Crash Ensemble/Andrew Synnott

On Jimmy Yancey - Louis Andriessen

Mercedes Spring - Roger Doyle

Workers Union - Louis Andriessen

Dubbelspoor - Louis Andriessen

Junk Box Fraud - Donnacha Dennehy

TCD's Samuel Beckett Theatre was packed for the debut concert of Crash Ensemble last night. This new group plans to perform music with a strong multimedia component and to widen the repertoire of music presented to Irish audiences.

First on their list were Dutchman Louis Andriessen, arguably Europe's leading minimalist (though I suspect he would dissent from that particular tag), Ireland's best-known electro acoustic composer, Roger Doyle, and proselytising multimedia exponent Donn acha Dennehy, one of the ensemble's driving forces.

The two larger Andriessen pieces, the boogie-woogie homage On Jimmy Yancey and the punchy, freely-pitched Work- ers Union were given performances that seemed stiff and polite. The first needed a real glint to the sound, a sense of pleasure being taken in the instrumental colours and combinations for their own sake. The second was timidly short on energy and drive as well as the aggression that would surely have come from a no-holdsbarred tilt at a more dynamic tempo.

Paradoxically, it was the bright surfaces and glittering reflections of harpsichord, piano, glockenspiel and celesta in Dubbelspoor (Double Track), the most inward of the Andriessen pieces, which on this occasion reached out most successfully to the listener.

The performances of the evening's other works were cogent and impressive. Roger Doyle's Mercedes Spring seem ed to have its best moments when one of its elements, either the three live players (clarinet, cello and percussion) or the electronics, was dominating the other. Donnacha Dennehy's Junk Box Fraud, for voices, dancer (choreography by Cathy O'Kennedy), video (Hugh Reynolds), electronics and instrumental quartet, takes on big themes ("a celebration of junk and an inquiry into our relationship with technology") with boundless energy and a riotous abandon that provides more stimulation than could be absorbed at a single hear ing/viewing. The audience welcomed it with loud cheers.