Anna Meredith and C Duncan, Tramway, Glasgow ****

Much as Anna Meredith and Chris "C” Duncan may make wildly contrasting music, it wasn’t hard to interpret Celtic Connections’ thinking in bringing together the two well-kent Scottish artists on the same bill. Both are classically trained multi-instrumentalists and singers, who have taken everything they’ve learned from their traditional educations and blended it with contemporary music forms, to exciting effect.

Glasgow-raised Duncan’s interest in music began with his string-player parents, Mark and Janina Duncan, both of whom feature on his latest album Alluvium and now play in his live band, a family affair also featuring pianist uncle Stephen Adam. It kicked Duncan’s deftly constructed dreamy baroque-pop songs in a softer, more pared back direction than fans of his acclaimed and multi-award nominated work have be accustomed to. More suitable, perhaps, to the wholesomely hushed chamber balladry of The Wedding Song than the Peter Gabriel-esque featherlight sophisti-pop of Say, but all very lovely.

The mood shifted dramatically with the arrival of Meredith and her four-piece band – all dressed in white with black zig-zag patterns – and the first shuddering, ship’s horn honk of bass synth and tuba, the low-end ballast of the South Queensferry raised composer’s idiosyncratic and unpredictable blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation and textures. Mixing math rock, techno, contemporary classical and the score from The Terminator, Meredith’s compositions for among other things cello, guitar, sequencers and drums are maximalist sci-fi soundscapes in unnervingly weird time signatures that can make a stylistic hand-brake turn at any moment.

Inhale Exhale came on like rave Enya with added heavy metal fretboard tapping. Meredith’s brassy banger Nautilus, which has been used in countless films and TV shows, stomped erratically up the scales like a cyborg on the verge of a panic attack. Never one to take herself too seriously, she closed with a “filthy cheese” cover of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing that sent the Rocket Man into hyperspace.

Celtic Connections review: Anna Meredith and C Duncan, Tramway, Glasgow