Julia Kent Live @St.Paul's Athens 25-11-2016

The Canadian cellist and composer Julia Kent came from New York to meet the Athenian audience at the Anglican Church of St. Paul, for two concerts Friday 25/11 and Saturday 26/11 both sold out weeks ago.

Perhaps best known for her work with Antony and the Johnsons with whom she won the Mercury Prize in 2005, Julia Kent has also played with Rasputina and Swans, and cineastes will be familiar with her contribution to Paulo Sorrentini's 2011 film This Must Be The Place. But her solo work consisting of 4 albums( ‘Delay’ , ‘Green And Grey’ , ‘Character’ , ‘Asperities’) is also worth listening.

The concert took place in the special place of the Anglican Church of St. Paul ,a place with exceptional acoustics that create a unique connection between performers and public. Julia Kent with the emotional sound of the cello accompanied with electronically varied loops , sound layers and harmonies gave an artistic leap of her magnitude and her ability to merge electronic with classical sounds. Kent built texture and mood producing a haunting, powerful combination of low string tones, subtle electronics, and scratchy field recordings .Hypnotic minimalism , sometimes dramatic , sometimes romantic but always very touching. During the show Julia was very gentle contacting with the audience sometimes ,expressing her opinion for the politics in USA always with humour .

In conclusion, Julia Kent managed to create such powerful images without adding words to her music, expressing herself imaginatively and apparently effortlessly, as if all she needed was to communicate with her cello. She played about 70 min. choosing a setlist with her best songs ,most of them from her last –and my favourite album- Asperities’ and no one can complain.