Review: Phil Bancroft - Home, small as the world

BASCO, EDINBURGH

SAXOPHONIST Phil Bancroft launched an ambitious  two-year project with this performance, and if the musical and logistical complexities inevitably produced some tentative moments (especially in the first half), it did little to detract from  an adventurous and imaginative success.

A sofa and two armchairs adorned the front of the stage, and the players performed the first half clad in that most redolent of "home" garments, pyjamas. Bancroft opened with a hilarious home video, then launched into a new tune inspired by swimming with his dog, accompanied by Paul Harrison (piano and keyboards), Mario Caribe (bass) and Stu Ritchie (drums).

Guitarist Graeme Stephen, cornet player Felicity Provan and fiddler Aidan O'Rourke joined them on stage. From there, the evening developed in typically unpredictable fashion, with projected images and video complementing the musical action.

That music contained  quite  a high proportion of fractured free improvisation and soundscape-style  passages in the first half, with a young volunteer from the audience (the saxophonist's nephew, although not by pre-arrangement) joining in at one stage.

The compositions seemed stronger in the second half, and were more focused on both the excellent ensemble playing and on soloing. Graeme Stephen negotiated the lengthy Journey in inventive fashion, O'Rourke and Caribe conjured an evocative mix of Scottish and Arabic scales leading into  powerful sections – Nationalism and War – and Gaia reflected on the current woes of our planetary rather than personal home.

They closed with a hilarious glimpse into the future as the band nipped off to return dressed in space suits. They launched into a furiously funky dance tune set against a video of the saxophonist and his very patient wife preparing to head for the stars in a second-hand spaceship.