Juliette Lemoine and Chris Amer
Usher Hall 8/9/25
Juliette Lemoine and Chris Amer
The first of this season’s Emerging Artists’ Series introduces us to cellist Juliette Lemoine and Chris Amer, who plays a tenor guitar. They work together with Live Music Now Scotland as well as pursuing solo careers and collaborations with other musicians. Today they provide a new twist to traditional sets of Scottish and Irish dances, always rhythmical, I noted, though designed for listening rather than dancing to.
Juliette, with a degree in traditional music, enjoys working between folk, jazz and classical music, and would like to see the cello accepted as a folk instrument. She and Chris have developed their own improvisational style, sparking ideas and musical phrases off each other. The sets begin tentatively, with each tune explored rather than played right through, and gradually building up pace and volume. They make the most of the instruments’ percussive potential, with the additional sound of feet slapping the floor. Each melody moves gently into the next and most of the sets wind down to a quiet conclusion.
Chris plays the tenor guitar and had a smaller sized one made specially to accommodate an injured arm by a Fife fiddle-maker. The sonorous sounds of the guitar’s and cello’s deeper tones play prominent part in the to-ing and fro-ing in ‘The Pompous Trousers’, a strange translation from the Gaelic. The tale of an electric kettle’s transformation into a gooey mess on the hob is, we learn, the basis for modern Canadian composer A. Beaton’s ‘The Water Boiling Machine’. Juliette has a relaxed stage presence, and introduces the songs well, although problems with the hand-held microphone limited what Chris had hoped to say.
Irish jigs and an Irish polka form the basis of my favourite set, ‘The Unknown Reel’, ‘Jer the Rigger’ and ‘Miss McGuiness’, which included speedy and exciting interactions, echoing and completing the other’s phrases. Like the best small ensemble music in any style, it involves a lot of eye-contact, and the obvious enjoyment of musicians who’re getting things absolutely right. The set’s rip-roaring finish is greeted by whoops!
Choosing a programme to suit an unknown audience at 11 am is no mean feat, and like others in the appreciative audience, I enjoyed being immersed into this performance. I confess, however, to a hankering to hear Juliette play a traditional slow air on the cello, as both Su-a Lee and the Maxwell Quartet have done in their cross-genre performances.
Next week’s Emerging Artists concert on Monday 15th September at 11 am features the JKL DUO who promise flute and guitar music from Burns to Piazzolla. Tickets price £3 are, as always, available from the Usher Hall, or on the door.
These concerts are funded by the Kimie Trust.
