Jamie Duffy at St Matthias’ Church, supported by Ormella

A hypnotic evening of music from Irish composer and songwriter Jamie Duffy, and East London folk artist Ormella.
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On the 16th of December I found myself in a cosy, dimly-lit and welcoming church in North London, surrounded by the family, friends and fans of Irish songwriter and composer Jamie Duffy, and East London folk artist Ormella. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the gig was evident as soon as I set foot in St Matthias’ Church, which was quite a relief on a cold winter’s evening. I purposely went in blind for this gig, wanting to hear the artists for the first time when they were in front of me, meaning I was initially curious as to how the musicians would incorporate such an echo-ey acoustic. As it turns out, Duffy and Ormella’s styles and sounds work quite magically with such a unique gig setting.

Ormella, dressed ethereally in all-white, was joined by a pianist and acoustic guitarist, and she also played an acoustic guitar for a number of songs. This pairing of the two acoustic guitars was particularly beautiful in the first song, a cover of MARO’s just wanna forget you, where Ormella played the chords and the other guitarist was on a melodic line. The overall texture of her group’s sound worked gorgeously with the acoustic, as the guitars and vocals seemed close up, with the piano sounding further behind and blending it all together.

I found Ormella’s vocals quite stunning. She exercises a unique lower alto register, with her tone perfectly balancing both a breathy and more fuller sound, and she can portray ranges of emotions effortlessly with a limited number of notes. Her performing style was gentle, relaxed and quite wondrous, complimented by her hand movements and eye contact with the audience. In her magical song The Lamb and The Shepherd, I found her looking up towards the ceiling of the church particularly stunning, as though she was leading a prayer.

The harmony in her original songs was beautiful, and I must mention You Should Go in particular, which brought me to tears with how lovely the chords were. Sunrise was complimented with a lovely descending bassline, with these subtle techniques not distracting from the vocals, but rather adding extra depth to the songs. Her set ended with Never’s a Promise, her first single, in which a very effective use of silences formed an almost hypnotic conclusion to her set.

After a thirty-minute break, the sound of a distant, delicate piano drifted around the church, with Duffy’s disembodied voice over the top. Duffy entered quietly, and after a cheeky look to the audience, began a simple and beautiful progression on the piano, joined by a violinist.  After setting this immersive atmosphere, Duffy gave a very relaxed and charismatic introduction to himself and the violinist – who he had only played with on the day! – then turned back to the piano. 

The aforementioned simplistic beauty of the first piece, Resonance, was a clear motif in Duffy’s performance and compositional style. Both the stripped back nature of the instrumentation (the performance involved just two people, Duffy and the violinist) and the musical content itself (clear diatonic chord sequences, ostinatos, recognisable melodies) formed this, demonstrating how versatile Duffy’s ideas could be by themselves – it was not necessary to have any more players, or any musical complications, as such a wondrous musical and emotional effect had already been formed through the subtleties of the compositions. 

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There was a particular recognisable Duffy-style form of melody which pieced together the piano-only compositions, even through the contrasting natures of each one. This was particularly prevalent in Realta, in which a rhythmic chordal ostinato was decorated with a floating folk melody in the top register of the piano. We were also invited to close our eyes in Duffy’s beautiful For the moon/Púca, which felt particularly Einaudi-like in its use of the three contrasting sections. 

Duffy used the tin whistle and the low whistle in a number of his songs, with the violinist temporarily being a pianist for these. After inviting us in to the world of his home village he first brought out the whistle for Into the West, and for both this song and Eyrie he played gorgeous, longing melodies that floated effortlessly over the piano, being perfectly complimented by the acoustic of the church. It was particularly magical when the sound of the unaccompanied whistle drifted around the space. 

In Raglan Road Duffy played both the piano and the whistle, starting off by playing a low pedal on the piano and playing the whistle over the top. He then sang for the first time in this song, accompanying himself with crotchet chords, and I am not ashamed to say this was a moment that made me cry just a little. It felt both as though we could be watching Duffy at home in his living room, or it could be part of a dramatic film soundtrack. As he encouraged his audience to sing and hum along, I couldn’t describe the magic of it all better as I did in my notes while it was happening – “This is so beautiful. I’m so glad to be here.”

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Alongside the beauty of Duffy’s compositions and the gorgeous tone of his singing voice, it is worth mentioning how he drew us in by telling us about his family, his home village, and other personal anecdotes, such as Man In The Moon being written by his grandfather forty-five years ago. These moments were such a lovely touch to the whole set. Similarly were the moments where we were encouraged to participate, such as in an absolutely gorgeous rendition of the classic Fairytale of New York

As I reach the end of this recount of one of my favourite gigs, I will mention two more things. Firstly, how entrancing Duffy’s pieces were in their endings, encouraging me to zoom out and focus on the space, specifically the glooming darkness of the altar behind him. Secondly, as I mentioned at the beginning, I made the conscious choice to go into this gig without having previously listened to Duffy. This made it even more special when he played the first three notes of Solas, his final piece, as it is a piece I know and love. This ended the gig on a particularly magical moment.

I felt suitably hypnotised after the gig was over. What beautiful music played in such a beautiful venue, created by such brilliant composers – I had the pleasure of speaking to both Ormella and Duffy at the end of their sets, which was the cherry on top. This was a perfect gig to end the year.

Picture of Jessie Morrell

Jessie Morrell

Jessie Morrell is a singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and writer from the South West. A huge fan of The Beatles and all things rock 'n' roll, she combines her modern and vintage influences in a prolific catalogue of songs, regularly recording, posting and performing in London and Oxford. Alongside her music-making she also enjoys acting, as she is involved in university productions, student films and playwriting.
Picture of Jessie Morrell

Jessie Morrell

Jessie Morrell is a singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and writer from the South West. A huge fan of The Beatles and all things rock 'n' roll, she combines her modern and vintage influences in a prolific catalogue of songs, regularly recording, posting and performing in London and Oxford. Alongside her music-making she also enjoys acting, as she is involved in university productions, student films and playwriting.

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