Swish Swiss Swing from Stimmhorn
Simon Broughton, Evening Standard 1 Jul 2008
The city of London Festival celebrates links with India and Switzerland this year. And there's no better band than Stimmhorn to break down preconceptions of Swiss music and the alphorn.
They are just two musicians and like a Swiss version of Men Behaving Badly. But Martin Clunes can't do extraordinary overtone singing and play the accordion on its side tied to his legs like the tall blondish Christian Zehnder.
And Neil Morrissey doesn't play a range of alphorns that resemble giant wooden versions of kids' bendy straws like the short and dark Balthasar Streiff does.
There's a playful stage rivalry between Zehnder and Streiff and their music doesn't just take you to fantastic Swiss landscapes but also onto other philosophical planes.
They began with an extraordinary duet of grunty alphorn and throat singing with high overtones fizzing around like fireflies. The audience was transfixed. Later we got two alphorns played simultaneously by Streiff plus Zehnder on mandolin.
They are extremely skilful technically, sonically mindblowing and refreshingly funny - with a Mr Bean-like nonsense language.
If the Matterhorn could sing, it might sound like Stimmhorn but probably less amusing. This was their first London performance but it shouldn't need a Swiss-themed festival to get them back again.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
9°c









