Congrats to all involved in The Pilot Project. I missed the launch the other day but it’s looking good. Robin Valk would appreciate any feedback you might have. The best way to do that would be to leave a comment on his blog.
Music
After headlining the second stage at Moseley Folk Festival back in September, Goodnight Lenin are back in their hometown once again, for this special gig in St. Pauls Church on 4 December.
With support from Boat to Row, what better way to warm up a chilly night than with a nice bit of folky music.
Doors open at 7.30pm, tickets are £5 in advance online / £6 on the door.
Birmingham Early Music Festival: The Poet Sings is taking place from 29 October – 18 November, with a string of musical events happening at various venues.
Friday 29 October, 7.30 pm at St Augustine’s Church, Edgbaston
White Raven: Songs of Love and Death
Associated Event – Admission Free
Friday 5 November, 1.10 pm at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
duo Trobairitz: Faye Newton soprano, Hazel Brookes vielle
Thursday 11 November, 7.30 pm at Birmingham & Midland Institute
John Potter & Ariel Abramovich: A Musicall Banquet
Sunday 14 November, 3 pm at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Le Basile: Finding Chaucer’s Voice
Wednesday 17 November, 7.30 pm at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Susanne Rydén and Mark Tatlow: The Way of Angels
Tickets cost £12 / Concessions £6 / Students £3 and can be bought online, in person at The Barber Institute, or by calling them on 0121 414 7333
Folk for free is a new monthly event to be held in the Symphony Hall foyer by Moseley Folk starting today at 5.30pm. As the name suggests, it’s free, and welcomes passers by to drop at any time throughout the performance which runs until 7pm.
The first bit of folky treats will come from Boat to Row, who appeared on the Bohemian Jukebox Stage at Moseley Folk Festival last month, with their ‘romantic acoustic sound that is brimming with delicate honesty’.
Playing from next month onwards is as follows;
18 November: Contact. This acoustic duo team sparse acoustic guitar with rhythmic bass lines and melodic vocals.
16 December: Friends of the Stars. Emerging from the ashes of John Peel favourites, The Toques, Friends of the Stars mix looping guitar spirals with country ballads.
20 January: Rob Fellows. “A multi-instrumentalist, Rob Fellows’ brand of acoustic mash-ups and collaborations offers something a little different to the traditional singer/songwriter.”
From Suspect Packages:
reppin’ Birmingham’s Eat Good Records,Try My Angle & Mud Fam crews, a fresh mixtape showcasing the one like RTillery/RTKal, entitled ‘The Pre-fix’
(Via @homeofpolar)
I’m a sucker for nicely artistic gig posters. You don’t get enough of them around these days. Malleus, an artists collective from Tortona in Italy, have done a poster for Supersonic.
a site specific unique music event sponsored by Birmingham City Council and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
on the 9th October 2010 the engine house of Ladywood Fire Station was transformed into a performance space
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group launch their 2010/11 season on 10 October with a double focus. The concert will feature new work by composer Simon Holt, along with the talents of pianist Rolf Hind and soprano Sarah Leonard, plus work by hugely influential German composer Helmut Lachenmann.
Simon Holt’s complex, dramatic music was first performed by BCMG in 1990 and it has rarely been out of the ensemble’s repertoire. Twenty years on, BCMG presents another Holt premiere. A Knot of Time, conducted by Richard Baker, is the composer’s setting of five poems by Federico García Lorca – the Andalucian poet whose dark, passionate and enigmatic texts have much in common with Holt’s own sound world.
Following the Season Launch Concert, there are whole string of concerts filling the BCMG diary through until Summer 2011. The programme until the end of 2010 looks like this;
BEAST: States of Play – 16 & 17 October. Presenting another weekend of electro-acoustic sound, using this spectacular multichannel diffusion system.
Feel the Buzz – 24 & 31 October. A free composing workshops for 14 to 18 year olds held at mac.
Families@5 conducted by Oliver Knussen – 14 November. A bite-sized interactive concert for young people and families, exploring energetic and jazz-influenced music.
Mark-Anthony Turnage 50th Birthday Concert – 14 November. A celebration of the composer’s work, with pre-concert talk Mark-Anthony Turnage and Charlotte Bray, open to all ticket holders.
BCMG conducted by Peter Rundel – 5 December. This high-octane mid-afternoon concert features works from two established younger composers – Tansy Davies and Enno Poppe.
Tickets for all of the above can be bought online or by calling the box office on 0121 767 4050
As part of this year’s Supersonic festival, Capsule have decided to get the kids involved in exploring experimental music. The Kids Gigs take place on Saturday 23 October at 11am and 2.30pm at mac in Cannon Hill Park.
Aimed at 2 – 7 year olds and their families, these 1 hour workshops will involve performances, offering ‘Big Sounds for Little People’.
Ever since Schoenberg and Kandinsky became pen pals back in 1907, avant-garde art and experimental music has been attempting to find some common ground. But, it’s not been easy. While modern art is a mass phenomenon, experimental music is often derided and ignored by the masses.
With a view to introduce children to experimental music at an early age, the events will feature one-man band from the USA, Dosh, and local circuit-bending fiend Glatze.
Glatze uses customised instruments (including: circuit-bent Furby dolls and kids’ toys) that have been specially rewired to create all sorts of musical wizardry. Dosh a multi-instrumentalist; combines a host of instruments into an exciting and unique live experience. See firsthand how these unlikely instruments are used to make noise / sound / music, and to have a go yourselves.
Tickets are only £5, and can be booked at www.macarts.co.uk or by calling 0121 446 323
Hold it Down Productions have launched an attempt to break a world record for the largest orchestra. Together with conductor Charles Hazlewood and composer Tom Basset, the Worlds Largest Orchestra will play at the LG Arena on 24 October in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.
At 12 minutes long, the piece entitled “Dawn to Dusk”, is one of the largest orchestrated pieces in history. The aim is to gather 7,000 musicians of all standards, involving all instruments, in order to break the current record which sits with over 6,000 musicians, set in May 2000 by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
If you’d like to be involved in this ridiculously huge event, take a look around their website for further information and register yourself as part of the orchestra.
Cheers to Richard Hawley for flagging this up.
’11 Stops. 11 Artists. One great cause.’
On 3 October, Oxjam will be taking over the 11 bus route. Starting outside the Hare and Hounds and proceeding to ride a full lap around Birmingham’s more interesting neighborhoods, stopping en-route at The Bear in Bearwood for a few drinks and live local music. After riding Europe’s longest urban bus route, complete with a mix of musical genres, passengers will be treated to a Sunday lunch at the Hare and Hounds.
The event is ahead of the main OxjamBrum Takeover, presenting 12 hours of live music for the best of Birmingham’s music scene. That takes place 16 October, and early bird wristbands are currently on sale for £4. Bargain!
Tickets for the 11 bus outing will be on sale from 9am on 17 September via www.oxjambrum.org.uk, and with a limited amount of 40, you’ll need to be quick.
The cost? £11. Of course.
Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research are hosting ‘Jazz and the Media‘, in partnership with Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham Jazz on 15 October. The event welcomes three internationally recognised speakers who will be presenting seminars throughout the day.
Mike Connolly is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 10 years experience in factual and arts television production.
William Ellis is at the vanguard of music photographers and is widely recognised as having created an important document of the contemporary jazz scene in Africa, Europe and The Americas.
Alyn Shipton is an award-winning author and broadcaster, who is jazz critic for The Times in London, and a presenter/producer of jazz programmes for BBC Radio.
To read more about these guys and their extensive careers working around jazz and the media, visit the event page.
Tickets can be ordered online at jazzandthemedia.eventbrite.com.
After their 40th anniversary last year, Ex Cathedra are continuing their success into 2010/11. Their dairy for the next few months looks pretty packed, have a browse through this season’s brochure to see if anything suits you.
Here’s a couple of things they’ve got going coming up;
3 September: Tallis’s Spem in alium and Alec Roth’s life-affirming 40 part Earthrise commissioned for last seasons anniversary, will be premiered at the Royal Opera House, London as part of the Deloitte Ignite Festival curated by Joanna MacGregor.
16 & 17 October: Ex Cathedra makes its debut at London’s Cadogan Hall on the 16th with a performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers by its Consort of ten outstanding young singers accompanied by His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts and the Ex Cathedra Baroque Ensemble. The concert will then move back up to Birmingham for a repeat on 17th at Birmingham Town Hall.
Here’s a nice folksie video made by Chris Keenan, a.k.a Prime Objective, for Birmingham based band Goodnight Lenin. Their debut single ‘Crook In The Creek’ is having a release do at Hare & Hounds on 6 August.
Goodnight Lenin – Crook In The Creek from Prime Objective on Vimeo.
And here’s the video for ‘She Says’ by Curio Flame and Miles ‘M.I’ Davis on Blemish Records and filmed on Colmore Row by the looks of things:
This is a lovely thing – Sam Coley‘s put together an audio slideshow focussing on The Diskery.
(Via Andrew Dubber)
