Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale

Published on Monday 18 August 2008 09:16

ANTONIO FORCIONE & ADRIANO ADEWALE **** ASSEMBLY @ GEORGE STREET (VENUE 3)

MASTER guitarist Antonio Forcione has returned to the Fringe in top form, in a mesmerising duo with Brazilian percussionist Adewale. An exhilarating exchange of international musical ideas, their show takes inspiration from Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Spain, among other places.

Forcione's plucking and strumming conjures images of people, places and experiences. Adewale, meanwhile, dances a world to life, his shakers, seeds, clay jars and drums evoking birds in the rain forest, fish in rivers, or snakes in grass. At one moment he slaps water in a bowl then blows a plastic tube into it, suggesting an animal drinking at an oasis, the pattering of rain on leaves, or the fall of waves at sea.

Alongside Forcione favourites like Touch Wood and Tears of Joy, there is a great syncopated version of The Police's Message In A Bottle. He also plays a gorgeous ballad using his customised guitar with four extra strings at the top, which works like an Arabic oud lute (he calls it an "oudan", or "oud for Antonio"). The two then spar in a guitar-pandeiro tambourine duel, playfully banging and clapping crazy rhythms on each other's instruments while keeping a fast-running melody moving. It's a treat of a late-night show.