Red Note Intoxicated (again)

Steaming Scots staring at symbolic thistles, Bollywood beats banged out on bongos, singing shits serenading scared chefs: Red Note rudely reject the respectable confines of contemporary classical compositions and seem intent on proving that if it has a score, they can play it. There's no surprise that they are touring Sally Beamish's settings of four Persian love songs in collaboration with Michael Popper's choreography.

Although their name hints at a political determination - and their version of Hugh MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle presages the proliferation of performances provoking pondering on national identity - Red Note are joyously eclectic. As happy translating Eno's ambient recordings into orchestral wanderings as they are jolting shards of synthesisers through Glass' 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, Red Note are helping classical music escape from both academic formalism and the confines of the concert hall. In the past three years, they have become key players in the fusion of actors and orchestra, while reaching out to unexpected musicians, like Bollywood's Kuljit Bhamra.

When it arrives in Edinburgh, for the last night of the Traverse's autumn dance festival, The Intoxicating Rose Garden highlights how Red Note are picking up on some of the themes within contemporary choreography. Michael Popper, dancer and singer, was last in Edinburgh as part of Dance Base's Fringe programme: fascinated by the merging of different forms of art, he has a reputation for choreography thoughtful pieces that are interested in ideas and poetry. While his style is his own, his integration of sophisticated, intelligent concepts mirrors similar intentions in the creations of Andy Howitt (Deliberance dances justice) or Janis Claxton, who uses her academic research on primates as a foundation for her studies of power and hierarchy.

Red Note's presence on stage follows the trend for theatrical performances featuring live music (from Iona Kewney's actions with Joe Quimby through to The Hebrides Ensemble staging 8 Songs for a Mad King) where the musicians are more than an afterthought or mere accompaniment. Fitting into the larger fashion for cross-platform work - it is no accident that to of the past year's most well received plays were supported by Vital Sparks, a funding stream dedicated to original collaborations.

And although no Red Note show can be seen as typical - or even representative, making it very hard to pin them down as a particular sort of ensemble - The Intoxicating Garden at least continues several of Red Note's abiding enthusiasms: a Scottish composer (Sally Beamish), a high concept collaboration and a fascination with the connection between western and eastern cultures - not to forget the theme of inebriation, whether on the drink with MacDiarmid or on through love with Hafez.

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 7:30pm 22 November