Celtic Connections

Jason Singh & Friends

Drygate, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

four stars

Although the relative intimacy of a room above the East End's hip craft brewery pub was part of the appeal, the small but enthusiastic audience for this remarkable meeting of minds may well have witnessed an event that will translate in time on to a much larger stage at Celtic Connections.

To describe Jason Singh as a "beatboxer" is far from adequate, and "vocal sculptor and sound artist" too chilly and grandiose. The voice is at the heart of his own rhythmic music-making but clever electronica was partnered with his huge range of mouth music to underscore everything else that happened around him. The other vocalist in this company was Carnatic singer Rahul Ravindran, who occupied one side of the stage with Italian guitarist Giuliano Modarelli, whose duo work with Singh is evidently a very mature collaboration. Stage left were the home team, fiddler Aidan O'Rourke adding his own improvised part to the international mix, and before him Jarlath Henderson, best known for his virtuosic uilleann pipes and whistles, but here adding yet another sort of vocal colour to the mix as well.

This multi-faceted sonic wonderland might as well be called "Celtic Connections" as anything else, but Singh's infectious enthusiasm was endlessly adding other phrases in an attempt to define what he and his confederates were up to – "creating sound through the body" and "making music up in the moment" among the most appealing of them. For all his use of technology, Singh's own sound palette seems to find inspiration in the natural world and that sits very well indeed with the traditional music adventurers he was working with here. When all of the elements came together at the end it was mesmerising. More please.