Esther Swift

Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

14 June 2024

It's hard to believe that it's 13 years since I first saw Esther Swift. In 2011, I randomly went to see a concert of harp music, just out of curiosity, and the programme featured a 30-minute semi-improvised composition for four harps by Esther Swift that completely blew my mind. She pretty much instantly became my favourite contemporary composer.

Thirteen years and 20 concerts later, I'm here for the launch of her new album. Actually, unbelievably, the launch of her debut solo full-length album. But it's not an album of the long-form classical music that she originally hooked me with, it's an album of songs. A dozen short songs. Because her music isn't confined to any one genre; she freely takes what she needs from classical, jazz, folk, minimalism ... and it's all here, packed into a dozen short songs.

Esther sings and plays the harp, and the other musicians include a string quartet, jazz pianist, drummer, and trombone player, and for one song three backing singers. Not every every instrument features on every song; only the instruments that the song needs. Sometimes it's just a solo harp. Other times, its the full band. The sound is amplified, but not over-amplified, and everything sounds perfectly balanced. And the staging is stunning, with trippy back projections and lights worthy of a rock concert.

Some of the songs (Blue, Lateral Flow, One Cigarette) I have heard before in concert, though not necessarily in these arrangements. Others are completely new to me. All of them are beautiful, thoughtful, and almost always unexpected. The only predictable thing about Esther's music is that it won't do the expected thing. Rhythms are unsettlingly wonky, instrumentation is unconventional (who builds a song around a relentlessly repetitive trombone riff?), tunes go in odd directions, but without ever forgetting to be beautiful tunes. For one piece she leaves the harp and stands centre stage to recite a poem, backed by the strings.

And regardless of whether it's long classical suites or short songs, Ester Swift remains my favourite contemporary composer.

It's a beautiful album, and tonight it's presented beautifully. Best concert I've ever seen.