In recent months we’ve found ourselves posting on this blog about new releases on the LUME offshoot label, Luminous. No longer! The label now has a shiny new website all of its own. On there you can read about all the releases on the label so far (including the new Deemer + 1 album coming next month), and information about the artists.
There is also a new mailing list for the label, so do sign up if you’d like to be kept updated on future releases and label-related activities….
Out today on Luminous is a new Sloth Racket live album! Recorded by Anton Hunter last September when the band were on tour, and mixed by Alex Bonney, it’s the whole set from their date at Arco Barco in Ramsgate. Check it out over on Bandcamp:
Like a million other bands, Sloth Racket had to cancel their tour this year, and this release falls where they would have been out and about playing live. It’s a digital only release, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t any merch: there was always a plan for new t-shirts in 2020 and we’ve decided to still go ahead…
The shirts are available in a bundle with the digital album. Head over to the merch page on Bandcamp to read more about the shirts and check the size guide.
Hope you enjoy the music! We have more Luminous plans up our sleeves, so you never know there just *might* be another release before the year is out.
Announcing a very special new album! LUME founders Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne release their first duo recording Disembark! today on Luminous. Recorded by Cath at Gun Factory Studios in April 2019, it was mixed by Alex Bonney and has original album artwork by Dee. Disembark! is a series of short, spontaneous improvisations that explore a dramatic range of textures, whilst maintaining the sense of an ongoing, inquisitive conversation. The recording came about after a series of live duo performances; going into the studio seemed like the next logical step. The release was originally planned for earlier in the summer, with a five date duo tour booked and ready to go, but that plan was derailed by the pandemic. Now, we’ve decided to get the music out there!
Dee and Cath have played together in many different ensembles since they started working together, most recently in February this year with MoonMot (see previous blog post), touring the UK and Europe to mark the sextet’s debut album just before COVID-19 shut all the venues down. Playing together as musicians has been part of a larger context, combined with running LUME projects together and releasing music through Luminous. It feels like a long time since the first release, Live At Lume Vol.1 in July 2015 – a collection of bootleg recordings from performances at LUME’s then regular night at The Long White Cloud in Hoxton. The label grew out of those Live At LUME fundraiser albums, and now five years on, Disembark! will be the thirteenth release on Luminous. With more scheduled this Autumn, we recommend you keep your ear to the ground!
Disembark! is available as a digital album via Bandcamp. No physical copies for now, but ask us again when touring is back on…
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…
At this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, LUME will showcase two new projects that reflect the adventurous spirit of our music-making. Come down to the Barbican foyer (free entry!) on the afternoon of Saturday 23rd November to hear sets from:
5pm: Rachel Musson / Cath Roberts / Andrew Lisle
All active as collaborator, bandleaders and composers in their own right, Musson, Lisle and Roberts have joined forces in this new trio. Rachel Musson is a distinctive voice on the European scene, regularly collaborating with artists including Julie Kjær, Hannah Marshall, Olie Brice, Pat Thomas, Louis Moholo-Moholo and many more. Andrew Lisle is in demand as an improvising drummer in London and further afield, with ongoing projects including Kodian Trio, Alex Ward’s Item ensembles and his own trio with Charlotte Keeffe and Otto Willberg. LUME’s own Cath Roberts primarily plays baritone saxophone and can be found leading her ensembles Sloth Racket and Favourite Animals, in established duos with Anton Hunter and Benedict Taylor, and as bandmate in groups including Article XI, Vole and Madwort Saxophone Quartet.
Rachel Musson – tenor saxophone
Cath Roberts – alto saxophone
Andrew Lisle – drums
6pm: Deemer + 1
The brain-child of sound artist Merijn Royaards and saxophonist/composer/LUME co-conspirator Dee Byrne, Deemer started life in 2006 as a weekly improvisation/electronics session in a warehouse in Hackney Wick. Over the years the project has evolved into a continuing conversation that is always inquisitive, searching and fresh. The duo released their debut album ‘Interference Patterns’ on Luminous Label in 2015. Their second release ‘Live At The Vortex’ was released on cassette in 2016. They are currently working on their next release on Luminous, which will feature guest artists involved in their new Deemer + 1 project. For this special London Jazz Festival performance Deemer invites Manchester-based drummer, composer and bandleader Johnny Hunter as special guest for a heavy dose of sonic cookery.
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Merijn Royaards – electronics
Johnny Hunter – drums
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
LUME is on hiatus this Autumn while Cath and Dee are working hard on other projects. Two of these are particularly relevant this month, so here’s the lowdown…
Entropi Moment Frozen album launch
The eagerly-anticipated second album from Entropi, Moment Frozen, is released this month on Whirlwind Recordings. To celebrate the release, Dee is taking the band on a UK tour including a special album release show at Kings Place on Friday 29th September. It promises to be a lovely evening and a great chance to hear the band playing their new album on home turf. Tickets are moving fast, so we advise getting yours as soon as you can: they’re available from the Kings Place website.
LUME regulars will know that Entropi explores a narrative of life-pondering, space-gazing and risk-taking through Dee’s striking compositions. Juggling order and chaos, composed material and improvisation, the group takes listeners on a journey with compelling group interplay, strong themes, dark grooves and interweaving melodic textures. Joining Dee in the band are four fantastic musicians, all of whom are in demand on the UK scene and beyond. It makes for a heavyweight lineup:
Dee Byrne alto saxophone
Andre Canniere trumpet
Rebecca Nash keyboard
Matt Fisher drums
Olie Brice bass
This gig will be something of a LUME social, so we’d love it if you can join us. Make sure you’re part of it by buying your tickets now!
Favourite Animals large ensemble album crowdfunder
While Dee is releasing and touring a new album this month, Cath is in the midst of the production of her own. Favourite Animals, the ten piece group originally formed for Cath’s residency at Lancaster Jazz Festival last year, went into the studio this August with Alex Bonney. They spent three days working at City, Uinversity of London – thanks to trombonist Tullis Rennie who works as a lecturer there – and recorded new versions of all the music from the Lancaster commission.
Favourite Animals is an extended version of Cath’s regular band Sloth Racket. The ten piece version adds woodwind and brass, and just generally more improvisers:
Graham South – trumpet
Tullis Rennie – trombone
Julie Kjær – flute/bass clarinet
Tom Ward – flute/bass clarinet
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Sam Andreae – tenor saxophone
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Anton Hunter – guitar
Seth Bennett – bass
Johnny Hunter – drums
With a set of great takes waiting patiently on a hard drive, the next stage is raising the money to get the album out there. Cath is running a crowdfunding campaign this month to cover the musicians and engineers’ fees, the mixing and mastering, and the production of physical CD albums. The plan is to release the album on Luminous this December, to coincide with Favourite Animals’ joint tour with Article XI. With your help, we can finish the Luminous year with our most ambitious release to date! Check out the campaign page for more info about the project, photos from the session, and lots of backer perks to get your hands on…
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and keep any eye on the LUME social media channels through the month for more about these projects and some extremely exciting giveaways…
Thanks to all who came out to spend their weekend with us at LUME Festival 2017 in June. We had a blast! Also massive thanks to Eduard for hosting us at IKLECTIK, to all the musicians who played, and to everyone who helped us out on the day (special mention to our awesome merch assistant Liz).
LUME is taking a break now, but watch this space for news of further activities in the coming months…
Dee Byrne leads the LUMEkestra at LUME Festival 2017 (photo by Bill Clifford)
A handy schedule to help you plan your weekend at LUME Festival 2017….
Advance tickets on sale from the Luminous Bandcamp site.
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
