[offramp]

Here's a review from Slow Secret, capturing two of the bands on Friday night's bill...

What better venue for an evening of ambient music that Holy Trinity Church? Though it may not have the best sound for a concert in Leeds I would doubt anybody's claim for a venue with better ambience. The phrase 'pull up a pew' has never been more apt than tonight as the church fills to the brim with a crowd that knows it made the right choice in braving the cold weather to be here, with or without canned lager in hand.

Due to a train delayed by an undisclosed object hitting it as it left Burley-in-Wharfedale Station we miss the majority of opening act Pausal, though catching the end, minimal is the key and the group make the use of projectors and visuals as much they do notes and chords. They could be described as a kind of English Sigur Ros, perhaps though without the originality and class.

Leeds duo Glissando takes the stage, the brooding vocals of Ellie May Irving casting shadows over sombre atmospheres and piano movements. The sound is lonesome yet never heartfelt. Richard Knox is one minute directing the sound from an Apple Mac, the next to his guitar, then to a vocal call. Though the voice is the real star tonight, Glissando are a very special Leeds band indeed.

Stars Of The Lid are a difficult band to capture in words, they make their way to the stage to a choir of Disney-esque ambience, and from then on you know that this show will be out of the ordinary. Adam Wiltzie & Brian Edward McBride direct the beautiful orchestra-lite, and they play through cuttings of their 'Tired Sounds' and more recent 'Refinement of the Decline' albums. It's a wash of sound, a couple of violins have never sounded so big especially when the cello grinds up from the deep to create a roar of noise, you're listening for the distortion but it's not there. Sombre tones build and the projections on the church walls echo it, from green primordial swamps to the creation of the universe in its celestial magnitude, it's all painted on the ceiling tonight. This is one amazing show. There is real majesty here, so much so that a crowd that only dares to squeak open beer cans between songs demands an encore and still wants more once it's gone. It would be futile to name what songs are played tonight and it's one of those shows where everybody who was there will remember for years into the future.

www.slowsecret.com