First of all, a great thank you to all you Acoustic Sussex supporters who turned up on this occasion; it was a night to really savour. We were extremely fortunate to have as support, a local lad, Matthew Ord, who hails from Redhill. For one so young, his ability goes way beyond the number of years he has been playing the guitar. His offerings on the night were from the 'Irish' part of his repertoire. His finger picking technique was wonderful and it was obvious that he had the right formula because he had 'grabbed' the audience after only two numbers - just what is required for a sensational performance for any musician playing live. At the end, he got a really good ovation and I can say with certainty that the audience would have him back anytime. Unfortunately, we got nothing of Matt’s excellent blues playing, which he does with equal skill and competence, not to mention his great voice, so I was bound to be a tad disappointed. But Hey! what can you pack into a four song set? Nowhere near as much as I would have liked, although I suppose his excellent self penned Set Of Jigs really served as two numbers. I have listened to his one of his CDs and it really comes across as extremely accomplished work, some of it similar in the style and bearing comparison the legendary Leo Kottke. (And before you say that Bob Preece is a sycophantic reviewer and he always gives good reviews, I would say that the reason why I usually give positive reviews of most of the artists that appear at Acoustic Sussex is because I genuinely enjoy most of the things that get put on - and Matt Ord is certainly no exception.) Songs performed were: Green Fields Of Canada, Hewlett, Sets Of Jigs (Presently Unnamed), Hare In The Corn.

As Monty Python would say “And…Now For Something Completely Different” and boy, was it?!  I got to The Ravenswood especially early on the night and arrived just as Pierre Bensusan was doing his sound check. After a short while people were backing up from the door and into the car park and anxious to gain admittance as is was a fairly cold night, but they couldn't be admitted until Pierre had got through all his preparations. I have been told that Pierre always takes a long time to get things right because as an extraordinary musician his takes as much time as is needed to ring that last drop of pure quality from his guitar and the sound system equipment. When he started playing, I could see why. This man is a perfectionist. After he had done a couple of numbers, he stopped to get things absolutely right with the help of his very able assistant/road manager Johann and Paul Farrell. From then on his gave a fabulous performance, he appeared to be totally locked in to his almost faultless playing. He is a brilliant acoustic finger style guitarist and he made the putting of hundreds of notes in a sequence seem so easy and natural. The spectrum of unusually effective sound effects dropped in the runs of notes were a wonder to behold… quick fire harmonics here… string bending there…tremolos at different points of the fretboard… I don’t pretend to know all the effects (because I'm a drummer and everybody knows that drummers usually live on a different planet!) but I know good music when it‘s played, and if I do know one thing, this is not just ordinary music, it’s a magical fusion of styles with Pierre’s incredible imagination, which results in an impeccably beautiful noise. And oh! It makes you wonder what’s going on and where it all comes from. It’s so good because the quality of the music comes from an ego-less flow of spontaneity and is never exactly the same two nights running.

Music like this illustrates to us quite plainly that it is a wonderful medium and like language is never bound by stasis and keeps moving on… magic… Pure Magic, Pure Mathematics! This guy must be amongst the top ten acoustic guitar players in the world, and he has collaborated with hundreds of great musicians over the years as his website will attest. Of all the ones listed that I recognised, each is well known for pushing the envelope and playing music beyond the bounds of most people’s imagination and capabilities.

The highlight for me was the encore, Pierre’s rendition of a Monir Bashir piece called Intuite, which was originally played on an Arabic lute type instrument call an oud. Pierre made the guitar sound like nothing else I have ever heard a guitar sound like. A fascinating mixture of sweet notes and percussive rhythms. Absolutely WONDERFUL! Not only that, he used his voice as an instrument, too, on many of his numbers, a bit like David Crosby at times, one of my long time heroes. I could imagine both of them doing a rendition of David’s song “Orleans” in gloriously acapella with soaring harmonies.

When he had finished, the encore nearly lifted the roof off the conference centre at The Ravenswood. And I was left almost speechless for a short while and then I let rip with enthusiasm. Songs performed: Hymn 11, L'Alchimiste, Nice Feeling, Bamboule, Silent Passenger, Awali, Demain, des l'aube, Kadourimdou, Without You, L'offrande, Nefertari, Sentimentales Pyromaniaques, Retour, Agadiramadan, Voiles Catalanes, Falafel a Montsegur and Intuite. “Music from the heart” Magnifique Pierre! Veuillez revenir bientôt, vous serez toujours notre ami.

Review courtesy of Bob Preece

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