‘Music For Churches‘ @ St. Andrew’s Church, Brighton 02.03.11

Greek Cypriot headliners Trio Tekke are technically excellent but, after a few tracks their updated folk sounds with the bazouki-like rempeteke to the fore sound a bit samey.

Thankfully, that can't be said for the preceding trio Le Juki featuring Bunty and two unintroduced co-players. Multi-instrumentalists all, they serve up a wonderfully diverse set featuring top-notch playing and idiosyncratic but never less than intriguing songwriting across a range of genres, swapping effortlessly between guitar, percussion, brass and electronics.

Before Le Juki, there's more of a leftfield mix-and-match to proceedings. Gorgeous cello wafts through the church for the first 10 minutes, followed by a solo piano foray from Sylvia Saunders which, despite her nervousness, interestingly mixes jazz standards with classical pieces.

The quirk factor is provided by who do a dry, witty and often endearingly rude dissection of old folk chit-chat that falls somewhere between Alan Bennett and Mike Leigh. Fab visuals - psychedelic slides, great b/w graphics and mind-blowing vintage movies of surfing and racing - round off a great package.