Live: Farao

16^th December

The Deaf Institute

7/10

The Deaf Institute’s chic décor and cool ambiance made it the ideal venue for songstress Farao, aka Kari Jahnsen, to warm up the crowd with her Nordic infused folk melodies. The simple set embellished just by cloth embroidered with heraldic stitching, complementing the venue’s bird inspired wallpaper.

The set was brief: Jahnsen played her breakthrough singles ‘Tell a Lie’ and ‘Skin’, a cover of Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘Go with the Flow’ and a couple of lesser known singles. Accompanied solely by a woman who provided keyboard accompaniment and backing vocals, Farao’s strong vocal presence and adept handling of harmonies was brought to the forefront of the performance. Cryptically, for unexplained reasons, the rest of her band couldn’t be there tonight. The performance suffered in their absence: Farao’s songs are heavily instrumental and the lack of backing meant at times the performance could be sparse, albeit harmonious.

One of the best moments of the set came when Farao covered ‘Go with the Flow’, asking the audience if anyone didn’t recognise it. When somebody confessed they didn’t, she responded “well you should’ve known it then”. It was a moment that exposed Jahnsen’s playful charisma which the set could have at times done with more of: the audience was as she noted “very quiet”.

Despite that, her performance was in general captivating enough: the layered vocal harmonies were beautifully carried off and Jahnsen with her scant, witty remarks and little movement is an imposing figure on stage. Whilst at the beginning the set could sometimes feel a bit amateur, with Jahnsen loudly requesting “more vocals please”, as it progressed the intricate melodies ascended to supremacy. Initially restless, the audience (of whom it seemed the majority were unaware of Farao before, and passing time before Ásgeir came on) became absorbed in her spare yet melodious performance.