Ed O’Brien at the Barbican

Think of Radiohead, and Ed O’Brien is not necessarily the face on the billboard.

As the glue and interlocutor of its three melody makers, he is less heralded than either frontman Thom Yorke or its creative savant Jonny Greenwood. Yet without him, they would not be Radiohead.

His lighter artistic touch provides vital depth in his blockbuster main project, and is fully on display at the Barbican, as he tours his second solo album, Blue Morpho.

Heavily inspired by his beloved Brazil and rural Wales, Blue Morpho is an eclectic piece of work, and so is his Barbican gig.

Songs from the new album are interspersed with older and more niche numbers in a performance that at times feels like being let in on a friend’s passion project jams. Except better, of course, as this is one of the men behind one of the greatest rock groups of the past half-century.

Incantations gets things off on a hypnotic, meditative foot, with British singer Eska playing a starring role as she does throughout, adding vocal energy to O’Brien’s contemplative meanders.

Sweet Spot showcases O’Brien’s voice against gently gliding strings, while Teachers adds some of the driving energy of some of Radiohead’s most interesting minimalist work.

Solfeggio, Blue Morpho and Sail On, from previous album, Earth, provide a drifting calm that takes an audience from the heart of London’s Brutalist cathedral to more ethereal climes.

In that sense there is something wonderfully confessional about the whole experience. Not least when O’Brien halts the concert to discuss a formative summer spent watching a Shakespeare play at the venue and the cricketer David Gower score a double century (215 versus Australia by this reviewer’s reckoning).

The set is an unspooling of a great talent’s influences and inspirations, from folk and jazz to afrobeats and blues, with a heavy weighting and occasional diversions into Brazilian samba.

All the way through, the songs are given drive and funk by guitarist David Okumu, who truly comes into his own on the closing numbers.

These are, after an Incantations reprise, Brasil, O’Brien’s ode to the country, which is clearly a transformative influence, and Obrigado, a fittingly epic closer on which Esko provides hints of Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky.

When O’Brien finishes, it leaves a strange sensation. One almost doesn’t feel like one has watched a gig. There’s been no screaming and dancing along to well-worn hits. No verbal, musical or visual pyrotechnics. Yet one feels thoroughly satisfied having had a brief window into a musical great’s soul.

Mark Worgan
Photos: Paul Boyling

For further information and future events, visit Ed O’Brien’s website here.

Watch the video for Incantations here: