May 25, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428

KARACHI, May 24: German solo jazz singer Michael Schiefel weaved an intricate tapestry of sound using only his voice and an electronic contraption at the Arts Council auditorium here on Thursday night.

Organised by the Goethe-Institut, the concert was originally scheduled for Friday night. But due to the looming strike threat, the concert was pushed back a day, which might have explained the relatively thin turnout. Which was a pity, as the performer put on quite a show, regaling the audience for about an hour.

The stage was bare except for a microphone and a table containing the machine Schiefel used to bend, distort and amplify his voice. The singer made it clear that he performed all live, without the aid of pre-recorded material, looping his voice and recording in real time.

The Berlin-based artiste was at times jazzy, at times orchestral, but always avant-garde. To this writer, he resembled the hip hop human beat-boxes of the early eighties, at least in method if not in style.

Layer upon layer of vocals was altered and tweaked to create a stratified aural collage that created the impression that a band was actually playing.

The singer borrowed liberally from his repertoire of solo albums, but for the last few songs he turned to alternative pop music legends, reinterpreting the radio staples in his own quirky manner.

First up was the Police’s Spirits In The Material World, followed by the Cure’s eccentric Lovecats. The last song of the night to receive the Schiefel treatment was also a Cure tune, Boys Don’t Cry, which the singer, who is a professor of vocal jazz at the Franz List Conservatory, delivered to perfection. Michael Schiefel will also be performing at Goethe-Instituts in Lahore, New Delhi and Bangalore before returning to Europe.