Listen to Spire being interviewed on Radio3's Mixing It, 19th May 2006
Find out more about Spire at fuseleeds06
For reviews of Spire live in Geneva go to Touch Music
Listen to Marcus talking about Awakenings, a dance theatre production based on the mystical experience of Donald Pass.
reviews
Atmospheres 2: Day One Review, May 12, 2008
Having never heard Marcus Davidson before, we were quite looking forward to his opening set.
Anticipation can often lead to disappointment, but in this case even our already high hopes were exceeded. Playing an entire set on an effects-treated Roland synthesizer generated a sound thicker than most laptop performances we've heard.
Davidson's colliding organ notes layered with bright, atonal sweeps perfectly complemented the high church ceilings, so as soon as he was finished we couldn't wait for his collaboration with Philip Jeck to begin.
Dave Knapik
Organ Works Past Present & Future
... These misgivings aside, the music is all great. I particularly like the two pieces played by Charles Matthews, a genuine church organist. Two ‘straight' pieces of beautiful music (Organ Psalm 5 by Marcus Davidson) were captured by B J Nilsen and appear on disc one; these are probably the most conventional pieces on Spire. To me they sound amazing. That's my tastes for you. . .
Ed Pinsett
Nordlys Newspaper
The Lady Is A Tramp - Rica Hall, Tromso, Norway - July 2007
...Much of the success was also due to the fact that she had four excellent musicians with her on stage. They kept up with her effortlessly - this was first class playing".
Bjørn H. Larssen
Spire York Minster - 20th February 2007
...There were plenty of surprises too Marcus Davidson's arrangement of the Buddhist mantra Om Mani for the main organ and tenor Robert Millner (odd on paper, but it really worked), and tenor John Beaumont's solo delivery of a 12th century plainchant both emphasised that the Minster's cavernous vault was made for spiritual and devotional sound.
Davidson's own works, being performed for the first time, were also highly impressive. The Grey Book saw the two tenors and soprano Amy Moore weaving around an engaging framework of organ music, while The Passing enhanced the main organ's deep tones with some minimal but effective tape loops.
Tim Procter
Cut Up Magazine Issue #30, 19 08 2006
Spire: Sound is Religion [24/06, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam ]
Maria Cristina Fazecas (Translated from the Dutch)
. . . when it's Davidson's turn, who comes down from the
great organ to play the great piano, I feel the atmosphere is changing. It
becomes lighter, clearer, more quasi-melancholic and less 'heavy
meditative'.
He plays a soft, emotional piece calles Elergy. My first association is
about something angel-like. I feel I'm getting comforted or maybe my thoughts
(that go in all directions) are getting quiet by the music. Like Davidson
wants to say: it's alright, don't worry, you will appreciate the organ too
later on.
And yes, he's right. After a short break the organ and vocals follow. I admit: by putting it in such contrast, the organ gets 'fullness', intensity and added extra value.
Sinaltonoise (USA) review of Spire Live
Christian Carey
Two organists are featured on the recording; Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson are both talented performers, sympathetic to new music. Davidson's two compositions, "Opposites Attract" and "Psalm for Organ 3," begin the first CD with an impressive display of the Saint Pierre organ's capabilities. Huge clusters and complexly stacked chords show off the instrument's ability to create thunderous forte, while delicate melodic excusions demonstrate its capacity to render soft solo passages in a graceful whisper.
Dusted (USA) Spire Live
Adam Strohm
This two-disc set is a document of the night's music, and while I'm rather certain it doesn't compare to being in the cathedral that night, Spire: Live in Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre remains an engrossing treatise on the relevance of an instrument too often forgotten by modern secular music.
The album's structural phase features modern organ compositions performed by Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Interestingly, Matthews chose to play two pieces by Davidson, as well as works by André Jolivet and Liana Alexandra. Davidson's contribution is Henryk Gorécki's 16-minute "Kantata fr Organ Op. 26." The selections performed in this phase exhibited the organ's austere beauty, as well as its potential in the realms of more modern composition.
Almost Cool (USA): Spire Live
. . . Spire: Live In Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre is the sequel to that release, and in a move that is ultimately very pleasing to me, it goes largely in a different direction than the first compilation in the series.
For starters, a good portion of the work on this release is actual, straightforward organ music by composers such as Marcus Davidson and Henryk Gorécki . Along these same lines, all of the recordings on this newest Spire compilation (both straightforward organ pieces and electronicly-enhanced ones) were recorded live in the Geneva Cathedral and although it's certainly no substitue for being there in person, the recordings breath with a life that only enhances their quality.
The first forty minutes of the first disc is taken up with five different pieces for organ, and the variety of them gives one a good idea of the range of expression the instrument truly has. The opening "Opposites Attract" by Marcus Davidson moves as the title somewhat suggests, playing back and forth between loud, majestic moments and quieter, more playful ones (as if the two sides of the piece are courting one another).
More Spire reviews at:
http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/archives/reviews_spire/