In the final piece of Sound Strokes, the middle movement is entitled ‘Music as Therapeutic Sound,’ a description that could apply to the entirety of this charming 60-minute concert that blends Chinese and Scottish music to create fresh insight into the traditions, instruments and shared meaning of each nation’s composition. Blending and overlaying existing songs from both cultures, as well as entirely new work written especially for this trio, Sounds Strokes performed at the Camden People’s Theatre really does create a melodious escape from a frantic London weekend.
Playing five works in all, built around the elements of earth, wind, fire and water, the evening opens with light, an airy piece that showcases the possibilities of the three instruments: the lever harp played by Eleanor Dunsdon, the zheng by Win Xing and the bodhrán and other drums by Gregor Black. The trio met in 2023, Dunsdon explains, at a Silk Roads musicians’ workshop in Boston where they began to explore the similarities between the harp and the zheng, complementarities that develop throughout the concert as the Chinese and Celtic sounds fuse seamlessly.
Their second piece is earth, fusing existing Chinese and Scottish works to create a light and contemplative sound, the easy twang of strings creating a relaxing soundscape that sloughs off another heavy city day. Particularly relevant to this performance is a backdrop created by visual artist Qiu Yangzi, whose soil-based cloth display uses photochemicals to create patterns on the fabric, drawing soil samples from Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Hong Kong to mirror the tones and direction of the music. It would be interesting to learn more about this work, the experimental approach taken to fitting the different elements of the show together, especially when playing small venues like the Camden People’s Theatre and what this collective display of visual and aural art means beyond the simplicity of collaboration.
Continuing the theme of uniting existing songs from both nations, one of the most interesting segments in Sound Strokes is the piece devoted to women’s working songs, walking music from Scotland used by tweed workers as they curse their lover, mixed with a Chinese song about uprooting a flower, and it would be fascinating to learn more about the nature and expectations of women’s work across these two cultures reflected in this song. Before the performance moves on to fire with a galloping, energetic rhythm, there is a calmer space in between for Wan Xing to perform a solo composed this year, Traces of Chi, an atmospheric but also dark number with echoing strings that linger.
The music makes a genuinely harmonious connection, a fascinating and seamless but also thoughtful integration of complementary concepts, instruments and ways of living expressed through the creation of a shared musical culture and a diplomatic meeting of artistic skill. The roundedness of Sound Strokes and ways to better integrate the groups’ interest in art, calligraphy and the creation of pre-recorded soundscapes almost needs a gallery as well as a theatre setting with time to appreciate the wider work beyond the music performance. Yet as the evening concludes with the three movements of The Ways of Water, this has been 60 minutes of much-needed and much-enjoyed music therapy too.
Runs until 6 September 2026
The Reviews Hub Star Rating:
80%
Harmonious connection