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
LUME is back in 2022: we’re kicking off another season at Hundred Years Gallery with these improvised encounters…
Caroline Kraabel & Khabat Abas
First meeting of this alto saxophone and cello duo.
masskraabel.com | khabatabas.com
Dee Byrne solo
Sonic explorations with saxophone and effects pedals.
deebyrnemusic.com
Alex Bonney & Cath Roberts
Trumpet and baritone saxophone dialogues with electronics.
alexbonney.co.uk | cathrobots.co.uk
Join us back at the gallery! Doors 19:30, music starting 20:00, £10 on the door.
Check out the June and July lineups over on the gig listings page.
We’re back this autumn with a fresh crop of new gigs! Three evenings of improvised music at our regular haunt Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton…
Continuing our three-set format, each month LUME founders Dee Byrne and Cath Roberts will bring a project, and the third ‘guest’ set will feature some more of our favourite artists. There will be a solo set each month; from Cath Roberts in October, Will Glaser in November and Hannah Marshall in December. Multiple ‘first meeting’ duo sets will be played: Cath will play with Ruth Goller for the first time, while Dee will collaborate with Chris Williams (October) and Elliot Galvin (November).
New releases are also a theme. Our Swiss friends Oli Kuster and Cyrill Ferrari will play a set with Dee in November as part of the trio’s UK mini-tour to celebrate the release of their new album ‘Motherboard Pinball’ (Efpi Records). And in December, LUME will host the album release concert for ‘Hold Music’ by cr-ow-tr-io (Cath Roberts, Otto Willberg and Tullis Rennie), which will be out that month on Luminous.
Join us!
Our second gig of February is a special one: we are taking LUME to the cosy basement of the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury. Part of the bookshop by day, and home to literary events and film screenings, the downstairs room will become our intimate setting for Seth Bennett’s new project En Bas Quartet.
En Bas Quartet is, as the name suggests, a low string quartet, featuring some of the most exciting string improvisers in the U.K. They will be playing Seth’s quartet for improvising low strings, based on the Northumberland folk song tune “Sair Fyeld Hinny”, and exploring various settings and provocations for group and solo improvisation. Inspired by the quartets of Shostakovich, Beethoven and Bartok, as well as more contemporary jazz ensembles like Arcado String Trio, the Masada string trio and contemporary British free improvisation, En Bas Quartet weave their disparate influences into a compelling whole.
Aby Vulliamy viola
Benedict Taylor viola
Alice Eldridge cello
Seth Bennett double bass
This gig is a ticketed event (unusual for us I know!) and the room at LRB has a limited capacity. The ticket includes a drink, and it’s doors at 7pm with the music starting at 7.30pm. Buy your advance tickets HERE.
We’re back! Happy New Year everyone. To kick things off for 2016, we’re taking LUME to a new space: the excellent Electric Knife record shop in Kentish Town. Electric Knife specialises in avant garde, noise, and experimental music and its owner Thanasis stocks a fantastic range of CDs, vinyl, cassettes, books and more. The shop occasionally turns into an intimate venue for in-store gigs, and we’re really exciting to be hosting one this January. Be warned: this gig is in the afternoon! The music will start at 2pm, so make sure you leave yourself some time to browse the shelves before we welcome:
Hannah Marshall
Improvising cellist Hannah Marshall is a formidable force on the UK scene and beyond. She regularly collaborates with such (fellow) luminaries of improvised music as Veryan Weston, Alison Blunt, Terry Day, Alex Ward, Rachel Musson and Dominic Lash, and has also played with Evan Parker, Luc Ex and Fred Frith. Hannah has appeared at LUME before in various different groups, but for today’s gig we’re excited to say that she will be performing a solo set.
Kordik Lucas
Last year we were lucky enough to host a set by trombone and analogue synthesiser duo Kordik Lucas, and we couldn’t wait to ask them back. They have been playing together for several years, as well as running Earshots Recordings together, a label releasing improvised music and field recordings. ‘The juicy sounds of the Vostok synth wiggle with squelchy non- classical balls of trombone fluff,’ said the Next Festival in Bratislava, and we have to agree…
Ed Lucas trombone
Daniel Kordik Vostok synthesiser
Please join us for this special afternoon of improvised music in London’s finest tiny record shop! Suggested donation: one Bank of England note of your choice.
Electric Knife Records, 16b Fortress Road, Kentish Town, NW5 2EU.
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
This week we’re decamping to Hundred Years Gallery once more, for a special gig to celebrate our second birthday! We have assembled a nebulous ensemble of musicians – from the London jazz/improvised music scene and beyond – to take part in a series of improvised performances. Who plays in each set will be determined using our dice and hat method, inspired by the long-running Manchester night The Noise Upstairs.
Musicians confirmed so far…
Seth Bennett
Adam Fairhall
Colin Webster
Hannah Marshall
Corey Mwamba
Joe Wright
Johnny Hunter
Martin Pyne
Olie Brice
Tom Ward
James Opstad
Andrew Lisle
Ed Riches
Tom Taylor
Dee Byrne
Cath Roberts
…with others possibly to be announced! (Although we might leave it there because we want everyone to play…)
Live At LUME
The evening will also function as the launch of our ‘Live At LUME’ fundraiser compilation; an album of live performances recorded at LUME gigs, donated by a bunch of our favourite musicians. This is available as a download, plus we’ve also produced special CD editions with hand-printed sleeves. All proceeds go towards our running costs for the next year of LUME gigs. Grab your copy on here or at the gig!
Entry is, as usual, one Bank of England note of your choice. Doors 7.30pm, music 8pm. We’d love to see you there as we mark two years of LUME activity. Bring your friends!
Hundred Years Gallery is just around the corner from Hoxton station at 13 Pearson Street, E2 8JD.
Sticking with last month’s theme of improv trio plus large ensemble, this month at the Vortex we’re very excited to be hosting Alphabets – Hannah Marshall, Nick Malcolm and Lauren Kinsella – and the first full-length outing of new saxophone octet Saxoctopus!
Alphabets is a new trio comprising three exciting voices in UK and Irish improvised
music, creating music inspired by language, vocalisation & landscapes. The group
aims to reach states of stillness and repose as well as fast instinctive rhythmic
interaction, and to tease out all possible sonorities from their instruments. They
embarked upon their debut UK tour in March 2014, and recorded in July. The three
musicians have distinctive and respected voices in jazz, free music and improvisation
and play together to share a passion for spontaneous music.
Hannah Marshall – cello
Lauren Kinsella – vocals
Nick Malcolm – trumpet
The Saxoctopus was inadvertantly formed when eight saxophonists found themselves
in a room together at a gig in Autumn 2013. A cautionary lesson on the dangers of
social networking banter, they underwent the transformation from Twitter joke to
Real Band when vibraphonist Corey Mwamba offered them a gig at his jazz night in
Derby. A cameo performance with Trio Riot at the Vortex in March 2014 sealed the
deal, and they are performing their first full set tonight. The group showcases original
compositions by its members, as well as being a vehicle for exploring graphic scores
and guided group improvisation. Featuring top improvisers from around the UK and
Scandinavia, this will be an exploration into the outer limits of the saxophone…
Julie Kjaer – alto
Oliver Dover – alto
Dee Byrne – alto
Rachel Musson – tenor
Tom Ward – tenor
Sam Andreae – tenor
Cath Roberts – baritone
Colin Webster – baritone
Grab some advance £8 tickets from the Vortex website, or show up on the night and it’s £10 on the door. We’d love to see you there!