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Lau

Venue: The Queen's Hall
Town: Edinburgh
Date: 27/11/14
Website: http://www.lau-music.co.uk

The ground-breaking band Lau consists of Kris Drever (a guitarist, singer and songwriter from Orkney), Aidan O'Rourke (a fiddler from Oban) and Martin Green (from East Anglia, on accordion, keyboards and electronics). All three are master musicians and, although regularly involved in a range of solo and other collaborative projects, they all regard Lau as "the motherband" and the main focus of their creative endeavours. Although Lau's music increasingly incorporates subtle nods towards rock, jazz improvisation and electronica, they still see themselves as a folk trio first and foremost. This heady musical mix has seen Lau win the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Band in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013. "The Guardian" has described Lau as "the UK's best live band" and the opportunity to see them play at Edinburgh's atmospheric Queen's Hall during a three-day Lau-Land extravaganza was too good to miss.

Following entertaining support sets from The Elysian Quartet and Ella the Bird, Lau's entrance to the stage was greeted with noisy and enthusiastic acclaim. Lau's most recent album, 2012's critically-acclaimed "Race The Loser", provided most of the material for the set, including the stunning opener, "Torsa", whose delicate intro flowered into a gloriously uplifting melody. The strident and atmospheric "Save The Bees" featured sparklingly imaginative solos from all three musicians, soaring above some seriously powerful chords, with a dreamy acoustic passage midway through. "Throwing Pennies", the hauntingly-beautiful "Ghosts" and the Lal Waterson cover, "Midnight Feast" all showcased Kris Drever's mesmerising vocals, with the first two also highlighting his considerable song-writing talent.

Lau's music displayed great subtlety, delicacy and shifts in mood. It often built steadily in tempo towards exhilarating crescendos, created by Kris Drever's muscular guitar riffs and chords, Aidan O'Rourke's furious fiddle and Martin Green's bold and imaginative use of a range of loops, samples and other electronic gadgetry. While the three musicians remained seated throughout the performance, such was the exuberance of their playing at times that they appeared to levitate from their chairs!

Midway through the set, Lau were joined on stage by The Elysian Quartet to recreate a stunning and lengthy piece originally written for, and performed during, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The set closed with "Far From Portland", one of the extended masterpieces from "Race The Loser". This was an endlessly creative tune, featuring, at various times, an irresistible thrumming electronic beat, wheezy accordion, shimmering acoustic guitar, pleasingly grungy distortion and a haunting fiddle and keyboard refrain.

If the set finished on a high, the two encores took things to yet another level. These two closing tunes both reached thrilling climaxes which delighted the audience. Incredibly, the individual playing (and virtuosity) of all three musicians was clearly discernible within what can only be described as rich walls of sound.

Lau continue to go from strength to strength and this towering performance underlined their credentials as one of the best live bands around, in any genre. They are due to release a new album in 2015 and tickets for the promotional tour next May and June will surely be in great demand.

David Ferguson