There’s a strangeness to Cate Le Bon’s music – an alluring strangeness though, the kind that’s compelling, that you feel unable to look away from. The Welsh musician plays songs that are difficult to describe: woozy, grey-area ballads, where it’s difficult to tell what instrument you’re hearing exactly, or whether it’s an instrument at all.
This way of writing music is borne out on her latest album, Michelangelo Dying, which feels more like a complete sonic universe than anything Le Bon has released before. Tonight, she is playing in support of the album at the Barbican, a venue that feels suited to her approach to her music as more like a live artwork that happens to contain a band playing, than an actual gig.
The stage bears this out – Le Bon and an extensive band are surrounded, yes, by instruments, but also strange monolithic glowing sculptures, a ruffled grey curtain, and what looks to be tissue paper or perhaps cotton wool, spilling out from their instruments and onto the stage. There’s not a cable in sight – all have been obscured by these strange ribbon-like adornments, and it’s an oddly compelling stage affectation; immediately, it lends everything a theatre-like edge.
Le Bon herself is an imposing, almost ghostly figure. She enters the stage long after her band have begun the opening notes of ‘Jerome’ – the first track from Michelangelo Dying – and takes up her position, staring down the audience with an unreadable gaze. The moment she begins, there’s a commanding silence in the room – she rocks back and forth on the balls of her feet, her voice an alto sigh; it’s the first of many times I’m reminded of the Cocteau Twins’ inscrutable delivery.
‘Moderation’, taken from 2022’s Pompeii, ups the tempo somewhat, taking us towards the more earworm territory within Le Bon’s back catalogue. This half of her work adds intricate guitar and glockenspiel melodies to the undulating synths and saxophone, to spell-binding effect – the glockenspiel melody of ‘Home To You’, in fact, garners one of the few cheers of the evening, amongst an otherwise hushed crowd.
It’s amazing how the various disparate corners of her setlist feel of a piece with each other when performed by Le Bon and her band. Despite a career over a decade and a half in the running, her cinematic flair shines through as the common thread here, whether accompanied by scuzzy guitar or mournful saxophone – the latter of which is a real highlight here, Euan Hinshelwood providing a counterpoint to Le Bon’s own powerful vocalisations.
It had been teased in the run-up to the show that she would be joined by special guests, the first of which was Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, filling in for John Cale on his duet from Le Bon’s latest record. He re-emerged for the encore, too, this time joined by ‘Andy Cringle’ – an anagrammatic Dry Cleaning, who had also provided a secret set for the gig’s support slot too, and H. Hawkline. The stage was practically crowded as Le Bon and co. played a rousing rendition of ‘Are You With Me Now’, a song she “only plays for special occasions”. This was certainly that – a subtly beautiful set from one of the UK’s most sublimely underrated talents.
featured image: H. Hawkline
