Accidental Powercut

Dani Siciliano, photo: Hash Varsani

What happens when you bring together some of the UK’s top exponents of electronic music in one room and then ‘pull the plug’ We wanted to find out, so we produced an evening of entirely acoustic electronic music in the Union Chapel in North London, one of the capital’s best venues for acoustic music.

The gig featured artists on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label, home to some of the most beautiful and inventive music you’ll ever come across. The line up included Max de Wardener on bass and musical bowls, singer-songwriter and musical saw player Mara Carlyle, Phil Parnell on the chapel’s organ and vocalist Dani Siciliano. The whole night was about risk; for us and for the artists. None of us knew quite what would happen, and none of us had realised just how quiet an expectant audience of 600 people could be! What happened was just magical for all involved. With no microphones, micro-chips and stereo jacks, there was a totally different kind of buzz created between artist and audience.

“.. tonight’s music evokes elements of a familiar past. Here, sacred chorale and 1950′s vocal groups and vistas of a strange, elegant and far flung future”
David Peschek The Guardian.