralph Steadman and David Cunningham (Flying Lizards), appeared solo on Channel 4, BBC 2, STV, Russian State TV, Radio 1,2,4 & 5 Live, Radio Scotland etc and written music for Steve Hawley's film 'The Man from Porloch' previewed at the NFT. Jane Bom-Bane Website : www.janebombane.co.uk

 

 

Live Review : A PERFECT REFLECTION OF 2002.

Edinburgh Festival 2002.
Year of the Palindrome.
17 August 2002.

THERE'S a very obvious yet little-known fact about the year 2002: it's a palindrome. In honour of this auspicious omen, musicians Jane Bom-Bane and Nick Pynn have created Rotator, an entire show based on words, phrases, melodies and harmonies that read backwards the same as forwards.

While not all of the songs they perform are palindromes in the strictest sense of the word, these magi of mystical word and sound puzzles exploit the idea in some fascinating ways. Palindromic Love, a beautiful and strange love song that reaches its climax midway with the line, "night becoming noon and noon becoming night," before sliding back on itself like a lapping tide, can literally be sung in reverse order, word by word.

Pynn got the idea for So Many DynamoS, a piece for harmonium, dulcimer and bass pedals, by accidentally putting a tape into a machine upside down. Exploring the palindromic potential of music, the work consists of flowing phrases that abruptly stop, before we hear their mirror image.

The palindromic funhouse doesn't stop there: there's Rotator, a song which makes little sense, but nevertheless is palindromatic by the letter; and a bizarre ditty about falling in love with a gangster, which, divided into two parts entitled Boy and yoB, becomes even more surreal in part two when Bom-Bane sings the chorus of the first part backwards.

The effect makes the calypso-style song sound like a Welsh hymn. The combination of Bom-Bane's sweet, slightly shrill soprano and Pynn's undulating strings gives each musical riddle an unearthly quality. The riddles are visual too: the old-fashioned wireless mounted on an altar at the front of the stage is put to unanticipated use. While to conservative listeners Pynn and Bom-Bane's music might sound like a laboured gimmick encased in holistic 1970s folk music, there's a lot more to Year of the Palindrome than meets the ear and eye.

Chloe Veltman
'The Scotsman'.

Samples in MP3  format :
So many dynamoS / Rotator

 

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