Concerts of contemporary classical music can sometimes be joyless affairs. Not so here. In a concert given by the Norwegian percussion trio Pinquins and featuring three pieces by young Newport composer Jack White there was a great sense of fun and of easy engagement in much of the music.

The evening began and ended with pieces that had a distinclty theatrical element. Firstly we had ''Shopping 4''by Michael Meierhof. This was a first for me (and,I suspect,the rest of the audience) - a piece for balloons. Here the 'instruments' were carefully 'tuned' and used to produce an array of timbres - mechanistic,birdlike,screaming - in a piece that owed much to Penderecki but was also, I fancy, composed with the composer's tongue firmly in his cheek at times.

The final work had the female percussionists sitting in a line in imitation of a typing pool in a wonderful exhibition of tight ensemble as they tapped out their complex patterns in Thierry de Mey's ' Musique des tables'.

It was ,however, in White's three electroacoustic responses to text that we had the evening's highlights. In 'The Cat on the Dovrefjell' we had an immensely beautiful use of vibraphone , with gently unfolding patterns, in response to Rachel Trezise's words.

We had previously heard 'East of the Sun West of the Moon' and 'Cloc ar y dwr' (with Menna Elfyn's text) demonstrating a kaleidoscope range of percussive invention - everything from droppring coins onto a snare drum to bowed vibes. The measured and delicate textures all complementing the words .