Tyne Soundings Live @ The Sage. Thursday 23rd July. 7.00.p.m. Performance.

Bill Fontana (Apple Mac), Tim Garland (bass clarinet, flute & soprano saxophone), Asaf Sirkis (percussion). Tim Garland explained, in a post-performance Q&A, that Tyne Soundings Live was in sevenths (determined by the intervals of the north east coastal fog horns) in the key of E. To the non-musicians present in the audience I'm not sure if this would have been helpful information pre-performance. Garland indicated that these parameters made it an interesting proposition for improvising musicians. Listening to the piece - the duration of this early evening performance being approximately thirty minutes - it occured to these ears that the instrumental input was limited; Garland keen to interject, impose, Asaf Sirkis unusually hesitant, seemingly reluctant to break the silence. Bill Fontana's work was contemplative ( some might say soporific). The dominant sound was that of the horns - Tyne North Pier and Souter Lighthouse. Sound sculptor Bill Fontana is a resident of San Francisco - the Bay Area foghorns have obvious parallels with those on the north east coast of England. The live 'soundings' were integral to the performance; Fontana, gazing intently at the screen of his Apple Mac, introduced sounds and moderated the perforrmance. The visual element (a two-screen backdrop), added to the stillness of the piece. The kittiwakes nesting on the North Tower of the Tyne Bridge were oblivious to the goings-on (the bridge contributed to the sound-scape) and the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel was shown in a loop montage of images with scarcely audible sounds of the moving escalators. One or two jazzers were present at the performance. It is to be hoped that they appreciated the multi-disciplinary aspect of the event because the jazz content, not unexpectedly, was minimal at best. Russell