Plaid & Jamie Lidell vs London Sinfonietta
April 14, 2005
Warp meets the London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta, Plaid and Jamie Lidell :: Summer Euro Tour ::
June 10th. Amsterdam, Holland Festival @ Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
Main show is sold out - free afterparty entrance available featuring Jamie Lidell, plaid djs, N>E>D, Flat-E !
SUNDAY 1 MAY 2005
9pm, Auditorium (sala mozart),Zaragoza
WEDNESDAY 4 MAY 2005
9pm,Santa Cecilia Hall, Parco della Musica, Rome
SATURDAY 7 MAY 2005
8pm,Concertgebouw Bruges
WEDNESDAY 11 MAY 2005
7.30pm,Hall OneThe SageGateshead
+ 10-2am Warp Aftershow Party with Plaid DJs, Warp Djs in intimate surroundings of Sage Centre Hall 2
Programme:
Steve Reich.......Pendulum Music
Aphex Twin........Jynweythek & hy a Scullyas lyf adhagrow
Edgard Var?se....Ionisation
Plaid..................DJ/laptop set
Georges Antheil..Ballet M?canique
[interval 30 minutes] featuring screening of Warp videos including Chris Cunnigham?s Rubber Johnny with music by Aphex Twin
Steve Reich...........Violin Phase
John Cage.............1st Construction in Metal
Jamie Lidell...........solo set
Steve Reich..........Six Marimbas
Aphex Twin arr Kenneth Hesketh........ Polygon Window
Players ::
Jurjen Hempel.......conductor
Laurent Qu?nelle...violin
John Constable......piano
Jamie Lidell...........guest Warp artist, vocals
Plaid.....................guest Warp artists
flat-e, Bluespoon...visuals
Pablo Fiasco..........Jamie Lidell visuals
Fernand L?ger.......Ballet M?canique film
Sound Intermedia..sound design
London Sinfonietta/South Bank Centre co-production
First performed in London, March 2004 as part of a Contemporary Music Network tour
BALLET MECANIQUE video provided by Anthology Film Archives and Cineric, Inc., New York
The London Sinfonietta started ?a quiet musical revolution? when they joined forces with Warp records and sold-out the Royal Festival Hall at 2003?s Ether Festival, the South Bank Centre?s annual festival celebrating the possibilities of live performance within the context of electronic music and technology. Building on the success of this collaboration, they returned in 2004 with a new and inspired project, this time featuring live performances by Squarepusher and Jamie Lidell (Warp records), which toured the UK on a Contemporary Music Network tour.
Now this collaboration is touring to Zaragoza (1 May), Rome (4 May), Bruges (7 May) and Gateshead (11 May) with live performances by Jamie Lidell and Plaid.
Defying preconceptions, this explosively percussive performance explored the parallels that exist between some of the world?s most exciting musical rebels from electronic and contemporary classical music. A tacit reminder of the way that ideas anticipate technology, rarely performed works by pioneering composers George Antheil, Edgard Var?se and Steve Reich plus John Cage rub shoulders with new works by Aphex Twin and live sets by Jamie Lidell and Plaid in a programme that also features rare film, video and visuals by 20th and 21st century artists such as Fernand L?ger and Chris Cunningham.
With Steve Reich?s Pendulum Music playing as the audience enter the auditorium, the concert is divided into three sections: Part I includes Var?se?s Ionisation; Antheil?s Ballet M?canique, performed to a film by Fernard L?ger and a DJ/laptop set by Plaid. Part II, which also acts as the interval, is made up of a series of videos produced by Warp artists including Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny (music Aphex Twin) and Come on My Selector (music by Squarepusher). Part III, sees Jamie Lidell performing a live set between music by Cage, Reich and Aphex Twin performed by the London Sinfonietta.
The father of electronic music, Edgard Var?se spent the majority of his life waiting for technology to catch up with him; "I long for instruments obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds" (1917) and refused to submit to sounds he had already heard. The London Sinfonietta will give a rare performance of Varese?s Ionisation (1929-31) for thirteen percussionists, a work which introduced the siren as a musical instrument and was the first by a Western composer written solely for percussion - likened to ?a sock in the jaw? when it was first performed!
George Antheil?s Ballet M?canique (1924) was also way ahead of its time and has only recently been performed as originally intended, through the use of MIDI technology. Dubbed ?the bad boy of music?, Antheil was at the centre of the artistic avant-garde in 1920s Paris, where the first performance of his visionary Ballet M?canique caused a riot and marked both the zenith and nadir of his career; it symbolised the height of demented modernism, as well as being regarded as one of the masterpieces of the early 20th century. Using an orchestra of sixteen player pianos (now created and synchronised using MIDI technology), percussion, electric buzzers and aeroplane propellers, Ballet M?canique started life as the score to a Dadaist montage film by Man Ray, Dudley Murphy and Fernand L?ger, although the film and the music were forced to assume separate lives, again due to the technological limitations of the time. Antheil never really recovered from the disappointment of being ?completely misunderstood by those morons who listened to Ballet Mechanique in 1927? moving on to Hollywood to write film music and lonely hearts columns. It is therefore a rare and special treat for UK audiences to see the original L?ger film and Antheil?s music performed together as part of this project.
Unashamedly willing to take risks, the London Sinfonietta has remained at the vanguard of contemporary music for nearly thirty-five years. As early champions of the works of Xenakis, Ligeti and Birtwistle - who were largely unknown in the UK at the time - the London Sinfonietta has remained true to its roots. London Sinfonietta?s 2003 London season opened with a sold-out tribute to Xenakis, followed by a programme dedicated to Ligeti. In April 2005 they explored the soundworlds of Luigi Nono and, in June, will add to its extraordinary tally of over 250 premi?res - not to mention a further 125 commissions - with the first performance of a co-commission from Harrison Birtwistle, Neruda Madrigales..
Permalink | April 14, 2005
