OCCASIONALLY a music critic snuffling around the backstreets in the rain finds a unique truffle. In this case it's a double whammy from a group called Living Room, playing the quirkiest, most lovely music. Manu Delago is the only musician I've ever
come across playing a hang, which looks like a mini flying saucer or two woks stuck together. It was developed in Switzerland and only appeared in 2001.
Living Room have known each other all their lives, growing up together in an Austrian village. They play with eerie rapport – Manu kicks off on one of three hangs, all tuned to different major and minor modes, so the hangs sound like Caribbean steel pans. He plays them by gently beating small indents hollowed into the steel with the tips of his fingers, or slapping them. Then Christoph Pepe Auer comes in with funky counter-melodies that make full use of the glorious tonal range of his bass clarinet.
It's impossible to pigeonhole these guys and their music, and they are only here this week so get along to see them before they disappear in a giant UFO.
Until 10 August. Today 2:10pm and 5:10pm
The full article contains 213 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
