Alessi's Ark at Tamesis Dock

Alessi's Ark

Left With Pictures
Tamesis Dock, 14 July 2009

Tamesis Dock has to be one of the most unique venues I've been to. It's essentially a little barge moored near Lambeth Bridge, with a bar upstairs, a small seating area downstairs and the bands set up in the middle, so it feels almost like watching music in your living room, albeit one that is bobbing gently up and down and has a cool view of the Thames and Big Ben out of the window.

When we arrived we had missed opening act Tristram but got to hear a good deal of Left With Pictures, a jaunty folk combo from London, complete with English vocals, some fiddle, acoustic guitar, drums (a very tiny drum kit, mind you) and keyboards. They were energetic despite the lack of space and ended with an unmiked version of Richard Thompson's classic Vincent Black Lightning which sounded fantastic. The audience, who were either draped on comfortable red sofas or sitting, cross-legged on the hard wood floor (very folk-like!) responded enthusiastically and they ended with a rousing roar of approval. But it wasn't Left With Pictures I had come to see but Alessi's Ark, and taking to the stage later than billed she thoroughly charmed me and the audience.

Alessi's Ark aka Alessi Laurent-Marke, a sweet, girly-looking 18-year-old from London who started making music after discovering Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley, has echoes of Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart in her music, but her debut album, Notes From The Treehouse, belies her age, startlingly unique and beautifully formed: it's definitely one of my favourites this year. I was eager to hear if the songs stood up live, especially because I thought Alessi might be alone with just her guitar but I was pleasantly surprised to see her backed with a double bass and keyboards. That said, her voice is sweetly quiet live and at first it was a little overwhelmed by the other instruments but thankfully the sound was soon corrected.

Hair in a bun and wearing a simple sleeveless, striped dress and boots, she looked as cute as she sounds on record. Armed with her acoustic guitar she began so quietly at first people continued to talk, not realising she had started. The first song, Witch, I hadn't heard before but it was a gorgeous start, slowly drawing the crowd into her magical little world. She then pulled out three of the most melodious, poppy songs from the album, starting with The Dog, which I worried would suffer without the cool banjo-stylings, but sounded more hushed and lovely, stripped down. She followed this with the two singles, Over The Hill and The Horse, both sounding like classic songs already.

After an atmospheric rendition of Woman, there came a few more unfamiliar songs, the one that particularly stood out for me was called The Robot, an upbeat, toe-tapping number she decided to sing when she feared we were all just a little too quiet! Another was called Money, where she sang, eyes scrunched up in concentration and feeling, "you were rich with my love". She also covered Neva Dinova's A Man And His Dream, urging the audience to check out singer Jake Bellow's music, in true fan fashion.

For the encore she seemed shy and uncertain, deciding to take a risk by playing another new song by herself called The Bird Song (the amount of new material is encouraging, hopefully it won't be too long a wait for another album) and after a little coaxing from an audience member ended the short set with the wistful Constellations.

An utterly enchanting evening (part of a series of folky gigs called The Moonshine Jamboree apparently). I really do believe Alessi is one of Britain's brightest young talents and this show only confirmed this for me. Plus what a cool setting and appropriate too (even she said the band's name only made sense that evening!). Thank you Alessi!