It’s in a – thankfully covered – Meeting House Square that the experimental, pioneering artist chooses to unveil UNSPOKEN, his first live show for a quarter of a century.
Introduced as a tribute to the capital (as well as to the late photographer Brendan Bourke), UNSPOKEN ties Stano’s trademark ambient sounds and prototype post-rock – flecked this evening with jazzy flourishes and lent some tribal rhythms – to a visual love letter to his hometown.
With contributing musicians, Eels collaborator Sean Coleman and Dutch jazz maestro Jeen Rabs low down and almost hidden at the front, we begin our 40-minute journey tentatively, quietly, as we take in late night Liffeyside scenes. As things accelerate, lurching and swaying into life, however, and we leave the city for the mountains and some surreal visual effects and abstractions, UNSPOKEN comes into its own. Rorschach splashes, flowing water and brilliant sky shots collide with a percussive, pacey soundtrack.
Guitar shards, house-like bass shudders and driving drums make the middle-section an intriguing experience. At times things simmer gently, before erupting once more. It ends in a breathless gallop, on a high.
A return to urban settings sees things slow down again. The music is well-performed throughout by three stellar musicians, but, in the post-rock world, it’s scarcely as revolutionary as it might once have been and the live setting is trickier than listening at home.