Category Archives: Happy New Year!

A great year for Luminous releases!

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…

New for 2017: LUME Lab

LUME is back with something new for 2017: LUME Lab. Making a space for artists to create new work, four evenings of brand new composition and improvised music will be accompanied by the LUME Lab project blog, letting the audience in on the creative process. LUME Lab marks a change of direction for us: we’re moving away from being a platform for guest artists, rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in creating new music with the community of musicians who have gathered around LUME over the past three and a half years.

LUME Lab gigs will take place at IKLECTIK, the South London arts space that played host to our inaugural festival last summer and the LUMEkestra’s debut in November. The series opens in February with a new incarnation of our quartet Word Of Moth, then we settle down for the ride and get ready to enjoy new music from three of the most exciting artists on the UK scene right now. We invite you to join us.

Tickets are available for individual gigs, and for slightly less you can purchase a season ticket for all four, or a ticket to use at two dates of your choice. Buy tickets now from our Luminous Bandcamp page.

8th February: Word Of Moth
Word of Moth’s ‘spontaneous group explorations and tightly-scored, big-booted riffs’ were praised by Daniel Spicer in the Wire magazine after their appearance at LUME Festival. The collaborative quartet explores the intersection of freedom and structure, with LUME founders Dee Byrne (alto sax) and Cath Roberts (baritone sax) joined by Seth Bennett on bass and Johnny Hunter on drums. wordofmoth.co.uk

Photo: Tom Ward

16th March: Julie Kjær
Saxophonist Julie Kjær is firmly established on the European stage. Her acclaimed trio with Steve Noble and John Edwards released its debut recording ‘Doppeltganger’ on the Clean Feed label in 2016, and she tours with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit as well as being involved in many other projects in the UK and beyond. juliekjaer.com

Photo: Dawid Laskowski

19th April: Craig Scott
Craig Scott’s music is ‘part human, part machine and revelling the glory and error of both.’ His studio project Craig Scott’s Lobotomy transforms recordings of improvisations by Craig and others using homemade equipment, re-constructing them with digital audio software. He is a member of formidable Leeds quintet Shatner’s Bassoon. craigscottslobotomy.bandcamp.com

Photo: Josh Crocker

24th May: Anton Hunter
Improvisation is at the core of Anton Hunter’s work. His Article XI project incorporates the personalities of eleven improvising musicians into the compositional process, exploring the relationship between composer and large ensemble. He leads his own trio with Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter, and co-founded the long-running Manchester free improvisation night The Noise Upstairs. antonhunter.com

Photo: Mark Whitaker

LUME Lab is supported by Arts Council England.

16th January, 2pm @ Electric Knife: Hannah Marshall & Kordik Lucas

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.

See you in 2016!

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.