St. Vincent, Man Man Underwhelm at Calgary Folk Fest Workshop

The Calgary Folk Festival closed out its Sunday daytime program with an eclectic combination of indie, dance and African rhythms, as Man Man, St. Vincent, DJ Logic and Etran Finatawa joined together under the ambitiously-named 'Mysteries of the Universe Unravelled' workshop.

It was the conclusion of a day program that showcased rare musical collaborations, including the 'Face Down, Feet First' workshop that featured reinterpretations of Neil Young songs by Ohbijou, Timber Timbre, local heroine Samantha Savage-Smith and Mercury Prize nominee Laura Marling, as well as the middle-eastern-tinged 'All Funked Up' workshop, featuring Israeli funksters Coolooloosh, Belgian Natacha Atlas and New York's DJ Logic.

The 'Mysteries' jam was one of the most anticipated workshops of the fest because all the artists seemed keen to create new collaborative music rather than just showcase their own songs, but it ultimately fell flat.The gathering got off to an awkward start when clean-cut Annie Clark (aka New York singer/songwriter St. Vincent) set up beside the tribally-garbed members of Niger's Etran Finatawa before sharing an uneasy glance of acknowledgment.

Things continued in a similarly uncomfortable vein throughout the session, which began with Honus Honus of experimental Philly band Man Man trying to cajole the group to jam in the key of B minor, and ended nearly an hour later pretty much the same way. Because Clark was playing the main stage soon after, the indie starlet rested her voice, focusing on her impressive guitar skills and essentially forcing every jam to become a prolonged instrumental.

Under the best circumstances, this kind of showcase would provide an opportunity for interesting cross-cultural interplay, but because none of the members were familiar enough with one another to take the lead, most of the numbers fell into a repetitive loop that kept the audience engaged, but failed to live up to the potential that the participants' pedigrees would suggest.