Alice Boman - Shacklewell Arms, London 03/06/14

04 June 2014, 14:30 | Written by Russell Warfield

(Live)

(Alice Boman)

There’s some willful anonymity to Alice Boman’s music. She’s not keen to talk about authorial intention, and her first record was never intended to be heard publicly. Heck, many of her songs and records don’t even really have titles (EP II is the name of her newest, second EP). But tonight, her performance is strikingly direct: stood alone at centre stage; eyes wide open to every crystalline word.

On record, Boman’s music protects the fragile core of piano and voice with hazy margins of incidental sounds and faraway percussion. Tonight, most of these songs are stripped right back to just voice and electric piano, willowing in cold reverb.

Her command of melody is sheer and exact. Songs like the haunting “Waiting” are all the stronger for their thinner textures. The addition of a sparse drum kit for a couple of songs is welcome, but tonight’s version of “Over” needlessly crowds the mix by bringing in tinny samples. Much better are the moments of solitude like tonight’s wrenching rendition of “What”, which brings the set back to a gorgeous, hymnal close.

Setlist

Be Mine
Waiting
Lead Me
Skiss 2
Over
Nya
What