FRINGE MUSIC

With his Magic Pipe - more than 7ft of tubing, with a couple of bass strings and umpteen different sounds programmed to respond instantly - Mike Silverman uses his hands, bass bow, drumsticks and what looks like a supermarket loyalty card to make a mega electronic orchestra come alive. Opening with a beautifully bowed sonata, he builds to an industrial pitch, with bells ringing, castanets clicking, massive chords exploding into the night and his pipe crying "mamma" as he whacks it mischievously. The beat is mighty, but there's more, much more, to come.

Affecting the grizzled growl of an old timer from the Mississippi swamps, he sings of weasel pot pies and then raps warnings of meat storms, drums a futuristic tattoo on his magic boot and grabs a musical saw for a moody Over the Rainbow before the Magic Pipe erupts theatrically with dry ice.

Not for nothing has he been dubbed That 1Guy - what, there's just that one guy doing all this? - and he definitely has to be seen to be believed. RA Until August 27.

THE RISE OF THE CELLORETTES: CELLORHYTHMICS, SWEET ECA 3/5

CELLORHYTHMICS is a kind of liberation society, casting three cellos in upfront roles more typically filled by guitars and vocal harmonies. With a drummer/percussionist, who can add South American and Oriental flavours, and cameo appearances from harmonica and banjo, they get around the musical landscape, from the Kronos Quartet staking out Western movie theme territory to heavy-metal rocking out and folky laments.

Their bass guitarist was so far down the mix that his cont bution was more physical than sonic, so we didn't get the full picture. But it's an interesting experiment, if not always quite as moving for the listener as the players. RA Until August 28.

RAIN PRYOR, GILDED BALLOON 3/5

TEVIOT AS A black Jew, Rain Pryor admits to an identity problem. In an uncharitable moment under vibrato attack, I solved it for her: she could call herself Barbra Strident. Pryor has a warm, engaging personality and, having inherited humour genes from her late father, Richard, she's a funny girl. Here, though, she's concentrating mostly on her music, including customised treatments of Sunrise, Sunset - taken at a quicker pace - and Summertime, which dances to a Cuban beat. All fine and well but, just occasionally, it would be good to hear her singing to an audience rather than at them. RA

CADENZA IN CONCERT, GREYFRIARS KIRK 3/5

ACADENZA is a solo spot, small or large, in a concerto or vocal work. From it, Edinburgh's Cadenza - a smallish choirwith large ideas - has attractively derived its name, contributing to the Festival fringe in ways that are not only genuinely interesting but require few allowances to be made. Saturday's packedout concert, in the resonance of Greyfriars Kirk, coupled the remains of a mass by the gifted Jan Dismas Zelenka with Mozart's unfinished Requiem, an inspired juxtaposition from which each work benefited.

Zelenka, born just before Bach, was a quirky Bohemian whose Missa dei Filii (Mass for the Son of God)was receiving its Edinburgh premiere. Based mainly on a massive, multifaceted Gloria, the music possessed a contrapuntal elan and often startling expressiveness, vigorously conveyed by Jenny Sumerling's sterling vocal and orchestral forces.

To the Mozart, too, they brought notable freshness, particularly because they performed it in Richard Maunder's starker, tighter version of the 1980s, which deleted the familiar Sussmayr Sanctus and Benedictus in order to concentrate as far as possible on Mozart himself.

Wilma McDougall, Louis Innes, Jamie MacDougall and Edward Caswell were the wellbalanced solo quartet. CW Until August 27.

PICK OF THE DAY Martin Carthy, Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride's, Orwell Terrace 5.45pm The guvnor of English traditional music, giving old songs modern-day resonance to a guitar style that marries morris-dance rhythms to Delta blues.