REVIEW: Resound Voices at Brighton’s Chapel Royal

The compact space of Brighton’s Chapel Royal suits the smallest of Brighton’s queer choirs – Resound Voices.

The 14 singers, as always with this group, produce beautiful harmonies, and under the direction of Sam Barton they always please, surprise and entertain.

Their early summer concert was entitled Nerds, and they gave us an eclectic mix of music from video games, sci-fi movies and a few oddities. And we had engaging graphics from the games projected while they sang.

Temple of Time and Theme from Halo gave us first a stylish version of Gregorian plainchant, as they sang from both sides of the audience. It was a capella, majestic and soaring. Then Halo was wordless and a joy with its deep deep notes and high harmonies laid over the top.

Stuart Heaton and JJ Thurlow-Criss gave us Sondheim’s gem of Invocation and Instructions to the Audience, which contains the magic line: ”please don’t fart; there’s very little air, and this is art.” They mastered Sondheim’s tricky words impeccably.

Toulouse Street from The Doobie Brothers presented us with a quartet of JJ, James Frey-Croft, Tony Oliver, and David Farrer on guitar. It was soulful, folkish with its line “I might just pass this way again.”

Richard Wilson delivered the wistful Flanders and Swann’s Armadillo with a haunting, sad note.

Andreas Hiersche hit the high notes with a classy rendition of Coward’s gay refrain Mad About The Boy, including a verse that got the song pulled from a show.

The first half closer When That I Was – based on a speech from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – included delightful percussive vocalisation of the plop plop plopping of the rain in an absolutely charming rendition.

Ever heard of the tune Asteroid? Yes you have; it’s the very short theme tune for cinema adverts by Pearl and Dean, and it’s a choral piece of fun.

This half of the concert had science fiction and fantasy themes, including Game Of Thrones and The Hobbit, giving us solemn, dramatic and stirring sounds. James Frey-Croft sang the lament The Last Goodbye with real emotion and control, mourning his brothers lost in battle.

The Theme from Spiderman had a bluesy, jazz feel with its upbeat “look out: here comes Spiderman.”

The Billie Eilish song What Was I Made For (Barbie) is a song of doubt sung in a beautiful, haunting way.

And finally Chernobyl’s Vichnaya Pamchat and a very Eastern church tone – again with repeated  strong, haunting harmonies, peppered with short silences. This song of Ukraine of course struck an emotional note, so we couldn’t end on a downer.

So along came Kermit with his rainbow connection. A happy and apt ending to a great night of inventive music. Five stars of course.