Having toured extensively with his latest album Luna, vibraphonist extraordinaire Pascal Schumacher was back on home turf last weekend to perform at the Philharmonie.

But unlike his last show at the venue in October 2020 to perform his debut solo album Sol, this time Schumacher was not the only musician on stage. He brought with him acclaimed Brussels-based string quarter Echo Collective, who perform on Luna and have also arranged instrumentation for the likes of American ambient music duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen and the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.

The quartet arrived on stage after Schumacher had treated the audience to a brief solo set, using a Roland Juno-60 synth and loops in addition to his trusted vibraphone. That was entrancing enough, but the addition of the strings gave the sound not only a deeper dimension but also waves of glorious crescendo that swept across the auditorium.

The strings, vibraphone and synths provided a spacious sonic platform on to which Schumacher added glockenspiel, gongs, crotales, marimba to create sparks and dots of light.

The set for the evening was a finely-considered balance of works from Sol and Luna, a choice that was echoed in the fascinating visuals by Berlin duo Magnificent Matter. They use microscopy combined with technology to create images of liquids that they call “cosmic expeditions”.

Indeed, the concert felt like a journey across space and time, a meditative contemplation that was occasionally fiercely interrupted by more menacing soundscapes.

The musicians earned rapturous applause and returned for an encore of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Tearjerker, a track that Schumacher also credited to Chilly Gonzales, who owns a quarter of the rights and has also recorded a version of the tune with Jarvis Cocker. It was an appropriate closure to an evening that was cinematic in scope and delightful in detail.