Gillet’s contemporary improvisations and jazzy beats are enjoyable though lacking in clarity.

St. David’s Cathedral
June 20, 2015

After seeing Calvin Bowman’s midnight performance of Buxtehude’s organ preludes the night before, I was feeling pretty sleepy when I arrived at the same cathedral to watch Helen Gillet improvise solo on cello. But as I took my place among the audience on a heated pew, the lights dimmed and the audience rumbled in excitement for the mysteries of another Dark Mofo event. Building suspense, the cellist took her time to emerge to the front of the church. When she did, she sat down and opened her song with a gentle scratching of the strings which was put on a loop.

Gillet’s loop pedal recorded, layered, and stacked the different sounds and beats she produced – she was able to remove top layers mid-song as she pleased but the foundations remained for the duration of the songs. A contemporary performance in a historic setting, Gillet explored the percussive potential of the cello as much as the melodic through tapping, scratching, and plucking. The first piece used these sounds to set a scene over which she improvised lengthy and ethereal notes without vibrato....