November and December activities

We have a couple of gigs coming up before 2017 is out. Read on for the lowdown on LUME plans for the next couple of months!

19th November: LUME/Jazzwerkstatt Bern @ Rich Mix for EFG London Jazz Festival

In February this year we were lucky enough to be invited to play at the tenth edition of the Jazzwerkstatt festival in Bern, Switzerland. Dee, Cath, Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter – who had been working together around that time on the LUME quartet project Word Of Moth – travelled to Bern to collaborate with Swiss musicians, play a live set and take in the festival for the week. It was a fantastic trip, and when we got back we knew we had to organise a return leg somehow. Thanks to Serious, producers of EFG London Jazz Festival, we’re making it happen this month!

On Sunday 19th November, a UK/Swiss sextet made up of LUME and Jazzwerkstatt-affiliated musicians will play the support set for The Thing at Rich Mix. This will be a blast – we’re looking forward to revisiting the music and catching up with our Swiss friends. Tickets can be bought from the festival website, and the lineup is:

Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Simon Petermann – trombone/electronics
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Oli Kuster – keyboards
Seth Bennett – bass
Johnny Hunter – drums

1st December: Sloth Racket/The Hat Speaks @ Hundred Years Gallery

On the first Friday of December we’re having an end-of-year shindig at one of our favourite venues, Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton. Sloth Racket will play as part of a mini-tour to support their live album on the Tombed Visions label, and then the rest of the evening will be dedicated to a winter edition of our dice-and-hat improv session The Hat Speaks. We’ve lined up an exciting array of people to make up the nebulous ensemble of names in the hat:

Kim Macari – trumpet
Charlotte Keeffe – trumpet
Alex Bonney – cornet
Tullis Rennie – trombone

Alex Ward – clarinet
Tom Ward – saxophone, bass clarinet
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Sam Andreae – alto saxophone

John Macedo – electronics
Francesca Ter-Berg – cello/electronics

Seth Bennett – double bass
Huw V Williams – double bass

Simon Roth – drums
Liz Exell – drums

Doors will be 7.30pm, with the music starting at 8pm. Entry will be one Bank of England note.

Two projects for September

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 for a great festival!

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)

LUMEkestra finale at LUME Festival 2017

A second incarnation of the LUMEkestra will emerge to play the closing set of LUME Festival 2017. This behemoth of a band will debut new compositions by Sam Andreae, Adam Fairhall, Dee Byrne and more to be announced. Check out the line-up below!

Advance tickets for the festival are on sale from our Bandcamp site: grab yours now…

Reeds
Sam Andreae – alto saxophone
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Rachel Musson – tenor saxophone
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Tom Ward – bass clarinet
Colin Webster – saxophone

Brass
Tullis Rennie – trombone

Keys
Adam Fairhall
Rebecca Nash

Guitar
Paulo Dias Duarte
Anton Hunter
Ed Riches

Vibes/percussion/other small instruments
Martin Pyne
Corey Mwamba

Bass
Seth Bennett
Olie Brice
Tim Fairhall

Drums/percussion
Matt Fisher
Johnny Hunter
Andrew Lisle

(Photo from the first LUMEkestra gig at London Jazz Festival 2016)

LUME FESTIVAL 2017 is almost upon us…

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

LUME Lab Project Blog #4: Anton Hunter

Hello! My name’s Anton (that’s my grinning face in front of a wall up there). For the past few years I’ve been trying to focus my own composing on larger groups, which started with my 11-piece band Article XI, the goal being to get some of the feel and spontaneity of small groups to work on a bigger scale. Having the power and energy of a larger group but still allowing the individual musicians’ voice and personality to come through. That’s the plan anyway. Here’s a video of an Article XI piece if you’d like something to listen to while you read…

For my LUME Lab project, I’m debuting new music for a new ensemble, and I’ve purposefully chosen some people I’ve not worked with much before, but have been wanting to for a while. Namely:

Kim Macari Stone-Lonergan – trumpet
Dee Byrne – alto sax
Rachel Musson – tenor sax
Tullis Rennie – trombone
Cath Roberts – baritone sax
Andrew Lisle – drums
Tim Fairhall – double bass
and me – guitar

Over the past few months I’ve been meeting up with the musicians to improvise together in duos and trios. Initially we played completely freely to get a feel for how everyone fits together, and I recorded the sessions. I then went back and listened to it all and picked a few moments out, a melody or two, or some chords, or a riff. See exhibit A:

Then we all met up again, in different duos and trios and played the ideas I had transcribed, with a lot more improvising around them. Since then I’ve been hard at work, listening to these sessions and drawing elements in, expanding on some of the written passages, discounting others that didn’t work. This time the recorded material hasn’t been as much a source for me to transcribe, but a way to instantly get into the soundworld of a composition, and I’ve done a lot of improvising melodies whilst listening, or just after listening and so on.

I’m really looking forward to the gig: there’s going to be a whole load of space for these incredible improvisers to express themselves, and if you’ve seen or heard any of them before you’ll know not to miss the chance to see them again. We’re also going to play some hits from my back-catalogue. Or, rather, three or four tunes that I’ve written for different ensembles, so if the Article XI video above has finished playing, try clicking go on this one, with the LUMEkestra last year. We’ll be doing our own octet version of it.

Thanks for reading! Please buy a ticket or two in advance; your support is really vital for nights like LUME to survive, and Cath and Dee work incredibly hard to create a supportive space for new music like this. See you on the 24th!

P.S. Here’s a photo of me not in front of a wall, for balance.

LUME Festival 2017: full line-up

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.

LUME FESTIVAL 2017

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)

LUME Lab Project Blog #3: Craig Scott

The next LUME Lab is almost upon us, and this month’s artist is Leeds-based experimental guitarist Craig Scott of the excellent Wasp Millionaire Records. You can reserve your place at his performance on 19th April at IKLECTIK, by purchasing an advance ticket from the Luminous Bandcamp site. Craig has been away working on his music at a retreat in the Yorkshire Dales, and writes:

First of all I would like to say thank you to LUME for this opportunity; having the funding to take the time out to write music for a specific purpose is not something I get to do very often.

I chose to write this new set of material for the Gastric Band, which is the same group of musicians that have been performing my Lobotomy material live. The band also consists of the entirety of Shatner’s Bassoon – a band that I have been making music with for a long time now- with the addition of ‘psychedelic father of two’ Sam Bell on percussion.

Oliver Dover clarinets / saxophones
Michael Bardon standing upright on electric bass
Johnny Richards keyboards
Joost Hendrickx drums
Sam Bell percussion
Myself guitar and electronics.

I spent the majority of January writing for this commission. I started off with making a list of considerations as to what I consider the strengths/possibilities/identifying characteristics of both my recorded/studio work under the Lobotomy name and of this band (as a unit and individuals). I tried to keep all the individual parts as simple as possible and always trying to make the sum of the parts to something more complex for the purposes of both ease of rehearsal and to make all the material as malleable as possible for elaboration through improvisation.

Some of the aspects of the music that I wanted to exploit included:

  • Simplicity in individual parts.
  • Large scale forms developing very slowly, material being slowly revealed and re-contextualised. (It was a blues all along!)
  • Space/lack of markers and its ambiguity to create false assumptions for the listener.
  • Microtonal melodic material and its relationship to tempered contexts.
  • Balance of duality and unity in time feel and weighting
  • For the mind and the booty.
  • An awareness and consideration of the different performers unique interpretation/ individual rationalisations of the material based on their different musical backgrounds.
  • Emphasis of the importance/impact of relative silence
  • Exploiting the joys of functional harmony!
  • Tri/bitonality.
  • Enducing trance like states.
  • The line between symmetrical melodic structures and diatonic structures in a tempered context.
  • Extended palette using live processing/ sampling, pre recorded samples and custom made Nord sample patches.

A disparate collection of subliminal musical influences probably include Joseph Shillinger, Sanjo, Gagaku, The Melvins, Thelonious Monk, Maurice Ravel, Captain Beefheart, Trevor Wishart, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Bela Bartok, Gnawa, Shellac, Seben, Lazaro Ros, Maquam, Blues for dads. (Make of that what you will, but it probably gives a clearer picture of what the music actually sounds like than all the pomp above.)

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to transfer some of the aesthetic and functions of the post production techniques that have become part of my palette working on the recorded Lobotomy material to a live setting. This manifested itself both in how I wrote for the band and in the development of a new live sampling and processing setup.

I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now. A while ago my dear friend and long term partner in crimes against music Oliver Dover found a broken mixing desk in a skip outside a school he was working at. I managed to get it working again: recycling/making/repurposing/bending old audio gear has become quite a large part of the Lobotomy aesthetic. So, paired with some of my home-made microphones, circuit bent cassette and reel to reel delays and some samplers I had a setup that I could use live which greatly extending the palette of the band and gave me some sort of illusion of control over the band in more macro sense.

Alongside the four new pieces I wrote specifically for this, I also decided to include one of the pieces I had written and recorded for the new Lobotomy EP that I’m currently working on. (Coming soon!)

Between conceiving the pieces throughout January and rehearsing them in late March they started to feel more and more like a fictitious fairytale I had told myself about possible musical situations. So, it was very satisfying to finally actually hear the pieces vibrating the air molecules around me when the rehearsal residency rolled round!

We spent the first week of March together in relative isolation in a farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales, rehearsing and recording this new material. It is becoming rarer and rarer nowadays to have the luxury of this amount of  dedicated time to rehearse new material with a group. For this opportunity I am most grateful. It really gave us time to work into the material and explore the different ideas and ways of  implementing the pre conceived material.

Having the ability to record the whole residency (the first time I’ve had the chance to hear my home-made microphone setup in action!) and the distance this provides – being able to listen from an outside view – has also been very useful in determining changes that need to be made to the pieces especially when it comes to decisions being made regarding form on a macro scale.

I am very much looking forward to performing this new material for the first on the 19th of April at IKLECTIK, I hope you can join us! (Tickets here)

I’d also like to say thank you once again to Cath and Dee at LUME for giving me this opportunity!