British Sea Power Live at Edinburgh Film Festival

A cavernous vault in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town is the atmospheric venue for British Sea Power to showcase a handful of their videos and perform a live film soundtrack as a highlight of this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.

Brighton's BSP, who have attracted rave reviews for their Do You Like Rock Music? album are an up and coming indie band with post punk spirit and melodic art rock sensibilities. The evening starts with the screening of music videos made by the band themselves. These reveal a highly experimental and playful approach such as with the opener "Water Tower," a manic drum driven instrumental set to a grainy, speeded up video of BSP preparing to perform in an old water tower. Subsequent material proves rousing and edgy, yet musically follows more accessible song structures.

The main event of the evening was in stark contrast to the band's own videos. Robert Flaherty's 1934 silent classic Man of Aran was screened accompanied by a live performance by BSP of a soundtrack they created for the film.

Flaherty's powerful and heart warming docu-drama follows the rigours of the struggle for survival on Ireland's Aran Islands, showing a simple and perhaps romanticised lifestyle dependent on the sea for seaweed, fish and shark liver oil (for lamps). The main theme of the film is the power of the sea and dramatic cinematography shows it in all its moods as it crashes against these exposed islands.

The ebb and flow of the music captures this power perfectly—at times gentle then wild and finally swelling to an uplifting crescendo. Viola, guitar and drums with occasional vocals create a sound that at times charts similar territory to Icelandic band Sigur Ros's haunting soundscapes and brooding growl of Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack.

The film and BSP together make for an experience that is intensely moving and strangely nostalgic.