Pantha Du Prince: Conference of Trees + Leifur James
Barbican, London

NEVER shying from staging fiercely conceptual modern compositions, this latest audio-visual project gracing the Barbican’s main hall is a marriage of techno and drumming on wood to create an imagined colloquy between trees.

Taking to the stage in tribal-style furry masks — a representation of an imagined tree folk perhaps or the personification of the trees — Pantha Du Prince (aka Hendrik Weber) is joined by four percussionists who play an array of fascinating instruments, from handcrafted wooden-log drums and stones to the more familiar vibraphone, glockenspiel and cello.

Behind this cacophony of analogue instrumentation stands electronics wizard Weber, who overcasts the ritualistic drumming with pounding digital beats, all beneath a tent-like canopy where images of trees and forests are projected.

Only its second performance since premiering at Hamburg’s Kampnagel International Summer Festival last August, Conference of Trees has ambient beginnings, with more emphasis on the handcrafted stick-on-wood percussion instruments before becoming more beat heavy.

There are two premieres tonight, only evidenced by the fact that the performance drifts increasingly away from tree imagery and becomes progressively techno-ed up. Yet the wonderful cohesion of Pantha and his live ensemble is not lost as they transfer to more traditional instruments.

Tubular bells, the tunkul, marimba, kantele, monochord and ondes martenot, an early electronic instrument invented in 1928, complete the impressive stage set up. The end result is a riveting performance that breaks many boundaries in its approach to live music and composition.

Support act Leifur James — who loops synth beats before turning to bash out melodies on a piano, Nils Frahm-style — is remarkably good. The standout is a remix of his track Suns Of Gold, which has the crowd cheering and whistling with approbation.

Conference of Trees is part of the Barbican’s year-long cross-arts season exploring the impact of technological advances on humans and this certainly whets the appetite for what’s to come.