Week 305: A tray full of springs and rocks

I started the week with a funeral, which isn’t necessarily the cheeriest thing, but if you can get to 94, have no close living relatives in the country, and still fill the church, you’ve done a few things right in your life. It’s always fascinating to find out all the things you didn’t know about a person, too. On Tuesday night I walked to the lovely Hill Station Café, a community venue in a repurposed garage in Brockley, for Mercury Over Maps 28. The first piece, composed by Bill Thompson, was half an hour of three bass clarinets, droning, rattling, squeaking, and making interesting noises I never knew they could produce. I was mesmerised and found myself drifting almost to sleep in the wash of sound. That was followed by a couple of group improvisation pieces on instruments including Bill’s Moog guitar, a shortwave radio, a tray full of springs and rocks, music box mechanisms, an autoharp and various musical electronic devices, without and then with bass clarinet. It was excellent.…

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