aaamusic | On 23, Nov 2010

London, 17th November

Denmark’s Our Broken Garden brought their own particular brand of ethereal dream pop to St. Giles last week at their biggest headlining show here to date.

Golden Sea (the group’s recent second album) showcased a delicate, quietly ethereal sound – an initial worry for me was that the very fragility that the release derived much of its beauty from would be lost in a live setting. Luckily none of these worries were well-grounded; vocalist/keyboardist Anna Bronsted’s haunting, dreamy vocals are strong enough to not just simply survive the stage, but completely captivate her audience in the process. The venue probably helped; you’d be hard pushed to find a better location that St. Giles for someone with a voice like Bronsted’s. The set was a nice mix of the band’s more serene, atmospheric tracks (arguably more of a presence in debut When Your Blackening Shows than Golden Sea) and the almost hallucinogenic tension of songs like single Garden Grows.

A special mention should go to support artists Still Corners, whose shoegaze inspired walls of sound and eerie background projections were so impressive they almost upstaged the main attraction, and no doubt contributed to making the show as exceptional as it was. All I can say is Our Broken Garden are pure talent, and if you haven’t seen them live already, you should seriously consider doing so, preferably in the not-too-distant future.

Author: Katharine Sparks