If I find one musician who holds me rapt for 40 minutes that’s a good month. To find two in a month is extraordinary. I stumbled across two today.
 
I remember the first time I heard (really heard) harp and bowed strings together. I was 18, in Paris and it was Verdi. I could barely breathe. That combination, done well, still works for me. Rachel Newton trio. Harp, violin and percussion.
 
I didn’t need anything after that but went to see Hannah James’s astonishing performance, Jig Doll. Mesmerising in a quite different way and all the better as I didn't know what to expect. Voice, accordion, thumb-piano, clog-dance percussion, cartwheels and a looper. It’s a long time since I’ve got out of my seat and crawled to the front to sit on the floor so I could see from up close. 

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