Review: Natalie Duncan – Nottingham Contemporary – 19 October 2013

Arriving at the Nottingham Contemporary, I was a little surprised to be in ‘The Space’, which I learnt is the room used for events at the venue, but for some reason I thought we would be in the bar area. I imagined sitting at tables, with drinks in hand, listening to some beautiful music. As Natalie Duncan doesn’t strike me as a ‘get up and dance’ kinda artist, I imagined a low key gig, but the room defied my expectations and immediately set the audience up for an unforgettable night of gorgeous music.

Kicking things off, in a subtle, mellow way, were CECILLE GREY, I was not familiar with them before seeing them at this gig, and now they are one of my favourite local bands. Their folk inspired set reminds me of artists such as Laura Marling, Emiliana Torrini, and even Damien Rice. The lead singers vocals were particularly lovely, and reminded me of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell at times. Their folk-esque melodies are paired with some interesting blues influences and also the use of electric bass and electric guitar in some tracks reminded me of Radiohead circa ‘OK Computer’. I particularly like that the band experiments with unusual melodic progressions and key/time signatures, as this adds more layers of intrigue to their beautiful, delicate and haunting tracks.

Cecille Grey were a fantastic opening act, leaving the audience mesmerised while the stage was rearranged for Natalie Duncan’s performance. As the time drew closer to her set, the front of the stage becomes more crowded, people keen to be close to her. For good reason too, as her performance was incredible. Opening her set with two popular tracks from her album ‘Devil in Me’ really thrilled the audience, and prepared them for her new material. Looking around me I saw people gently dancing, couples holding each other close, others just standing and watching intently. Although the music does have livelier moments, most people seemed to feel contemplative and  listened intently.

She then followed with ‘I See Colours’, a beautiful, self reflective piece, and ‘Warmer in my World’. This track definitely has more of a pop influence, and the audience begin to move a bit more. It’s well placed I feel, as Natalie Duncan’s tracks are often vulnerable and about her pain, so an upbeat number is a nice change of pace.

Before long though, the band dropped away entirely, and Natalie began one of her new songs; ‘Moon on the Bridge’. The song has some stunning melodic progressions which are made only more poignant by her loneliness on the stage. This song is beautiful and mesmerising, and her vocals reminded me at times of Kate Bush when in the higher pitches. After this, she played ‘Night Owl’ a song written only “the day before yesterday”, which for a new tune is impressive, it has a recognisable melody, but has some lovely improvisation. Natalie also sang another solo number entitled ‘Will we be Strong’ before reintroducing her band.

They play three songs; ‘Black Thorn’, ‘Keep Me Safe’ and ‘Over Again’, which had me chuckling to myself because their bassist had some incredible facial expressions, but apparently he isn’t usually in the band, so maybe that was his ‘concentration face’… ‘Keep Me Safe’ is my personal favourite after seeing Natalie perform it on the NottinghamLive radio show last week, so it was lovely to hear it performed with her band too.

As the encore, Natalie Duncan did a beautiful and well received performance of ‘Uncomfortable Silence’ with the band, and her audience was mouthing the words along with her. It rounded up an incredible evening, and left it with a bang. I will be following Natalie Duncan closely, and look forward to seeing her perform in the near future, as that gig was stunning.

Review by Cassia Helme