Hanakiv / Marysia Osu, Sy; Gigs, Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury, 29/03/2025

Sy ; Gigs’ third event of 2025 was a celebration of International Piano Day, which takes place annually on the 88th day of the year, usually on March 29th. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the founding of IPD by the German pianist, keyboard player and composer Nils Frahm.

Tonight’s event was subtitled ‘An Exploration of Harp & Piano’ and was a double bill featuring two London based musicians, the Estonian born pianist and composer Johanna Kivimagi (aka Hanakiv) and the Polish born harpist and composer Marysia Osu.

This was a genuine double bill with both artists playing full length sets and although the subtitle might have suggested that they would be playing together there was only example of a joint collaboration when Osu guested with Hanakiv on the final number of the pianist’s set.

Sy; Gigs is the brainchild of series co-ordinator Chris Taylor, who began the project with the aim of bringing genuinely alternative music to Shrewsbury. The Sy: Gigs strand embraces various forms of experimental music with jazz just one of the elements in an eclectic range of events that also incorporates folk, electronica, ambient, New Age, contemporary classical and avant pop / rock.  It’s a series that is likely to appeal to listeners of such BBC Radio 3 programmes as Late Junction, Unclassified and Night Tracks. Taylor has done a terrific job in building a loyal following for his events and although not completely sold out tonight’s concert was still very well attended.

HANAKIV

Hanakiv ((Johanna Kivimagi) – piano, Korg Minilogue XD synth, vocals, electronics (Red Panda Particle 2 FX Pedal, Ableton software), Rebecca Burden – cello, vocals

Opening the show was Hanakiv, who describes herself as a musician who “creates meditative, piano based music with elements from classical and electronic music”. 

Born into a musical family she cites her musical influences as including Tim Hecker, Björk’s “Vespertine” album,  Kara-Lis Coverdale, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Aphex Twin, Portico Quartet, Regina Spektor, Sigur Ros and her own Estonian cultural heritage, particularly the choral music of her native land.. Hanakiv also spent time living and studying in Iceland, an experience, that together with her love of nature, also informs her music.

She is signed to the Manchester based Gondwana record label, founded by trumpeter Matthew Halsall, for whom she released her debut album “Goodbyes” in 2023. The album includes a guest appearance from the British saxophonist, poet and songwriter Alabaster DePlume.

On her Bandcamp page Hanakiv says of the album;
“This is an album about healing. It is about saying your goodbyes to everything that doesn’t serve you any more. Each of these songs has a little goodbye in it. So, these are very beautiful and necessary goodbyes”.

As such the work fits very well into the Sy; Gigs ethos. Chris Taylor  is particularly keen to stress the importance of music to mental health and general well being. 

Tonight’s performance featured Hanakiv playing in a duo setting with cellist and vocalist Rebecca Burden. The majority of the programme was sourced from the “Goodbyes” album but the performance commenced with a ten minute improvised “Intro”  featuring the distinctive sounds of the venue’s upright piano, the strings of which had been dampened by Hanakiv’s use of masking tape, just one of several prepared piano techniques that she deploys, but the main one that was used tonight. This was an immersive listening experience that also featured the sounds of electronics, in part controlled by a utility belt attached to the pianist’s waist, and the warm rich timbres of Burden’s cello, plus her occasional wordless vocals.

The album material began with “Home II”, one of two compositions written when Hanakiv returned home to Estonia during the pandemic. This piece featured fewer electronics and placed a greater focus on prepared piano sounds, the hypnotic rhythms of which were augmented by Burden’s evocative bowing, which was sometimes percussive and variously eerie and dramatic.

“Home I” followed, as it does on the album, a more straightforward piano piece that retained that hypnotic quality and which seemed to take its inspiration from Minimalism.

The as yet unrecorded “Lastele”, a title translating from Estonian as “For the Children” was a song that featured the singing of both Hanakiv and Burden and also included the deployment of sampled percussive sounds.

From the album “Meditation III” featured a solo piano introduction incorporating prepared piano sounds and was another piece that seemed to be rooted in the Minimalist tradition. It also involved the addition of cello and the subtle deployment of electronics.

A second new composition, “Sunbeams”, received its world premiere in Shrewsbury and was the most direct and rhythmic performance to date, featuring looped rhythms allied to plucked cello and Burden’s wordless vocals. The immediacy of the music helped to ensure that this item was particularly well received by the audience.

The performance concluded with Hanakiv inviting Marysia Osu and her flautist, YUIS,  to the stage to guest on “No Words Left”, another composition from the “Goodbyes” album. This was a particularly beautiful and meditative performance, with the two guests playing their part and helping to create an even broader sonic palette on a piece that features the saxophone of DePlume on the album recording.. Once again it was rapturously received by the audience.

Hanakiv’s set was immersive and often beautiful and her deployment of prepared piano and electronic sounds consistently fascinating. Burden was a capable and empathic musical companion,  although the cello did occasionally threatened to overwhelm the sounds of the prepared piano with its dampened strings.

This was certainly an unusual celebration of International Piano Day with conventional piano sounds only heard rarely, but it was inventive, imaginative and deeply persona. That said I would have welcomed a greater variation in terms of pace and dynamics.

My thanks to Hanakiv for speaking with me during the interval, once an impressive amount of albums had been sold to eager audience members. She was happy to clarify details about the set list and to explain something about the prepared piano techniques and the electronic equipment that she was using, which has all helped enormously in the writing of this review. Thank you Hanakiv.

MARYSIA OSU

Marysia Osu – harp, electronics, piano,  YUIS – alto flute, Plumm - vocals

Next up was harpist Marysia Osu (Maria Osuchowska), another artist to also make extensive use of electronics.

Osu is a graduate of the classical music course at Trinity Laban in London but also befriended students on the jazz course, from whom she acquired a range of effects pedals, this encouraging her to experiment further with the combination of harp and electronics.

She too has worked with Alabaster DePlume and also with artists such as Maxwell Owin & Joe Armon Jones, Puma Blue, Laura Misch, Yazmin Lacey, Penya, Roxanne Tataei, Sawa Manga and Loyle Carner.

Osu has formed a creative partnership with poet and vocalist Belinda Zhawi (aka MA.MOYO), with whom she released the digital EP “Earth Cries / Gloriosa” in 2022.

Osu has also issued the solo digital EP releases “Loop Collection 1” (2021) plus a number of stand alone tracks.

Her first full album release is “harp, beats & dreams” which came out in 2024 and appears on Gilles Petersen’s Brownswood Recordings imprint.  The recording features contributions from her two collaborators this evening, flautist Lluis Domenech Plana aka YUIS and vocalist Sophie Plummer, whose stage name is simply Plumm.

Osu, Plumm and YUIS are all members of the London based Levitation Orchestra. This is an eleven piece ensemble founded by the Anglo-Swedish trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom that contains such rising jazz stars as bassist Hamish Nockalls-Moore and drummer Harry Long. Their influences are said to include Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Stravinsky and Ravel. I’d sure like to hear them.

“harp, beats & dreams” was conceived as a series of diary entries exploring various emotions. Again Osu’s music fits well within the Sy; Gigs ethos, as epitomised by this quote from her Bandcamp page;
“Since my very first music lessons, out of all the pieces I was learning on the piano or harp I always felt the most connected to ones that I considered extremely beautiful, and that included a feeling of sadness and feeling reflective. I think this has stayed with me, and my composition process was cathartic, and became a way to self-soothe and process different events happening in my life”.

Like Hanakiv she chose to centre her set around the music from her debut album and all of the items on the record were played, albeit in a different running order to the recording. This was not a trio performance as such, with pieces being played in a variety of formats and with YUIS and Plumm joining Osu on stage as and when appropriate.

The performance began with “cascades” (all of Osu’s tune titles are in lower case), which commenced in atmospheric fashion with an ambient wash of electronic sounds that incorporated the music of birdsong. The shimmering, translucent timbres of Osu’s harp were added, a beautiful sound that was further expanded by the use of live looping techniques.
As the music segued into “meditation iv” YUIS came to the stage to add the mellifluous sounds of the alto flute, these augmented by sampled percussion sounds and Osu’s deep harp bass notes.

The title of the next piece, “dream language”, was inspired by the writing of the psychiatrist Karl Jung and was the second composition to feature the melodic sounds of YUIS’ alto flute. He added a lot to the pieces on which he played, his flute combining with the koto like timbres of Osu’s harp to create a sound that was reminiscent of the folk music of both Japan and China, but given a contemporary twist courtesy of Osu’s electronics, again featuring the use of pre-programmed percussive sounds, and YUIS’ deployment of extended, vocalised flute techniques.

Also from the album “melting timbers” saw YUIS replaced by vocalist Plumm on a song co-written by the harpist and the singer during an online lockdown collaboration.  Plumm’s ethereal vocals were somewhat immersed in an ambient mix featuring the sounds of harp and electronica and it was difficult to extract too much meaning from the English language lyrics on first listening.

YUIS then replaced Plumm for “memento mori”, a composition inspired by Stoic philosophy, as Osu explains on her Bandcamp page;
“memento mori is inspired by the stoic quote, ‘remember you must die’. The direct translation sounds ominous, but the stoics meant for it to be a motivational mantra- a reminder to live in the present, fully and authentically. Remembering that life is finite puts our priorities into perspective.” 
An ethereal electronic intro was subsequently augmented by flute melodies and sampled percussion, with Osu also making judicious use of delay effects.

The solo piece “only you” was strikingly beautiful with gentle harp melodies cushioned on a bed of almost subliminal electronics.

Osu moved to the piano for “until tomorrow continues”, which saw her accompanied by disembodied percussion and electronics, the latter incorporating some deep bass frequencies, before the performance concluded with the sound of unaccompanied piano as the music segued into “despite being in love”, the recorded version of which sees Osu doubling on piano and clarinet. Meanwhile the recorded version of “until tomorrow continues”  features the drums of Matt Davies, whose playing had presumably been sampled here.

Plumm returned to the stage to sing “care to care”, a song about which Osu says;
“Start the day motivated, do the things you must do, and once that’s achieved, don’t feel bad about taking time for yourself to ‘indulge’. It’s self-care. Care about caring for yourself!”
The performance found Plumm’s wistful vocals augmented by the sounds of harp and sampled percussion. The recorded version is another track that features Davies, and which also includes contributions from cellist Tom Oldfield and bassist Riccardo Trissino Dabire.

The performance concluded with the album’s opening track, “seatime”, which was also released as a single. This was a solo piece featuring harp and electronics and included the sampled sounds of waves and percussion and represented a beautiful conclusion to an immersive and intriguing performance that had included a fascinating array of sounds ranging from pure electronica at one extreme to the human voice at the other, filtered through a prism of harp, flute and piano. This was music that combined modern musical technology with acoustic sounds and which was informed by a fundamental humanity.

The contributions of Plumm, and particularly YUIS,  helped to give the music a welcome variety, although I was a little disappointed by the preponderance of pre-programmed beats and electronics and felt that the harp itself wasn’t always deployed to its full potential, which was a shame for such a beautiful sounding instrument. But there’s no denying that Osu’s blending of harp and electronics is genuinely innovative and that her music is often chillingly beautiful.

Since attending the performance I’ve listened to both Hanakiv’s and Osu’s albums on Bandcamp and have to admit that I prefer Osu’s offering. The Hanakiv recording is perhaps too ‘ambient’ and ‘Minimalist’ for a jazz listener, although it is also innovative, and, like the music of Osu, also deeply personal.

Osu’s album offers more variation, thanks in part to the contributions of the numerous guests, and most notably Plumm and YUIS. I’ve certainly enjoyed hearing Osu’s music again.

Tonight’s musical performances were augmented by a visual element that added greatly to the atmosphere of the overall event. As can be seen in the image accompanying this article the performance space at the Unitarian was adorned with carefully crafted paper flowers, as this Facebook post by Chris Taylor explains;

“Last night was many years in the making and surpassed the anticipation. A truly magical evening of music to celebrate Piano Day 2025 at the Unitarian Church in Shrewsbury. We brought our own spring blossoms into the church with the help of Visual Creations by Emma to create a perfect backdrop for the sublime, meditative evening of exquisite music to smooth our minds in these difficult times of international turmoil. The evening delivered absolute beauty. Thank you to everyone who joined and valued another incredible evening that is not ordinary, but authentic, creative and respectful”.

The recordings of Hanakiv and Marysia Osu can be purchased from their respective Bandcamp pages.

https://hanakiv.bandcamp.com/music

https://marysiaosu.bandcamp.com/

Sy; Gigs next event will be on 7th June 2025 at St. Alkmund’s Church, Shrewsbury. Subtitled “Movement in Sound” it will feature the Pan-Asian duo Tengger and the vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Seaming To. See http://www.sygigs.com for further details.

See also;
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