ANOHNI

Having seen Anohni's latest performance twice, both in Sydney and Paris, I'm loathe to report that the show leaves you hoping it had been much more than it really was.

An enormous screen sets the stage as close-up shots of various women lip-sync along with Anohni as she belts out tunes from her latest album, Hopelessness. The singer herself is shrouded in a floor-length cloak complete with full arm gloves and a sheer black hood. The desire to be shrouded from the audience is an understandable one but it nonetheless acts as an insurmountable barrier between the performer and the audience.

Further to this disconnect, Anohni's playlist seems so rigid that no time is left for any interaction with the audience. Again, this desire to be separated from the audience is understandable but the total absence of hellos or thankyous or any interaction at all left this viewer a little cold.

The sound too was substandard with far too much bass being blasted at the audience to the point where much of the intricacies of the music were drowned out. In 4 degrees, the urgency of the music was lost in overlapping waves of bass-heavy drone music, diluting the song to little more than a powerful voice sung over ambient noise.

However, Anohni's vocal performance was outstanding. The power was real and resonant while her trademark trembling vibrato betrayed the emotion heard on her albums, particularly her earliest, from which we heard nothing throughout the show.

Hopelessness is a strong concept album but perhaps the stage performance in all its light-art centric gloom needed a little human connection to help guide the audience as it waded through the murky soundscapes led by a mere silhouette of a performer.