I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Supersilent. I was advised by a friend to go with no information other than the assurance that I would like them. By the end of the night, I was not all that enraptured with them. Playing structureless electronic jazz in a mostly lifeless way, Supersilent were pretty boring.
Technically they did some interesting things like using a trumpet for vocals and some lovely
tones and sounds from some old analogue synths but they couldn’t seem to get it together. Moments
of inspiration were few. The rest of the performance was just dull. The music was far from
relaxing but I found my eyes growing heavy anyway. In fairness to them, when they did hit the mark
they hit it hard and there were times when I did sit upright and felt a little tingle of
electricity.
The synth players used a wide palette of sounds, some of which were quite beautiful
and others which really grated on the ears. The guy on vocals, trumpet and drums was the most
consistent player of the night. His drumming was random and powerful, building the music into a
stormy torrent of noise before stopping and playing ambient drones on his trumpet. While his
playing was good he didn’t seem to keep an ear open to what the others were doing.
Good group improvisation is hard to do and this show highlighted the problems when it does go wrong. I’m aware that Supersilent have plenty of experience as a live improv group but a lot of the time the performance sounded like three complete strangers playing in separate rooms. I left the venue feeling disappointed and unfulfilled.
