By Hana Sakurai Wernham, Second Year, English
An uncharacteristically hot night for the end of May, catching a glimpse of white-clad Sarah Kinsley through the impervious pillars of The Fleece is like seeing a snow angel come to deliver the good word via soaring synths and heavenly vocals.
Her set opens with the searing synth saw of ‘Truth of Pursuit’ which reverberates as if travelling through an underwater tunnel. Any instrumental harshness, though welcome, is immediately abated by Kinsley’s remarkable voice that twists and turns with controlled flips and breaks across registers. It is pure, sweet and glassy in the upper register and impressively full and round when it reaches below the stave.
Her vocal prowess is on full display in an acoustic rendition of ‘After All’. Kinsley retreats to sit at the keyboard, accompanying herself in front of a hushed crowd. The stripped back version lays bare the devastating melodic climax of the song: ‘love is not enough after all / love is just a man I used to call’.
Kinsley’s classical training is clear in her expert navigation of some complicated piano parts that she sings over with ease, as well as in the orchestral strings featured on ‘I’m Not A Mountain’ and ‘Knights’. But she is also indebted to a great electronic tradition, citing the Cocteau Twins as her greatest influence. Each song is laden with effects that cover the audience in thick waves of altered sound.
A particularly exciting part of Kinsley’s live offering is her use of the contact microphone, a simple device comprised of a piezo disc that detects sound vibrations through contact with objects (as opposed to traditional microphones which pick up sound through air vibrations). In the downtime between songs, she holds the contact mic to her mouth and throat, and it picks up high frequency vibrations which are run through pedals and effects to create soaring siren calls. One of electronic music’s greatest (by which I mean both significant and good) acts of blasphemy is the technological possession of the human voice – vocoders, autotune, etc. So it is remarkable when that technology is exploited to create something that sounds organic rather than artificial. What better medium to evoke the sounds of sirens, that ancient myth of a cyborged woman/fish?
Kinsley gushes about making it across the pond to the land of her musical inspirations. Her indebtedness to British electronic music is clear when she delivers a faithful and well-executed cover of Imogen Heap’s ‘Headlock’. The set is full of other crowd-pleasers (particularly tracks from 2024 debut album ‘Escaper’) – Kinsley must be praised for her ability to write undeniable synthpop bangers. Her creative control operates on every level – like Heap, she is songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist.
Hana Sakurai Wernham
The gig ends with the eponymous track ‘Fleeting’, a fitting description for the concert itself which finished far too soon.
Featured image: Epigram / Hana WernhamHave you listened to Fleeting yet?
