Richard Brabin is sonically carried away by the serene C Duncan

C Duncan

The Bullingdon, Oxford

When both parents are classical composers, the offspring is likely to have at the very least, some kind of propensity towards an innovative and verbose musical standpoint.

C Duncan definitely falls into that category, his genetic lineage certainly giving him a head start as regards his ability to create vastly abstract and novel work.

Coined as very much a multi-instrumentalist, there’s intelligence, subtlety and maturity to his work to date which explores dream pop textures with expansive, vast chasms of echo and reverb.

He joins us at The Bullingdon off the back of his album The Midnight Sun which fell strangely under the radar given its spellbinding capabilities.

It’s certainly an album that is so delicately polished that one could be forgiven for thinking that the live sound would be impossible to recreate, so textured and velvety is the recording.

However, as soon as C Duncan takes to the stage and begins with the album opener Nothing More it’s clear that although young, we are in serenely safe hands and the following hour is a joy to behold.

Engineering swathes of cascading melody and harmony, Duncan gently breezes his compositions across an enchanted Bullingdon with exquisite ease and there’s a mediative simplicity to its ebb which appears to swallow up a willing audience.

It’s music of the highest quality performed with true grace and elegance.

What we see from C Duncan’s performance is just what it is to be a musician, a composer, a creator.

His musical voice is his and his alone.

The songs ache with nostalgia and the music sits on your soul like a most airy and silky combination of intelligent design and faultless performance.

The gap of silence between the first clap from audience members and the end of the track sums up the entire evening – C Duncan’s sedative qualities hard at work.

As the crowd files out at the end of the evening there’s a shimmering glow of seeing something supremely and unspeakably wonderful.

It really was quite an evening, an evening too fine and precious to put into words.

RICHARD BRABIN 5/5