Diamanda Galas, Barbican Centre, London (GB) - 19 juin 2017

Galas, dressed in black, as were numerous Goths in the audience, sang her extraordinary stuff with piano and electronics. Her voice reminds me a bit of those early jazz cornettists whose creativity derived from use of the mute to produce a whole range of sounds. She rasps, shouts, yells, sighs, screeches, screams, wails, caterwauls, even sings quietly on occasion. Very impressive, modernist. But, unless you’re already familiar with her (some self-penned) songs, you have some difficulty with word-decipherment. The pieces were: Fernand, She aka Woman, La Llorona, A Soul That's Been Abused, Morphine, Die Stunde Kommt, O Prósfygas, Shriek, Left Hand of the Father, Artémis, O Death (Pardon Me). This concert was reviewed in The Guardian on 20 June.