“Elaine Mitchener’s poignant (NAMES II) is a roll-call of the 2,000 enslaved African people owned by an 18th century Jamaican sugar planter, whose family came from Aberdeenshire.”
“This is an imaginatively conceived recital.”
“This was an outstanding start to the Associate Artists programme with Trish and Elaine, and encouraging evidence of an openness on the part of the Wigmore Hall, and also of the broader issue of the genre fluidity of so much contemporary music.”
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“The work of this unique group shows how free improv can incorporate various genre musics, merging them into a miraculously coherent yet spontaneous whole.”
“Put The Brakes On’ is a suite of imaginary spaces, the galactic Black Top electronics swirl in while Mitchener putters and yelps like a meteor shower, as Drake, Parker and Thomas’ driving rhythm section erupts.”
“Two breaths, two monsters of innovation.”
“With a harrowingly physical performance from Mitchener, tightly woven displays of virtuosity from the group, and little more than the highly evocative lighting to set the scene, it is like watching an exorcism: the demon cast out is history.”
“The soul that should go with funk was offered up with great effect at the Noumatrouff on Météo’s second night when singer Elaine Mitchener and her London-based septet presented what was billed as vocal classics of the avant garde.”
“Mitchener also makes a virtue of this ‘out of many threads one fabric’ aesthetic but, crucially, she brings her own character and idiosyncrasies to bear on Lee’s repertoire.”
