Amanda Seyfried and Daniel Blumberg's Avant-Garde Shaker Tribute
Amanda Seyfried and Daniel Blumberg delivered a captivating performance of the music from The Testament of Ann Lee at Milton Court in London, showcasing a unique fusion of Shaker hymns and avant-garde jazz improvisation. The Oscar-winning composer's score, described as disorienting, ecstatic, and strange, came to life on stage in a brief but deeply absorbing 45-minute set.
From Hollywood to London's Avant-Garde Scene
Just days after appearing on the Graham Norton show with Margot Robbie and Johannes Radebe, Amanda Seyfried found herself among a different set of luminaries: key figures from London's avant-garde jazz community. The connection was composer Daniel Blumberg, who accepted an Oscar last year for his score to The Brutalist and credited Cafe Oto in Dalston as a foundational influence. Blumberg drew parallels between Shaker worship and free improvisation while scoring the biopic, noting shared ascetic intensity, cult-like devotion, and moments of wild, euphoric release.
He recognized that the speaking-in-tongues qualities of Shaker devotional singing echoed the work of vocal improvisers like Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols, both of whom feature in the film and this performance.
A Sonic Confrontation of Faith and Improvisation
Seyfried, a skilled musician known for playing dulcimer on Jimmy Fallon's show, sang the Shaker-style hymns Blumberg composed for the film. Her pure, hymnal voice, lightly inflected with Appalachian bends, served as a melodic anchor while Blumberg's eight-piece ensemble deconstructed the songs. Violinist Billy Steiger and bassist Tom Wheatley smeared tunes with woozy drones, drummer Steve Noble teased abrasive textures from a kettledrum, and all players clanged discordant handbells as if summoning the dead.
In the film, the hymns function as joyous, communal chants akin to those in The Wicker Man, binding congregations together. On stage, they acquired a feral, unsettling edge, largely due to Minton and Nicols. Minton, a youthful-looking 85, unleashed gasps, retches, howls, panting, and animalistic whinnies, while Nicols punctuated hymns with yelps, shrieks, and sudden eruptions of joy, grotesquely exaggerating Shaker ecstatic glossolalia.
Beauty Deliberately Bruised
The result was not mere accompaniment but a confrontation: faith rubbed raw by improvisation, with beauty deliberately bruised. Seyfried held her ground unflinchingly amid the sonic sabotage, transforming from a Hollywood interloper into a fully embedded participant. The performance, though short, proved exhilarating and wonderfully disorienting, offering a raw and immersive experience that blurred the lines between traditional worship and experimental art.
