Ever laid in bed with the lights off whilst listening to your MP3 player or iPod on shuffle? Remember that feeling? If you do, then ‘Music in the Dark’ presented by J.P and Leonardo is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Blackhorse Lane Music studio is the venue based on Blackhorse Lane itself in Walthamstow, not far from the infamous and now closed down music venue ‘The Royal Standard’.
Back from reminiscing, I entered this friendly, thirty seated room where J.P began to inform us of this concept, the progression of emotion that will be delivered to us through the music.
This is Music in the Dark, a chance to enable those senses we may not always get in touch with, but tonight we can, a lesson to feel what we have always loved.
After each track, J.P informs us of what influenced him when creating the song he’s just performed. The room was in darkness apart from a spotlight strategically placed for us to witness their fingers dancing on the guitars, played so effortessly by duo Jean-Pierre Mars and Leonardo.
Then, that moment happened; Music in the dark. Lights switched off. I’ll compare this to that phenomenon of the ‘silent disco’. Through the darkness, the instrumental gypsy influenced music was being played.
Jean-Pierre Mars, the self taught guitarist who’s been evolving and learning for over thirty years; whose influences allowed him to create from styles such as African, Latin, Spanish, Flamenco, Celtic and Gypsy, this was an experience to behold.
A wonderful infusion that sent me on a journey and allowed my mind to throw out some pictures that would belong to the Mariachi band from Tarantino’s ‘Dusk till Dawn’. Being on a journey, there’s always something new to see and witness, for this reviewer I could hear the emotion with each string being plucked, their influences allowing their creative juices to flow like a river.
In Just a short time working together, Jean-Pierre Mars and Mexican guitarist Leonardo have come up with a unique tag team. A duo who perform so well with each other that they could make Music in the Dark a regular item. Sadly no CD has been made of their work together as of yet, but I believe this is being worked on.
The only problem I had is that 1 hour and 50 minutes may have been a bit too long for me, but the peace of mind this music delivered and the idea of playing in the dark put me in such a meditative state, I’d highly recommend seeing this duo play.
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Review by Mark Wincott