Megalith by Mechanimal – Zoo Southside, Edinburgh

Mechanimal, a Bristol company led by Tom Bailey, are known for their multimedia sound-based productions that often explore natural and scientific questions. Megalith is nominally concerned with copper mining, but it is a great deal less didactic than that might imply. Three performers (Charles Sandford, Xavier Velastin and a third musician whose name I have been unable to track down – sorry) unpack boxes filled with rocks and form them into what seems like a stone age computer. Behind them on the big screen a tech support programme goes rogue, and banks of electronics build crunching, rhythms – literally, rock music. They perform electronic music of a very high quality – varied, layered and intense. As the production progresses, a giant sun illuminates stone circle alignments constructed on stage, and the music becomes blissed out and otherworldly. Perhaps they could have eased up on the multi-tracked singing bowls which seem to occupy a significant chunk of the show, but the overall experience is absorbing. Megalith is a complex, fascinating response to the power of geology, and the musicianship and gadgetry on display is a triumph.