Wow, wow, wow. This one-hour concert by The Hermes Experiment is one of the most exciting avant-garde chamber concerts you’ll have ever seen. It’s an unusual four-piece: harp (Anne Denholm); clarinet (Oliver Pashley); double bass (Marianne Schofield); and soprano (Héloïse Werner). But the sound worlds that this combination creates… no wonder this little ensemble has been attracting such big-name composers to write new pieces for them, since their debut in 2014.

“Metropolis” (2015), by The Hermes Experiment and Jethro Cooke, particularly stands out. Cooke’s heavy, industrial soundscape, made up of sounds recorded all over London, provides the structure and sonic bed for instrumental improvisations over the top. It is also at this point in the programme that we are all suddenly plunged into dark blue lights, with flecks of white dotted all over the ceiling: this super-theatrical lighting change helps transport us away from the chamber music hall and into another world.

The five programmed pieces (each 6–10 minutes long) are interspersed with four “free improvisations”; one for each soloist. These brief, focused moments allow us to understand each musician and each instrument individually. It is particularly astonishing to hear Oliver Pashley’s clarinet as he punches into the upper register with such immense force it shatters the ears; more like an operatic scream than a clarinet. Anne Denholm’s harp solo is another highlight: we realise how robust the instrument really is as Denholm slaps, buzzes and bends the strings, to jaw-dropping effect.

Soprano Héloïse Werner is a celebrated soloist in her own right, but here, she is very much a part of the ensemble. In “the/e so/ou/nd be/t/ween” by Elaine Mitchener (a world premiere at this event), her unvoiced fricatives and musical stammering match the music from the other three, becoming almost like a human percussion instrument.

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