Tonal

The weather's been making London feel oddly Soviet these last few days, and since the entire city seems to be drawn in black and white I figured I'd pop over to the Barbican where the absence of colour wouldn't really make much difference.  I wanted to see Robert Kusmirowski's Bunker exhibition once more before it closed, only this time with a soundtrack.  I've been listening to Shostakovich's string quartets like it's my job lately, and didn't see any reason to stop just because the installation is supposed to be Polish not Russian.  Number 12 (D major) proved to be a great match for Bunker's spooky, semi-apocalyptic ambiance, and I emerged after half-an-hour feeling damn glad to be a late-20th century Westerner.   We really are lucky, you know.