The Electric Circus in Edinburgh is a great venue. It’s cosy, you can see the stage from everywhere and it has a really intimate feel – which lent itself perfectly for the chilled out, personal show we were about to experience from Nick Mulvey.
Mulvey began his musical career when he moved from Cambridge to study music in Cuba at the age of 19. It was here that he met the rest of jazz band Portico Quartet, with whom he played the Hang drum for 5 years before going solo in 2011.
The decision to go solo seems to be paying dividends, as over 100 people squeezed into The Electric Circus in Edinburgh to watch Mulvey perform his African/jazz influenced tracks.
Leeds based artist Eaves (aka Joseph Lyons) kicked the night off in fine style. Standing alone on the stage, in a world of his own, he performed a perfect warm up for the growing crowd with his stripped back acoustic set.
By the time Eaves had finished there were easily 100 people in the crowd, chatting away, enjoying the chilled out vibe. Suddenly the room became deadly silent, the chatter, laughter and general background hubbub died away…Nick Mulvey had taken to the stage.
Playing for an hour, Mulvey held the room in the palm of his hand. Breaking occasionally between breath-taking songs to interact with the crowd, albeit in a slightly bewildered fashion. Clearly some of the crowd were die-hard fans he’d met before.
Mixing together genres with infinite ease (best showcased in his cover of 1995 dance remix of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’), Mulvey completed his set with current hit ‘Cucurucu’. The crowd really got behind this song, most singing back, even a few folk breaking out into a dance here or there. A perfect close to the set, drawing people out of their reverie.
In reflection, this was a gig unlike any I’d ever experienced. The crowd weren’t there to let off steam, or scream along to their favourite tracks. It was a short, concise, moving showcase of talent, set in an intimately perfect venue.
We can expect more from Mulvey as he’s making some serious fans (Fearne Cotton for instance!) wherever he goes and his hotly anticipated album is rumoured for release in May of this year.