On the heels of new EP Grass Garden, locals Pallmer magnetized the seated audience at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre with their set of contemporary classical music. The duo of Emily Kennedy (cello) and Mark Kleyn (viola) fuse both worlds in their chamber pop songs, while Kennedy's voice neatly covers up any hint of a seam.
Pallmer opened their set with lulling loops, both filling in lines with short bits of tension and sometimes colouring outside of them with high, swirling melodies. "None of it might be right / all of it might be wrong," sang Kennedy on Grass Garden's "Blueprints," her voice burrowing into affecting layers of plucking and bowing. Closing with the EP's final two songs: "Knuckles" featured viola dancing around a driving, bassy cello note, before both instruments soared just shy of the sun in an ascending ending; Kleyn then helped to hold and loop the cello and hand percussion on Grass Garden's title track, resulting in another exciting and upward-spiralling ending.
Pallmer opened their set with lulling loops, both filling in lines with short bits of tension and sometimes colouring outside of them with high, swirling melodies. "None of it might be right / all of it might be wrong," sang Kennedy on Grass Garden's "Blueprints," her voice burrowing into affecting layers of plucking and bowing. Closing with the EP's final two songs: "Knuckles" featured viola dancing around a driving, bassy cello note, before both instruments soared just shy of the sun in an ascending ending; Kleyn then helped to hold and loop the cello and hand percussion on Grass Garden's title track, resulting in another exciting and upward-spiralling ending.