The idea behind the Post War Orchestra is intriguing. The brainchild of artist Hilary Champion, the "orchestra" (actually a band of six multi-instrumentalists) performs on deactivated weapons and military equipment - guitars and flutes forged from rifles and a lyre constructed from a Second World War steel helmet.
The idea occurred to Champion in 2006 when she was working on her fine art degree.
Champion wants us to imagine “a world in which there is global harmony as all conflicts have been resolved”.
The concept may be provocative but the execution was sadly uninspiring.
Fronted by musician, singer-songwriter and actor Daniela Finley (for some reason performing under the nom de guerre of Ruby Fenn) the band ran through a few melodic but anemic anti-war numbers, such as “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, and unveiled the mystifying Concerto for Sonar Generator.
This pretentious piece descended into self-parody when composer Pip Greasley took the megaphone to bark an incomprehensible section of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five from the pulpit of Brighton’s oldest church.
The performance closed with an incongruous cover of Grace Jones's Slave To The Rhythm.
Not so much post-war as antediluvian.
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