Concert
Sting
Stage: Trädgårdsföreningen in Gothenburg
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As early as 1967, musicologist Wilfred Meller drew attention to the peculiarities of the Beatles’ accordion, which pointed to a relationship with late Renaissance composers such as John Dowland. A connection that was also reinforced on some songs by Paul McCartney’s softly melancholic tone of voice.
With Sting, this legacy was carried on in British pop, which resulted in him taking it so seriously in 2006 that he recorded an entire album of songs by Dowland – “Songs from the Labyrinth” – together with the Bosnian lute player Edin Karamazov.
As a songwriter, Sting has otherwise carefree switching between pop, jazz, reggae and world music. But the sound that always evoked in me when I thought of him is a warm but slightly desolate-sounding voice, edged by a lyrically wailing soprano saxophone and the pick from acoustic guitar. A close intimacy in a wide space.
When he now stepped out on the Garden Association’s outdoor stage with his exquisite band, the scissors had, very tastefully, been replaced by a blues-colored harmonica. The evening sun stood high between the clouds and the rays were broken through the glass facade of the Palm House. The park was in perfect condition for Sting to thrive on stage, in front of the nine thousand in the audience. To remember “the golden fields” and to dream of “gardens in the desert sand”.
But the most striking thing was in which incomparable condition he is still as a singer. How relaxed he seems to be able to give everything, with full force. At the same time as he plays his game on the electric base. And the musical character completely changes from song to song. Because what he offered was a winding hit parade. From early songs like “Roxanne” and “Message in a bottle” to the happily whistling “If it’s love” and “Loving you” from 2021 – the latter with an unmistakable Dowland melancholy in the chorus: “If that’s not loving you / I don ‘t know what it is ”.
The many stylistic movements also gradually created a very special atmosphere. A receptivity to the floating fragility that Sting evoked in the concluding “Fragile” – for this evening a song of songs.
Read more concert reviews and other lyrics by Martin Nyström