Featuring renowned guitarists GORDON GILTRAP and RAYMOND BURLEY, DOUBLE VISION are a wholly instrumental duo drawing on the two artists' disparate folk, rock and classical guitar backgrounds.
Both are acclaimed artists in their respective fields and have to juggle their schedules to find windows of creativity to get together as Double Vision. However, these two intimate concert films presented under one roof as 'In Vision' suggest the personal sacrifices involved are worthwhile.
OK, on paper, the idea of two pretty studious-looking geezers rolling through a series of virtuoso instrumental workouts may sound about as exciting as grabbing ringside seats for a paint drying symposium, yet the performances are fluid, engaging and resonant throughout and mostly good enough even to win over ageing, grumbling punks like your reviewer, especially as he previously had scant prior knowledge of both artists. Well, give or take the odd, against-the-grain TOTP slot from Giltrap some time in the late '70s.
The sets are taken from two equally sympathetic settings in late 2006. Part one is filmed in Stickford Church, out in the wilds of the west country, with simply a few candles and some essential calor gas heaters keeping Ray and Gordon company. The only real video trickery is the occasional, 'Thomas Crown Affair'-style split screen footage and some nifty fretboard close-ups, but then tunes like the rippling, Nick Drake-ish 'Daisy Chain', the bucolic loveliness of 'Down The River' and the haunting, madrigal-style quality they bring to 'The Racer' hardly call for a truckload of Hollywood FX, do they? Instead, you can drift away and marvel at the two players' remarkably subtle form of guitar meshing and the romantic atmosphere conjured when the candles are lit and the lights are down for 'A Christmas Carol.'
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So Stickford's a success, though it's probably usurped by the set Ray and Gordon treat us to at Fulston Manor in Kent. This second fifty minutes is filmed before a more visible audience, so interaction is considerably more noticeable and plenty of self-deprecatory chat punctuates the set list. It never detracts from the music, though, and once again the ease with which the deceptively high-brow Burley's Julian Bream-esque fluidity intertwines with Giltrap's direct, driving presence is a joy to behold, not least on the folk-flecked likes of 'Maddie Goes West' and the John Renbourne-influenced 'Kaz', which is about as stately and Middle English as you can get outside of spending the day at Hampton Court.
Therefore, while 'In Vision' will probably be devoured by confirmed fans first, it's a pleasant seduction and a dalliance the previously uninitiated can enjoy on its' own terms. It comes from places where style and fashion count for absolutely nothing and its' gentle strength is all the better for it.
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