Wednesday 11 May 2022

A Stylophone Orchestra, an Ondes Martenot, Tea and Cake: Welcome to the amazing world of Arctic Circle's Daylight Music

Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra, Jay Chakravorty + Josh Semans
Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra, Jay Chakravorty + Josh Semans
Playing the Future (21 May, St John on Bethnal Green) 

Arctic Circle's Daylight Music is a concert series that runs at midday on Saturdays in East London. Each event, which welcomes all ages, is an afternoon together with music, tea and cake in a welcoming space in London,  providing audiences with a first experience in music, a re-introduction or just the latest musical matchmaking.

The current season has been running since March, but there is still plenty left to enjoy with a series of concerts at St John on Bethnal Green (E2 9PA) and St John's Leytonstone (E11 1HH), and none of the line-ups is quite what you'd expect, making for an intriguing experience.

Next up is Playing the Future (21 May, St John on Bethnal Green) which features the Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra, Jay Chakravorty and Josh Semans. Believed to be the only ensemble of its kind in the world, Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra (I kid you not) was created in 2019 when Dubreq (the company that manufactures the Stylophone) donated a car boot full of instruments to the University’s music dept. Now expanded to include other hand-held, battery-powered (cheap) synths, the Stylophone Orchestra released their debut album Stylophonika in early 2022. Jay Chakravorty is a Welsh-Indian-Irish composer and multi-instrumentalist, writing emotive post-classical music for pianos, analogue/modular synths, and string ensembles. Josh Semans is an ondes Martenot player, composer, and producer based in the north-west of England. His work is uniquely textured, employing a range of instruments, sound-sources, and processes.

Space In This Place (4 June, St John on Bethnal Green) features Minihi, comprising percussionists and composers Zands and Louise Anna Duggan, Rattle, the drums and vocals duo Katharine Eira Brown & Theresa Wrigley, and improvising recorder player Fatima Lahham. Outside of the Box (18 June, St John's Leytonstone) features Guido Spannochi Quartet, featuring Vienna-born London based saxophonist Guido Spannochi, Tony Bianco, an American jazz drummer and composer, and Khabat Abasis an Iraqi Kurdish artist her work reflects on socio-political circumstances in Iraqi Kurdistan. Lost Map (16 July, St John, Bethnal Green) features three very different vocalists Gordon McIntyre, Emma Kupa, and Alexia Avina.

Full information from Daylight Music's website.

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