- Southbank Centre announces events for Ether 10 :: FRIDAY 16 — SUNDAY 25 April 2010

Date Posted: 28 January 2010

Release Date: 16 April  2010

Format: Festival

SOUTHBANK CENTRE ANNOUNCES EVENTS FOR

ETHER 10

FRIDAY 16 — SUNDAY 25 April 2010


· STEREO MCs vs THE BAYS + THE HERBALISER (16 April)
· VARÈSE 360° (16-18 April)
· GLASS, G”RECKI & TURNAGE (17 April)
· LOU REED’S METAL MACHINE TRIO (19 April)
· GIL SCOTT-HERON + SPEECH DEBELLE (20 April)
· BROADCAST + MICACHU AND THE SHAPES & OLIVER COATES (21 April)
· HEALTH & CHROME HOOF (22 April)
· CHRIS CUNNINGHAM LIVE + BEAK > (23 April)
· WILL DUTTA & PLAID, MAX DE WARDENER, JOHN RICHARDS (24 April)


Ether, Southbank Centre’s annual music festival of innovation, art, technology and cross-arts experimentation, returns from 16 — 25 April 2010. Mixing rock iconoclasts, proto-rap legends, audiovisual experimenters and contemporary-classical innovators, headline acts at the Royal Festival Hall include Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio, a performance based on Reed’s radical and controversial 1975 album Metal Machine Music (19 April) and Gil Scott-Heron in a rare London date, showcasing material from his acclaimed new album — his first in 15 years — I’m New Here, with support from 2009 Mercury Prize Winner, Speech Debelle (20 April). On 23 April, acclaimed filmmaker and audio/video maestro, Chris Cunningham brings his pioneering live show of original and remixed music and film to Ether — following ecstatic receptions at last year’s Big Chill and Tokyo's Electraglide vs Warp 20 festivals in 2009. Also appearing on the bill is BEAK > — the trio formed by Portishead's Geoff Barrow.

Opening the festival in The Clore Ballroom and foyers of the Royal Festival Hall will be a one-off collaboration between Stereo MCs and The Bays with support from The Herbaliser (16 April). On 21 April, renowned Warp artists, electronica outfit Broadcast perform in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the wildly inventive punk experimentalists Micachu and The Shapes and cellist and Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Oliver Coates as support acts. LA art-noise band HEALTH team up with the genre-trashing, visually-spectacular Chrome Hoof for a special London show on 22 April. Pianist, collaborator and Blank Canvas curator Will Dutta plus special guests Plaid, Max de Wardener and John Richards have been confirmed for Saturday 24 April (Purcell Room).

Always a platform for showcasing new work, Ether in 2010 features an evening of premieres of music by Mark-Anthony Turnage (UK premiere) and Philip Glass (European premiere) plus Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 17 April (Royal Festival Hall). In addition, the festival features Varèse 360° — the complete works of musique concrète pioneer and formative influence on Frank Zappa, Edgar Varèse, in one weekend (Friday 16 and Sunday 18 April), performed by the London Sinfonietta (Queen Elizabeth Hall) and the National Youth Orchestra (Royal Festival Hall).

Ether 2010 will also feature a talks programme with ‘in-conversations’ and themed events exploring how sound, surveillance, society and space relate to art and aesthetics. A free events programme across the festival will transform The Clore Ballroom and surrounding areas into a space that celebrates the sonic adventures of musicians, instrument makers and other artists in the search for new sounds, featuring a series of demonstrations, performances and films. Full details to be announced.


FURTHER EVENTS FOR ETHER 2010 TO BE ANNOUNCED — LISTINGS DETAILS TO DATE BELOW.

Ether tickets will go on sale to Southbank Centre members on Thursday 28 January and on general sale on Friday 29 January.
Southbank Centre Ticket Office: 0871 663 2500/ www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Notes to Editors:
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. The Royal Festival Hall reopened in June 2007 following the major refurbishment of the Hall and redevelopment of the surrounding area and facilities.


ETHER 2010 LISTINGS

Contemporary Classical

VARÈSE 360°
Southbank Centre presents the complete works of Edgard Varèse in one weekend. Described by Henry Miller as 'the stratospheric colossus of sound', Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) was writing music 50 years ahead of his time. Often described as the father of electronic music, Varèse completed just under three hours of music in his lifetime.This project presents the complete works of Varèse in three concerts, staged by Cathie Boyd. The London performances are presented by Southbank Centre, the London Sinfonietta and the National Youth Orchestra. The Varèse Project is a Holland Festival production, co-produced with the Festival d'Automne a Paris, Radio France, Salle Pleyel, Southbank Centre and Ensemble Asko/Schoenberg.


VARÈSE 360° (1) — LONDON SINFONIETTA
Friday 16 April, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £22 £15 £9
Edgard Varèse: Ionisation for 13 percussionists
Edgard Varèse: Equatorial for bass & ensemble
Edgard Varèse: Density 21.5 for solo flute
Edgard Varèse/Chou Wen-Chung: Etude pour espace
Edgard Varèse: Dance for Burgess for chamber orchestra (fragment)
Edgard Varèse: La procession de Verges for tape
Edgard Varèse: Deserts for wind, piano, percussion & tape
Edgard Varèse: Poeme electronique for tape
David Atherton conductor
Cathie Boyd staging
In this concert, the London Sinfonietta performs music which Varèse wrote between 1930 and 1960. Included are some of his most characterful and best known works, from the wailing sirens and pounding industrial soundscapes of Ionisation for 13 percussionists to Density 21.5, in which a solo flute seems to call out to the universe; from the dark and strange evocation of an ancient Mayan prayer in Equatorial to the surround-sound electronics of Poeme Electronique. This concert presents Varèse as a sonic explorer whose music is uncomprisingly futuristic, while seeming to have existed since the beginning of time.


VARÈSE 360° (2) — LONDON SINFONIETTA
Sunday 18 April, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 5.30pm, Tickets £12 £9
Edgard Varèse: Hyperprism for wind & percussion
Edgard Varèse: Un grand sommeil noir for voice & piano
Edgard Varèse: Octandre
Edgard Varèse: Offrandes for soprano & chamber orchestra
Edgard Varèse: Integrales for wind & percussion

David Atherton conductor
Cathie Boyd staging
Elizabeth Atherton soprano
Sound Intermedia

This concert includes some of Varèse’s most powerfully condensed works for ensemble: Hyperprism, Octandre, Offrandes and Integrales are all short works which pack a huge world of expression and vast sonic spaces into just a few minutes. Deep, cavernous chords, primeval melodies, huge batteries of percussion, all performed with powerful authority by the London Sinfonietta, who have made this music their own.

VARÈSE 360° (3) — NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Sunday 18 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7pm, Tickets £22 £17 £13 £9

Edgard Varèse: Nocturnal for soprano, male chorus & small orchestra
Edgard Varèse: Arcana
Interval
Edgard Varèse: Tuning Up arr. Chou Wen-Chung
Edgard Varèse: Ameriques

Paul Daniel conductor

Cathie Boyd staging
The astonishingly virtuosic National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain fields a gigantic orchestra to perform Varèse’s large-scale masterpieces. Ameriques, often described as an urban Rite of Spring, is a loving evocation of the sounds of Varèse’s adopted city of New York, while Arcana is an elemental dance, full of ancient rhythms and explosive outbursts. Nocturnal, Varèse’s last work is performed, and there is a rare performance of Tuning Up, a witty evocation of the uniquely expectant sonic chaos at the start of an orchestral performance.

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Saturday 17 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £38 £32 £27 £21 £16 £12 £9 Premium seats £55
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Texan Tenebrae (UK premiere)
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No.2 (The American Four Seasons) (European premiere)
Interval
Henryk Górecki: Symphony No.3
Marin Alsop conductor
Robert McDuffie violin
The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents an evening of premieres of music by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Philip Glass. As the resounding stillness of his Third Symphony echoed through Europe in 1977, Henryk Górecki's unparalleled music began to uplift, move, and inspire many thousands - often listeners entirely new to classical music. Whilst the pattern-based, hypnotic minimalism of Philip Glass was emerging in America, in Poland Górecki was beginning to create music that concurrently displayed energy and placidity. It was inspired not by the compelling clacketty-clack of industrial America, but by the granite-like eternities of Polish soil, folksong and faith. Here, Europe greets The American Four Seasons from Philip Glass.
Royal Festival Hall at 6.15pm - Marin Alsop introduces the programme. Admission free.

Turnage's Texan Tenebrae is commissioned by the Festival de Musica de Canarias and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Glass' Violin Concerto No.2 (The American Four Seasons) is commissioned by the Toronto Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, Aspen Music Festival and School, Krannert Center at the University of Illinois and Carlsen Center at the Johnson County Community College.

GIGS

STEREO MCs vs THE BAYS
+ HERBALISER
Friday 16 April, The Clore Ballroom and foyers at the Royal Festival Hall, 9pm, Tickets £20
One of the UK's most iconic bands, and with Mercury nominations, Brit awards and million-selling albums behind them, the Stereo MCs return to their hometown to open Ether. A very special collaboration sees the band joined by genre-busting, jazz/dance improvisers The Bays, as well as performing some of the songs from their six studio albums, most recently Double Bubble, that have made them talismanic figures in the UK dance scene. Support comes from jazz-infused hip-hop of The Herbaliser, who have been responsible for some of the most innovative and acclaimed sounds to have come out of London since their debut album Remedies was released on the legendary dance label Ninja Tune in 1995.


LOU REED’S METAL MACHINE TRIO
Monday 19 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £45 £40 £32.50 £27.50 £25 £22.50
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio performs a night of deep noise and features rock music icon Lou Reed on processed and unprocessed guitars, sonic experimentalist Ulrich Krieger on tenor sax and live-electronics, and live processing specialist Sarth Calhoun on continuum and live processing. The three musicians take the stage together to improvise musical soundscapes by using their instruments and an array of electronic treatments and venture into deep acoustic space, drawing on new music, free jazz, avant-rock, noise and ambient in a set of intense conceptual pieces and intuitive improvisations.


GIL SCOTT-HERON
+ SPEECH DEBELLE
Tuesday 20 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £27.50 £25 £22.50
In 1971 Gil Scott-Heron laid out the blueprint for the whole rap genre with The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and now, as vital as ever, he returns with his new album I’m New Here (XL Recordings) and this rare London show. One of the most important figures in 20th century music to have come out of America, his thoughtful, provocative and still rebellious voice is something to be heard. Support comes from English rapper Speech Debelle, winner of the 2009 Mercury Prize.

BROADCAST
+ MICACHU AND THE SHAPES & OLIVER COATES
Wednesday 21 April, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £15 £12.50
Acclaimed for their unique brand of atmospheric melodies and textured electronics, Broadcast are one of the UK's great innovative bands, who will be supported by English singer-songwriter Mica Levi, known by her stage name Micachu, and her band The Shapes and young solo cellist and Southbank Centre Artist in Residence, Oliver Coates.


HEALTH & CHROME HOOF
+ GUESTS
Thursday 22 April, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £16 £14
LA art-noise band HEALTH come to London for a special show with the genre-trashing, visually-spectacular Chrome Hoof.


CHRIS CUNNINGHAM LIVE
+ BEAK >
Friday 23 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm, Tickets £28.50 £25 £22.50
Acclaimed film director and video artist Chris Cunningham has created some of the most iconic music videos of recent years from Bjőrk's All is Full of Love to Aphex Twin's Windowlicker. This special live show sees him combine his own and remixed music with brand new and unreleased videos to create a hugely anticipated multimedia experience. Also appearing are BEAK >, the new project from Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.

WILL DUTTA
Featuring special guests PLAID, MAX DE WARDENER & JOHN RICHARDS
Saturday 24 April, Purcell Room, 7.45pm, Tickets £15
Pianist, collaborator and Blank Canvas curator, Will Dutta is noted for his unique and intelligent programming skills, connecting the dots between modern dance music and classical, contemporary and experimental art music. Here he presents his latest collaborative works for piano and electronics with special guests Plaid, Max de Wardener and John Richards alongside music by Ligeti, Adams, Debussy, Messiaen and Satie.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/festivals-series/ether?gclid=CPXz8rCSx58CFQ1f4woddlRj0g