Seaming To / Tengger, Sy; Gigs, St. Alkmund’s Church, Shrewsbury, 07/06/2025

PROLOGUE;

Sy; Gigs is the brainchild of series co-ordinator Chris Taylor, who began the project with the aim of bringing genuinely alternative music to Shrewsbury. The Sy: Gigs strand embraces various forms of experimental music with jazz just one of the elements in an eclectic range of events that also incorporates folk, electronica, ambient, New Age, contemporary classical and avant pop / rock.  It’s a series that is likely to appeal to listeners of such BBC Radio 3 programmes as Late Junction, Unclassified and Night Tracks. Taylor has done a terrific job in building a loyal following for his events, which he presents at two Shrewsbury churches,  the 100 seat Unitarian Church and the larger St. Alkmund’s Church, which can accommodate 240.

Tonight’s event took place at St. Alkmund’s Church and was once again very well attended for a double bill of artists with close associations with South Korea.

First we heard a set from vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Seaming To, born in London but of Korean heritage.

Next we enjoyed the music of the Pan Asian duo Tengger, featuring the married couple of Itta, from South Korea, and her husband / partner Marqido, from Japan.

The evening was also notable for the fact that both these acts were ‘family bands’. Seaming To’s children, eleven year old Max and nine year old Xen joined her for part of her set. Similarly Itta and Marquido’s son RAAI, who was born in 2012.

Subtitled “Movements in Sound” tonight’s event was part of the wider, and still ongoing, Belle Vue Arts Festival, a multi-disciplinary programme of events named for the Shrewsbury district of Belle Vue. More information on the Belle Vue Arts Festival can be found here;
http://www.bellevueartscentre.co.uk

We entered the church to the sounds of immersive electronic music provided by DJ Innerkey (aka Rob), who also performed during the interval, with Chris Taylor joking that this must be the earliest DJ set that he had ever played!

SEAMING TO

Seaming To – vocals, Wurlitzer electric piano, synthesiser, electronics, clarinet
Max – drums
Xen – vocals

Seaming To was born into a family of concert pianists and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. But although raised in the classical tradition she has established her own identity as a singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who began her recording career in 2006 and now has three EPs plus two full length albums to her credit. Her debut album “Seaming” (2012), was followed by a remix version in 2013. Her most recent album recording is 2023’s “Dust Gatherers”.

She has also collaborated with an eclectic range of other artists, including Robert Wyatt, Jean Claude Vannier, The Herbaliser, Leila (Warp records),Punchdrunk, The Cinematic Orchestra, Larry Goves, Matthew Bourne, Mayming,  Homelife (Ninja Tune) and Graham Massey’s Toolshed. 

A regular performer at K Music, London’s annual festival of Korean music, Seaming To began solo, the sounds of the Wurlitzer combining with her ethereal, but deceptively powerful, wordless vocals.  The opening item appeared to be a segue, as the music morphed into something more recognisably song like in structure and featuring a combination of half sung, half spoken English language lyrics. At different times I was variously reminded me of the music of Kate Bush and of Annette Peacock, two other highly distinctive vocalists and songwriters who also share Seaming’s fascination with synthesisers and electronics.

Not every tune was announced and I was unable to speak with Seaming afterwards to obtain a copy of the set list. However we were informed that the next piece was the title track of her 2022 EP “The Natural Process” and that it was re-working of a piece originally written by the Japanese producer Susumu Yokota. Featuring the sounds of Wurlitzer, synth and vocals this was a performance that made effective use of live looping techniques to create an immersive choral effect.

“Tousles”, from the “Dust Gatherers” album was described by its creator as “a strange love song” and included disturbing, darkly erotic lyrical imagery allied to the sounds of live looped synths, electronica and vocals.

Seaming’s children joined her for Sodaslow”, the title track of her debut EP from 2006 and a song subsequently reworked on the “Seaming” album. The children have clearly inherited her musical talent, Max, deploying mallets with an impressive sensitivity,  is already an accomplished young drummer and Xen’s wordless backing vocals were a younger echo of her mother’s singing. When I spoke to the young Xen in the interval, she was staffing mum’s merch desk, she proudly told me that she played four instruments, “clarinet, saxophone piano and I sing”. Look out for Max and Xen as solo artists in the future, they both brought something extra to the music and were far more than just a novelty.

The next piece was essentially an instrumental that saw Max continuing on drums as Seaming deployed live looping to create a sound-wash of synths, electronic and wordless vocals, this and Max’s highly competent drumming forming the backdrop to Seaming’s striking clarinet solo.

The final number was called (I think) “Duel of Separation”, a song that saw Max still at the kit, with Xen returning on backing vocals. Seaming contributed the sounds of synth and Wurlitzer, plus singing that embraced both lyrics and wordless vocal episodes.

I was very impressed with Seaming To’s performance. She’s a technically accomplished and very distinctive vocalist, a similarly expert pianist, an impressive clarinettist and a skilled manipulator of sound and electronics. These gifts are allied to her highly individual songwriting to create music that is unique and highly personal. Max and Xen have performed with her on stage on numerous occasions and both impressed with their contributions and looked very much at home.

I treated myself to a copy of the “Seaming” CD, a veritable bargain at just a fiver, and very much enjoyed what I subsequently heard. An excellent start to the evening.

TENGGER

Marqido – electronics, keyboard,
Itta – vocals, harmonium, electronics, percussion
RAAI – Korg synth, percussion, vocals

Currently on a tour that includes dates in the UK, Iceland and the Republic of Ireland Tengger take their name from a Mongolian phrase meaning  ‘unlimited expanse of sky’. The word also means ‘huge sea’ in Hungarian.

Their music has been described as “psychedelic New-Age drone magic” and has also been said to have been influenced by various strains of folk music and by old school Krautrock.

The band is prolific and has released ten full length albums, three of these simply titled “Tengger” (maybe Peter Gabriel is also an influence) since making its recording debut in 2014.

Tonight’s performance began with the core duo of Itta and Marqido, the first number featuring the sounds of Itta’s ethereal wordless vocals and Maqido’s electronics and portable keyboard, worn around the neck a la Herbie Hancock, but emphatically not a keytar.

The second piece introduced the distinctive sound of Itta’s Indian harmonium, another portable instrument, but this time mounted on a table alongside accompanying electronics. The sound of the harmonium was allied to the electronic pulses generated by Marqido’s electronics and keyboards, the combination of hypnotic rhythms and harmonium generated melodic drones not dissimilar to the music of Kraftwerk.

In addition to the music this was also a highly visual performance with Itta and Marqido cutting striking figures in their distinctive boiler-suit like band uniforms. Itta’s dancing and hand gestures were subtly theatrical and suitably compelling and represented an integral part of the overall performance. The band’s visuals were augmented by Sy; Gig’s own efforts, with the stage again superbly decorated, as it had been for the recent Hanakiv / Marysia Osu double bill at the Unitarian. Once again the decorations had been devised by  Visual Creations by Emma, so thanks to her for adding so much to he occasion.

The visual theme continued during the course of the next piece, which saw the entry of RAAI, dressed in similar fashion to his parents, who entered dancing and manipulating a bird caller (shades of Nana Vasconcelos with the Pat Metheny Group)  before taking up his place behind his Korg synth. The music also featured the sounds of harmonium and electronics plus Itta’s ethereal vocals, higher pitched and more other worldly than Seaming To’s. It was tempting to think of Itta as a Korean version of Enya. However not all of Itta’s vocals were wordless, some songs included what I assumed to be Korean lyrics.

The next section featured a sequence of three songs that mixed folk and electronic music influences and which incorporated live looping techniques among the synth and harmonium melodies and electronic beats, these including the sounds of electronic percussion as the music became more rhythmic.

One of the most arresting moments of the whole set was when Itta and RAAI took up small portable percussive devices, ‘bell trees’ if you will, and wandered around the audience as Marqido remained on stage generating the grounding pulse that underpinned the ethereal shimmer of percussion, the movement of Itta and RAAI helping to create a kind of ‘surround sound’. This a hugely effective set piece that succeeded both visually and musically, with the sampled flute like timbres of Marqido’s electronics also an important sonic component.

RAAI’s dancing continued to be an important visual component as his parents continued to create music that relied on the combination of harmonium, electronics and largely wordless vocals. RAAI also made occasional vocal contributions in addition to his work on synth and percussion.

The group’s final number combined sequenced electronic pulses with harmonium melodies and wordless vocals, the combination hypnotic rhythms and subtle melodic drones now reminding me of Tangerine Dream and very much justifying that Krautrock analogy.

But this was music that was also distinctly Eastern in origin, rooted in spiritualism and environmentalism. I’d also hazard a guess that Tengger’s approach is also rooted in Buddhist philosophy, although I may be wrong.

Itta did speak briefly to the audience in English but no tune titles were announced so this is not a usual ‘tune by tune’, ‘blow by blow’ account but instead a reflection on what was very much an audio-visual experience that was highly immersive and held much of the audience transfixed. It certainly elicited a highly enthusiastic reaction from a Shrewsbury crowd that was obviously charmed by the trio and their music.

We did learn however that the band members also work on solo projects, even RAAI has his own album out, released on cassette!

In a post on the Sy; Music Facebook page organiser Chris Taylor summarised the evening thus;
“Saturday night at St Alkmund’s Church was a therapeutic journey of movement and sound.
Rob opened with a beautifully curated ambient set, setting the tone for what was an extraordinary evening of alternative music. Seaming provided a stunning vocal performance, rich with emotion and artistry, supported by the wonderful Max (11) and Xen (9).
Tengger brought the night to a conclusion with a headline ethereal set that left the audience in a spiritual state of quiet rebirth. An astonishingly beautiful evening.
Exquisite lighting and the slow movement of feature staging added a visual poetry to the sound.
Thank you to everyone who shared this special moment with us.”

As much as I enjoyed Tengger’s performance as an overall live experience I actually found Seaming To’s set the most musically satisfying of the two, largely because it was less reliant on electronics and pre-programmed beats. Her deployment of electronics, added to her stunning vocals and quirky and imaginative songwriting somehow seemed more natural and organic.

Nevertheless this was one of the most successful overall events that Sy; Gigs has delivered, with each act complementing the other particularly well. I may personally have preferred Seaming To but with the visual aspect playing such an important role in Tengger’s performance it was only right that they went on second, effectively headlining. A word of praise too for sound engineer Stav who had a lot of electronic hardware to deal with and ensured that both acts sounded excellent throughout.