Olivia Murphy Orchestra – Siren Cycle @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham - May 4

Olivia Murphy (composer/ conductor/ text/clarinet); Becca Wilkins, Rebecka Edlund, Lucy-Anne Daniels (voices); Maddie Ashman (voice, cello); Julia Brussel (violin); Edie Bailey (viola); Lewis Sallows, George Garford, Alicia Gardener-Trejo (woodwinds); Charlotte Keeffe, Dave Sear, Anna Carter (brass); Daniel Kemshell (guitar); Olly Chalk (piano); Aram Bahmaie (bass); Kai Chareunsy (drums)

Tony Dudley-Evans used to do the programming for the Arts Centre during the Festival and, since his retirement, he awards a commission each year for music to be performed at the Festival and this year the funds have supported Olivia Murphy and her Orchestra.

Siren Cycle, a newly composed work, sees a feminist fable wearing the clothes of ancient Greek myth and all wrapped up in a musical setting that ranges across styles, scattering remnants of boundaries in its wake. Thankfully, we are handed a booklet that contains the libretto, a list of the musicians and illustrations by Murphy’s sister, Darcy, on the way in. The story features 4 young sisters, the sirens, raised by the sea on a distant island. When one is kidnapped by the selfish sea, the others set out to find her encountering muses, Gods and a bored and wicked sorceress on their travels.

The piece opens with the girls’ chatter while the music flows behind them, rising and breaking like the waves. Murphy uses rising flutes, darting and stabbing drums, like punctuation and weaves muted horns in and out, a simple piano figure, rolling bass and a pointillist guitar part all add to the scene setting. The tuba, low and mellow, builds with the brass to add some approaching menace; as the sister is taken the strings, a bowed bass, a drone guitar and the tuba are the unplumbed depth as she is drawn down. The sisters lament and the full orchestra and the vocals build to a full crescendo; the drums are in the driver’s seat as an alto sax soars into a solo; a mournful viola adds a sense of loss and an atmosphere of myth and the mystic.

As the story progresses the voices play both the sisters and the Greek Chorus, slipping easily between the roles. (Having the words in front of me helps). Murphy layers the music in waves, organically pulsing as she layers the music, folding it on itself.

A blonde sorceress with a wicked laugh is portrayed by a trumpet, spitting out her contempt and cynicism; she’s a good baddie of the sort that every myth needs. She is greeted by discordant thumping chords and oblique runs on the piano and the full band confronts her with Murphy conjuring up the elements for a storm at sea. A reflective clarinet solo allows the sisters rest as they lament the lost ship.

The next challenge comes from the Three Muses who appear as ethereal angelic voices with the mood undercut by a brooding cello. Over an urban funk drum and bass groove the Muses are tricked by the Queen of the Gods’ lies to challenge the sisters to a sing-off. The music is thrown all the way back to a Jazz Age Ellingtonian stomp but the sisters lose and have the feathers of their wings ripped out and thrown into the sea where they are rescued by a sea nymph. (Do keep up). Dancing bass and lightly stepping single note runs on guitar and piano depict the rescue as the voices tell the story.

The lost sister hears them and the excitement rises with the bass pulsing and driving the Orchestra as the drums and bass, and the tenors and strings lead on. A rousing full orchestral chorus fades away as hope wins through before a sisterly reunion brings a closing blast.

The whole piece has been a work of extraordinary imagination and I’m impressed by the vision to marshal all these different voices to tell, what is itself, a very imaginative story. I always think, with some regret that the problem with commissions for festivals is that the music gets its moment in the light, often at a single performance, and then is heard no more. I hope that Siren Song gets another life beyond its hour at Cheltenham.

There is loads more Olivia Murphy, including videos of her other groups and projects, on her website at oliviamurphymusic.com. Dave Sayer