The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-03)

POP & ROCK

CLASSICAL

ALBUM

OF THE

WEEK

They’re back on fire

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Unlimited Love HHHH

Warner

Anthony

Kiedis has

long shown a

tendency for

writing

sense-stretching lyrics, so

the fact that the Chilis’ new

album, their first since The

Getaway in 2016, contains

some pretty ripe specimens

is strangely reassuring.

“Platypus are a few,” he

sings, gnomically, on the

eco-anxious Black Summer,

continuing: “The secret life

of roo/ A personality^

I never knew (get it

on).” Later, on Poster

Child, he abandons

sense entirely with

“La da da da bum

bum ba-dum.”

The 21-year-

old Swedish

violinist won

the Nielsen

competition in

2019 with his performance

of the composer’s violin

concerto. Now, playing a

1736 Stradivarius, Dalene

returns to a work we already

know he excels in, and

Sibelius, Neilsen

Violin Concertos HHHH

Johan Dalene (violin), Royal

Stockholm Philharmonic

Orchestra, cond John

Storgards

BIS

Calexico

El Mirador HHHH

Bella Union

Infused with joy but tinged

with potential melancholy,

Calexico’s music conjures up

long summer nights in the

American southwest, yards

full of revellers, mariachi and

tejano combining to lovely,

lulling effect. Harness the

Wind and Cumbia Peninsula

are like snapshots of fleeting

contentment. DC

Christian Lee Hutson

Quitters HHHH

Anti-

Co-produced by Conor

Oberst and long-time

collaborator Phoebe

Bridgers, Hutson’s fourth

album plays like a series of

exquisite miniatures, each

a vignette of the highs and

lows of life in the Angeleno’s

home town. Hutson deploys

nuance and restraint, with

devastating results. DC

Unlimited Love reunites the

band with the producer Rick

Rubin, after a brief flirtation

with Danger Mouse, and is

the first album to feature the

returning John Frusciante

since Stadium Arcadium.

Musically, it plays to their

greatest strengths: Flea’s

limber bass propels the

spare funk of Aquatic Mouth

Dance; Frusciante shreds to

his heart’s content on The

Great Apes; Kiedis audibly

relishes the melody and

chord progressions on the

early-Elton-like Not the One;

and the band coalesce

vigorously on Here Ever

After, a song that rolls

back the years to

when they burst

out of Los Angeles

and set about

conquering the

world. Dan Cairns

this deeply intuitive,

instinctive and empathetic

recording again

demonstrates his remarkable

touch and feel, and the way

he balances discipline and

playfulness — nowhere more

so than in a sublime poco

adagio and an unfettered

final movement. Dalene

is equally assured and

compelling in Sibelius’s

sole concerto, notably in an

adagio di molto of haunting

stillness. Two Nordic

concertos, utterly unalike,

but both brought to

incandescent life by a

tantalising new talent. DC

ON RECORD | DANCE

A

kram Khan isn’t sure about

the age restrictions for his

new family show, Jungle Book

Reimagined. The choreogra-

pher can’t use his own brood

(a daughter and a son aged

nine and seven) as a focus group because

“my children, they’re not scared of shit

— they’ve seen everything. They used

to sit up watching The Avengers and

dark films like The Exorcist.”

Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books

(1894-95) are revered but little read. The

author, who was born in India, became

an enthusiast for empire in ways that

have damaged his reputation. The cre-

ative team working on the show admit

they only knew the Disney film, though

Khan, 47 — who began his career danc-

ing in an Adventures of Mowgli tour aged

ten — recognised many of the fables

Kipling uses from his training in Indian

classical dance. “Disney was infatuated

with the boy and animals, which is a

small part of the book, but in Indian

dance we tell some of the other stories.”

Jungle Book Reimagined takes

Kipling’s story from a timeless Indian

jungle into a future transformed by

the climate crisis. Mowgli is a survivor

from an indigenous community, nav-

igating a city that has been flooded and

reclaimed by nature. Typically for

Khan, the show is a team endeavour.

The playwright Tariq Jordan, who

wrote the script, says: “When I read

the book I thought, ‘None of these ani-

mals could exist in the jungle, because

we’ve destroyed most of it. Where

would Baloo the bear or Bagheera the

panther be today? The likelihood is that

they would be the property of humans.

We’re facing a migration crisis, with

communities being uprooted in every

corner of the world.”

As the production nears its final

stages, I join the team in a rehearsal

room in London Docklands. Khan,

barefoot and in head-to-toe black, is

hunched forward, assessing the shape

of each scene. As the dancer playing

Mowgli dashes around, wide-eyed and

willing, everyone else gives their best

beast — prowling, crouching, nuzzling.

Baloo breaks into a goofy run while

Bagheera extends an angry paw as she

crouches on the floor.

For Khan, the essence of the work is

that “we’ve lost the gift of listening to

nature. But if we do something to

nature, there’s a consequence. I wanted

to put nature in the centre of the story,

where the ones who still listen are ani-

mals.” We’ve also lost “the gift of empa-

thy”, he adds. “In this story I want to

switch empathy back on.”

Mowgli helps us to focus our empa-

thy, and Jordan has a rare insight into

this child lost in the city. “At 11 I was

made homeless with my mother and

siblings,” he says. “We lived in shelters

in London, and it was very much a case

of survival. I was cleaning offices with

my mum. I remember seeing London

for the first time — there’s a beauty to it

but it’s also quite a scary place for a

child. It’s overwhelming, and you do see

a darker side to the capital. You hear

shots and screams and fights, things

that for a child are quite terrifying.”

The show uses animation to stunning

effect, while the music is by the com-

poser Jocelyn Pook, who has written for

films such as Eyes Wide Shut and The

Wife. She has been rewriting through

the night and blinks sleep-deprived

eyes, sipping rooibos tea. “It’s really

hairy,” she says, “but one always has to

serve the piece.” She and Khan collabo-

rated on Desh and the ballet Dust, which

commemorates the First World War. “I

was struggling with one section of Dust,”

she recalls, “and Akram remembered

an old sketch I did for another project,

which ended up being a major track.”

For the Jungle Book’s disparate charac-

ters, she researched musical worlds

from India to Africa, writing a poignant

lullaby for Mowgli’s mother.

Dealing with a roomful of creative

egos “used to be tricky”, Khan admits.

He learnt the hard way, collaborating

with star artists such as Anish Kapoor

and Antony Gormley. “If you can deal

with giants, it’s a baptism. I call it the

pleasure of drowning. I just have to cre-

ate a real sense of trust and lead by

example. You’re like a parent with

many children — at the same time not

forgetting to be a child yourself.” c

Jungle Book Reimagined, Curve Theatre,

Leicester, Thu-Sat, then touring

Akram Khan reveals why he is

teaching Mowgli and Baloo to

dance. By David Jays

THE JUNGLE

BOOK

Reimagining

a classic

Above:

Akram Khan

during

rehearsals.

Top and

below: Kaa,

Mowgli and

Baloo in

Disney’s The

Jungle Book

A wide-

eyed

Mowgli

dashes

around

AMBRA VERNUCCIO. INSETS: ©DISNEy/ALAMy

(AS YOU’VE

NEVER SEEN

IT BEFORE)

18 3 April 2022