IAMTHEMORNING
“DRESSED ALL IN WHITE, AS IF FOR A WEDDING OR HUMAN SACRIFICE, MARJANA SEMKINA GLEEFULLY DELIVERS THE BAND’S SONGS OF DEATH AND MISERY.”
VENUE COURTYARD THEATRE, LONDON
DATE 01/10/2019
It’s showtime at London’s bafflingly named Courtyard Theatre – it’s not in a courtyard, and isn’t really a theatre – and sweat is running down the walls. It’s an odd choice of venue for Iamthemorning, the rising stars of chamber prog: a black, subterranean box in London’s hipster district with a stage that doesn’t comfortably accommodate the bandmembers and air conditioning that neither conditions nor airs.
Singer Marjana Semkina doesn’t seem to be too bothered by the cramped working conditions, and is on sparkling form. Dressed all in white, as if for a wedding or human sacrifice, she gleefully delivers the band’s songs of death and misery and electro-convulsive therapy with a voice of seraphic beauty. The cheery presentation is completely at odds with the bleakness of the material, but it’s a spectacularly effective juxtaposition, like being slowly bludgeoned to death by someone who stops every few minutes to gently tend your wounds and check that you’re okay. Semkina is also mischievously funny, whether it’s mocking the darkness of her own material, lamenting entire towns who fail to appreciate her humour – Reichenbach in Germany, that’s you – or peering into the darkness, blinded by the spotlights, trying to figure out if there’s actually
an audience in place.
The set opens with Scotland, which lacks the blistering highs of the studio version, but this configuration of Iamthemorning is a strippedback one, with percussionist Evan Carson and cellist Mikhail Ignatov providing subtle but solid support to Semkina and her regular sparring partner, pianist Gleb Kolyadin. They are joined a couple of songs in by acoustic guitarist Charlie Cawood, who emerges from the back of the stage and carefully picks his way into position.
All the musicians add personality to the songs, whether it’s Ignatov’s deftly plucked pizzicato at the end of Touching II, or the dramatic tumble of chords that give emphasis to the pivotal ‘I drop the match in’ line as a delightfully wonky Matches climaxes. Kolyadin is at the heart of it all, with Lilies a tour-de-force, the high-speed piano flurries as much a feat of musical athleticism as they are a florid backbone to Semkina’s vocal. The tracks from The Bell are the highlight, with the lilting Ghost Of A Story a genuinely lovely moment.
5/4 gives the audience a chance to contribute some perfectly choreographed hand claps, and K.O.S. ends the evening on a spellbinding note. “Thank you for the standing ovation that I couldn’t actually see,” says Semkina, once again peering hopefully into the black. The band encore with Romance (“We do not do love songs, and never will,” clarifies Semkina) and an exquisite Os Lunatum. There’s another ovation and then they’re gone, perhaps to scout a more suitable venue for the next London show.