Safe Harbour review: Gems galore as acts collaborate at 37d03d Mixtape concert
Efterklang performing at 37dO3d Mixtape X Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra for Sounds from a Safe Harbour. Picture: Bríd O’Donovan
Blink and you might miss something special at Sounds from a Safe Harbour, celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend in venues around Cork. At the 37d03d Mixtape collaboration with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra, it might be the way Bryce Dessner of The National and Ben Howard share a smile after the latter’s two-song cameo near the end of a sensational 90-minute plus show.
It also might be the secret pop-up show by Rosie Carney and Eve Owens, and their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s which they had only practised for the first time together earlier in the day. Perhaps it’s Junior Brother, kickstarting the festival’s Friday night shows with his album launch at the Pav, and their drum and flute solos. Or maybe it’s rapper God Knows forming a midnight mini-moshpit at Nude’s.
Across the city are sold out shows by the likes of Beth Orton, erstwhile members of the Gloaming Caomhín Ó Raghallaigh and Thomas Bartlett, Lisa Hannigan, and Villagers. The 37d03d Mixtape in the Opera House is also packed to capacity, the crowd excited at the secrets that lay ahead.
It begins with a Cillian Murphy voiceover - he’s one of the curators of the festival - telling us to treat what we were about to hear as almost one long suite of music, and not to feel under any obligation to applaud after each act’s song has finished. That’s manageable for Jon Hopkins’ Sigur Ros-esque introduction and Max Porter’s spoken word piece, but by the time the Staves sisters Jessica and Camilla finish their section, the crowd is fit to burst.
Their performance is just so powerful, their voices soaring to the highest points of the Opera House as they lament “futile words for a futile song” on realising that “even though I love you I want you to go”. They grab each other’s hand for the emotional crescendo, the crowd transfixed. They remain so for Swedish singer-songwriter Amanda Bergman, whose gaze radiates. Her cover of Joni Mitchell’s is breathtaking. Safe to say there is uproarious applause for everyone now.
Angie McMahon, who plays Live at St Luke’s on Saturday afternoon, delights in shuffling across the stage and in front of the conductor, smiling as she hears the backing singers offering even more depth to her tender introspections. Efterklang, who close the festival on Sunday night, look like they’re having the time of their lives, frontman Casper squatting low as if to sing just for the front row. Also performing over the course of the night are David Kitt, Sam Amidon, and Gordi alongside Derry artist Soak, among numerous others, with arrangements by Dessner, Kate Ellis, and Cork’s Áine Delaney. An event to revel in.
Kerry’s Junior Brother released his third album last week and rather than smoothing out his edges - he’s inspired by Richie Kavanagh as much as he is Planxty - he’s doubled down on them. He opens with which sounds like a descent into madness. Junior Brother, the brainchild of Ronan Kealy, has expanded into a fully fledged five piece, and it sounds like nothing else. It’s so strange, divisive, but if you get it, it’s glorious. And the likes of are genuinely tender and beautiful. One of the country’s most idiosyncratic and exciting talents.
God Knows is gearing up to release his debut solo album A on September 26, though he’s been performing for over a decade, starting out with Choice Prize winners Rusangano Family. He’s such a confident, talented onstage presence: Getting the crowd to turn their back on the stage and just have a dance, getting them to crouch down and jump up, getting in the centre of them for a couple verses, or for the finale getting the crowd up onstage with him.
It’s a whirlwind of a closing act for Friday. Best keep those eyes peeled for the rest of the weekend.
