We had a fantastic night at the last LUME of 2022. A lovely busy gig to finish off our year! Watch this space for more…
Cath Roberts and Bill Thompson
Matt Fisher and Dee Byrne
Olie Brice ‘From The Mouths of Lions’ string project
Organisers’ end-of-year selfie
On Saturday 21st December, LUME has been invited to take over Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye Show on Resonance FM! To round off 2019 we’re looking forward to filling an entire radio show with LUME stuff. We’ll be playing some tasty tracks and talking about LUME projects past and present, plus there will be two live sets: one from Ti/om (Tom Ward and Tim Fairhall) and a duo set from Dee and Cath.
Tune in from 12 noon until 1.30pm to hear what we’ve got up our sleeves…
LUME is thrilled to announce an Entropi/Sloth Racket double bill at Kings Place on 13th March. It’s part of the Venus Unwrapped series, which throws a spotlight on female composers and is a great opportunity for LUME co-founders Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne to showcase their projects in such an amazing venue. This performance at Kings Place marks the start of exciting LUME plans in the pipeline for later on this year. Cath and Dee have spent 2018 concentrating on their own musical projects and are pleased to share the stage with their bands for this special occasion! Cath’s band Sloth Racket will be coming fresh from a recording of their next album, to be released on Luminous in September. Dee’s band Entropi will perform a few recently penned compositions as well as material from their previous albums.
Grab your tickets to this one-off event!
Here’s a bit about the bands:
Sloth Racket
Sloth Racket is a band of UK improvisers led by baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts, with Sam Andreae on alto saxophone, Anton Hunter on guitar, Seth Bennett on bass and Johnny Hunter on drums. They play Cath’s compositions, combining written fragments with graphic notation to explore the balance between freedom and structure. The results are always different, and so far have ranged across musical territories taking in fiery free jazz, minimal improv textures and heavy riffs.
The band formed in 2015 when Jazz North East invited Cath to present a new project at Gateshead International Jazz Festival. Everyone agreed this had to be more than just a one-off, and they went on to appear at London Jazz Festival, Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival and LUME Festival, as well as doing four UK tours so far. Sloth Racket’s third studio album A Glorious Monster is out on the Luminous label.
‘Lurching between riff and abstraction…maintains an elegant balance between emergent melody and the wilder activity at its fringes’ The Wire
‘Consider this an important contribution to the debate about spontaneity versus form.’ ★★★★ Jazzwise
Photo credit: Agata Urbaniak
Entropi
Entropi has been steadily developing its own dynamic band sound since its beginnings in 2010. Placing a high importance on improvisation, Dee Byrne’s compositions allow breathing space for depth of communication and interaction between the band members. Juggling order and chaos, composition and improvisation, the group takes listeners on a journey with compelling group interplay, strong themes, open-ended improvisation, dark grooves and interweaving melodic textures.
The ensemble comprises bandleader and alto saxophonist Dee Byrne, trumpeter Andre Canniere, keyboardist Rebecca Nash, drummer Matt Fisher and bassist Olie Brice. Having performed live together for some time, the band has achieved a striking empathy and freedom to take risks. Entropi’s second album Moment Frozen was released on Whirlwind Recordings in September 2017. Their performance at Marsden Jazz Festival in October 2018 was broadcast on Radio 3’s Jazz Now programme on Christmas Eve.
‘Intense, muscular jazz voyage.’ ★★★★ The Guardian
‘Byrne’s second album possesses both maturity and complexity but crucially it’s imbued with its own cohesive energy.’ ★★★★ All About Jazz
Photo credit: Carl Hyde
As 2018 kicks off, we’ve been looking back at our 2017 releases on the Luminous label. We put out four albums last year: Sloth Racket’s second album ‘Shapeshifters’, the third volume of ‘Live At LUME’, Cath Roberts and Tullis Rennie’s duo album ‘Blurts/Growls’ and Cath’s large ensemble album with Favourite Animals! This meant that our catalogue almost doubled in size, and happily allowed us to make this handy square of Luminous covers for your perusal below.
To keep up to date on future Luminous releases as well as plans for LUME gigs, sign up to our newsletter over on the right…
The second LUME Festival is taking place at IKLECTIK on the weekend of 24th/25th June. This year’s event will be a two-dayer, with a host of LUME’s favourite artists on the bill. Join us for two days of spontaneous musical explorations, collaborations old and new, live painting from Gina Southgate and all round good times!
Saturday: The Hat Speaks // Alex Bonney solo // Ma/ti/om // Archipelago // Sloth Racket // Corey Mwamba (LUME Lab Festival Special) // Gina Southgate
Sunday: The Hat Speaks // Tullis Rennie solo // Birchall/Cheetham/Webster/Willberg // Entropi // Metamorphic // LUMEkestra //Gina Southgate
Food // drinks // merch
2pm – midnight (live sets 3pm – 10.30pm)
Buy your tickets now from the Luminous Bandcamp site.
Praise for last year’s inaugural festival:
‘A glimpse of the kind of self-generated, mutually supportive communities we’re going to need if we’re to survive the years ahead.’ – Daniel Spicer, The Wire
‘Like all the best family get togethers LUME Festival should be an annual event. This debut was outstanding.’ – Thomas Rees, Jazzwise
Announcing the full line-up for LUME Festival 2017 at IKLECTIK, London on 24th and 25th June:
Saturday: The Hat Speaks // Alex Bonney solo // Ma/ti/om // Archipelago // Sloth Racket // Corey Mwamba (LUME Lab Festival Special) // Gina Southgate
Sunday: The Hat Speaks // Tullis Rennie solo // Birchall/Cheetham/Webster/Willberg // Entropi // Metamorphic // LUMEkestra //Gina Southgate
Food // drinks // merch
2pm til late both days
Tickets on sale now from the Luminous Bandcamp site!
LUME Festival is support by Arts Council England.
We’re extremely excited to announce that the second LUME Festival is taking place at IKLECTIK on the weekend of 24th/25th June! This year’s event will be a two-dayer, with a host of LUME’s favourite artists on the bill. Join us for two days of spontaneous musical explorations, collaborations old and new, live painting from Gina Southgate and all round good times…
Praise for last year’s inaugural festival:
‘A glimpse of the kind of self-generated, mutually supportive communities we’re going to need if we’re to survive the years ahead.’ – Daniel Spicer, The Wire
‘Like all the best family get togethers LUME Festival should be an annual event. This debut was outstanding.’ – Thomas Rees, Jazzwise
A very limited number of early bird tickets are on sale: £25 for a full weekend ticket, or £15 for a day ticket. Buy yours now from the Luminous Bandcamp site!!
Saturday: Corey Mwamba // Alex Bonney solo // Archipelago // Gina Southgate // More artists TBA
Sunday: Metamorphic // Birchall/Cheetham/Webster/Willberg // LUMEkestra // Gina Southgate // More artists TBA
Food // drinks // merch // 2pm til late both days
LUME Festival is support by Arts Council England.
Blueblut at LUME Festival 2016 (Alex Bonney)
Well, that’s it for 2015 and it’s been another fantastic year of LUME! Thanks to everyone who has supported us by coming out to the gigs, and to all the amazing artists that have graced our stage(s). We’re also massively grateful to Arts Council England for supporting both LUME On Tour and our 2015/16 season.
We wish you all a relaxing and merry festive season and a Happy New Year! We’ll be back in January. Here’s our current flyer as a reminder of what’s coming up in early 2016….
Artwork, as ever, by Peter Beatty.
For this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, LUME is curating an afternoon of music on the Barbican freestage on Saturday 14th November. Join us on a voyage of contemporary sounds! As the stage name suggests, it’s free entry, so just come down to the Barbican foyer and settle in for the ride…
12 noon: Corey Mwamba & Rachel Musson
Spontaneous, living music in-the-moment from two of the UK’s finest improvisers.
Corey Mwamba vibraphone
Rachel Musson tenor saxophone
12.30pm: Colin Webster & Andrew Lisle
Fiery, free-wheeling sax and drums duo from DIY improv/noise label Raw Tonk Records.
Colin Webster saxophones
Andrew Lisle drums
2pm: Entropi
Space jazz quintet led by Dee Byrne, currently making waves with their debut album ‘New Era’. Juggling order and chaos, composition and improvisation, they take listeners on an exploration of the musical cosmos.
Dee Byrne alto saxophone
Andre Canniere trumpet
Rebecca Nash keyboards
Olie Brice bass
Matt Fisher drums
3pm: Sloth Racket
Brand new group formed for Gateshead Jazz Festival 2015 by Cath Roberts. Improvisers from Manchester, Leeds, Macclesfield and London navigate a set of experimental graphic scores, using them as a jumping-off point for freely improvised group explorations.
Sam Andreae tenor saxophone
Anton Hunter guitar
Cath Roberts baritone saxophone
Seth Bennett bass
Johnny Hunter drums
6pm: Madwort’s Menagerie
Intricate compositions and delicate textures from Tom Ward’s chamber jazz sextet, with a diverse collection of instruments played by high-calibre improvisers from across the London creative music scene.
Tom Ward bass clarinet, composition
Julie Kjaer flute, alto flute
Alex Bonney trumpet
Magnus Dearness trombone
Adam Spiers cello
Tim Fairhall double bass
We’re taking a longer summer break this year. After two years packed with weekly gigs and everything else, it’s time to chill out and reflect on the serious amounts of larks we’ve had…and plan a totally kick-ass new version of LUME for 2015/16, obviously.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far: all the amazing musicians who’ve played at our gigs and the lovely audience members who’ve come along for the ride. We couldn’t have done it without you – as in, we literally couldn’t, as we wouldn’t have had any bands or audience. So THANKS!
It just remains for us to wish you all a great summer and to reassure/warn you that, Terminator-style, we’ll be back…
Cath and Dee
The excellent Joe Wright took this photo at the LUME is 2 gig, Hundred Years Gallery, 9th July.