April signals one genuinely significant event for many Scottish music lovers. The Triptych festival, now in its fourth year, brings together a selection of artists considered either on the edges of modern music, or significantly at its core, and in doing so creates a unique experience for those willing to participate. Gigs were staged in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow as in previous years, but stretched from 3 to 5 days to reflect the growing popularity of the festival. The following reviews focus on a selection of the Edinburgh shows.

Moog Vibrations

First event of the weekend was provided by Dr Robert Moog. The creator of the legendary Moog synth (pronounced Mogue, rhymes with vogue, apparently!) was coming to Edinburgh to talk about how his invention had become such a household name. First impressions were that the room was set out really well, with a large chunk of Moog hardware sat centre stage, with a camera relaying any keystrokes and knob twiddles to a big screen in the background. It proved a perfect medium to visually demonstrate the operation of the equipment with the excellent sound engineering giving life to the tones.

After a short tutorial on the basic principals, it was time for the good Doctor to tell his story. His tale began in the 60's, when our modern day electronics and recording techniques would have been considered a work of pure science fiction. His narrative meandered from one significant album to another, using examples such as Switched On Bach (by Wendy Carlos) to show the slow acceptance, and later reverence of his innovative designs.

What this reviewer was getting was a clear glimpse of a man who loved working with musicians and who wanted to make their lives more interesting through his work. For every time he seemed to lose his focus, there was a moment when his visionary status seemed clearly earned, both through his ideas and his passion.

For the second half of the event, the organisers had lined up a session with Jean-Jacques Perrey, early innovator of recording techniques and electronic composition. His story revolved around his pioneering use of tape splicing, and his very early use of 'samples' in the recording context. He was an absolute joy to witness, exhibiting endearing and eccentric qualities at every turn. The most surreal moment of the whole weekend was to come when Jean-Jacques took to the stage with his favourite furry toy, and started to dance to the sound of his seminal Flight Of The Bumblebee. All that remained was a vigorous Q&A session and a rousing cheer for two very influential old gentlemen.

Accidental Broadcasts

Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label showcase was taking place at Edinburgh’s Queens Hall, a space reknowned for its excellent acoustics, and this was to be put to the test early with the introduction of Max De Wardener. For those unfamiliar with his work, it can best be described as a kind of fragile and delicately woven form of jazz, featuring glitched-up electronica with traditional and non-traditional acoustic instruments. After a fabulously quiet and low-key beginning, featuring deeply resonant organ samples processed into a sonic backdrop, the focus shifted to the real centrepiece, a rack-mounted set of tuned glass bells. From these were coaxed a beautiful, haunting melody which not only sent shivers down the spine, but also drew the other electronic elements together into a coherent and immensely enjoyable composition.

The evening’s second featured act, Mara Carlyle, followed shortly after. Announcing that this was to be her first gig, she flew straight into a series of emotional ballads, progressively gaining in confidence and poise. A promising taster of her forthcoming debut album, due out this summer.

Third act of the evening was Ornelius Mugison. On stage his presence was irresistible, drawing every bit of attention in the room. Every element of his performance was a joy to experience, from his amusing apologies for his shoddy crashing laptop, to his seemingly effortless live sample manipulation, to his brilliant singing and fierce guitar playing.

Andrew Brooks, a house music producer since the age of 16, followed, with a performance split into two very different sections. Beginning with some solid pumping industrial music, complete with heavily processed vocals, his set then drifted towards some seriously up-tempo house music, eventually persuading some of the seated audience to get up and have a bit of a dance.

Last performance of the night was from Arto Lindsay, veteran of the 70's post punk scene, and notoriously rowdy character. Together with his excellent backing band, Arto gave a very skilled performance, singing brilliantly in a variety of languages, and drawing upon various rhythmic influences from his Brazilian roots. He has a strange presence on stage, singing softly one minute, casting lecherous glances the next, and stepping back occasionally to drag screeching exclamations from his guitar to punctuate verse and chorus.

Bringing the evening to a close, Matthew Herbert came onstage to play a short DJ set, and to thank everyone for coming.

Laptop Animals

The final gig of the weekend not only offered a chance to see the brilliant Animal Collective and Four-Tet, but also to witness Fennesz performing live. The show took place in Edinburgh's Venue, and although all 3 floors were used, none of the main artists sets clashed.

Fennesz’s records make for seriously enjoyable, if somehow challenging, listening. Live, his sound was thick and becomes almost palpable, forming sonic waves across the Venue’s top floor. At times, once could feel the vibrations travelling up and down their entire body. Fennesz seemed to be taking one extremely dense sonic texture after another and weaving them into physical experiences. Bringing his music to life in this particular environment, Fennesz gave an excellent performance.

Next on the bill were Animal Collective. Panda Bear and Avey Tare had for the occasion got a third member on stage, and the addition of an extra noisemaker did their live sound no harm at all. Calling them noisemakers is an injustice though as their discordant lullabies deserve more credit. The primitive appearance they project masks some really clever sound technique, especially noticeable when they performed tracks from their recent album Sung Tongs. Time and again vocal delays and drum effects were used to generate primal sounds, giving meaning to the name of the band. Highlight of this performance was a rousing rendition of Kids On Holiday, featuring some truly manic drumming and guitar playing, combined with some sweet vocal styling.

Four-Tet took on the main floor for the last performance of the evening. Turning his creations from sweet melodic pieces into monumental glitch-laden dance floor moments, occasionally breaking into series of howling clicks and ultra-fast beats to keep the crowd on their toes, before returning to more familiar loops and phrases. His manipulations on My Angel Rocks Back & Forth made it barely recognisable, yet still very much relevant to the original. A surprisingly refreshing and interesting take on his recorded material, and an approach that deserves a lot of credit, this show provided a superb end to a brilliant evening, and to a fourth year of Triptych events.

As the festival grows and becomes better each year, credit is due to the organisers of Triptych for relentlessly working all year round to bring a wide range of high quality artists to Scotland and placing the event on the UK map.

Paul Evans