ONE of London’s many excuses for putting on a series of challenging gigs is Convergence. Now in its second year, the initiative is dedicated to creating new programmes of visual art and pioneers that deploy technology in diverse and innovative ways.

Hugely laudable, and it’s great too to have another London church recently opening its doors to live gigs like this one, particularly as Sunday mass is on the bill the following morning and the cavernous St John of Hackney takes a leaf out of Islington’s Union Chapel in the atmospheric stakes.

The church is certainly a perfect and rare setting to showcase Tricky’s down-tempo trip-hop.

A pioneer of the genre, the actor, musician and producer — christened Adrian Thaws — rose to fame as a member of Massive Attack and has since become a renowned cutting-edge artist both in his own right and as a frequent collaborator with acts as diverse as Bjork, Beyonce and PJ Harvey.

Bringing his trademark sprechgesang — an expressionist cross between singing and spoken word — away from the opera house, he performs from his latest eponymous release entitled Adrian Thaws.

While fans no doubt relished the opportunity to hear Tricky’s dark sounds in such an unusual setting, the performance felt decidedly understated for someone known for giving energy and intensity.

Instead Tricky seemed quite happy to downplay much of his usual magnetic stage presence in favour of his fellow onstage collaborators.

Even support act Gazelle Twin beats Tricky in the visceral stakes tonight. The brainchild of Elizabeth Bernholz, her latest second album Unflesh is allegedly “a dark and depraved journey into the remote cells of her subconscious.”

“The idea of ‘unflesh’ is like a shedding of skin,” Bernholz explains of the record. “It’s a tearing out of your body down to your skeleton and breaking free.”

True to her words, her version of primal screaming is a Satanic experience that almost brings the house down.
What will the parish vicar have thought?