Twice to Boston Manor

I seem to have developed a complicated relationship with Boston Manor House. I went there twice in one weekend, and on both occasions London transport did its best to prevent it.

Friday was the PV of Floating Architectural Spaces by Alec & Franz. I loved the intricate architectural drawings and their digital transformations: repeated, mirrored and reconstructed until something precise became strange and unstable.

Two days later I was back, this time for Sweet Oblivion, an intimate recital for barely 20–25 people. I sat in the front row, just a few feet from high tenor Kieran White and Daniel Murphy on lute and theorbo.

I had never seen a theorbo before. Next to the elegantly proportioned lute, its absurdly long neck looked almost comical. My brain registered the strings and immediately thought: gosh, this evolved to become a guitar. (It didn’t, quite.)

Afterwards, Kieran told me he had learnt Italian and French so he could understand what he was singing, not simply reproduce the words. I loved that.

The Tube was suspended on the way home. The buses were diverted. Nightmare journey but still worth going back.