The Bubbly Blue and Green is a four-day festival of eclectic 'water music' influenced by shipwrecks, rivers, waves and lighthouses. Housed in the halls of Kings Place, York Way, London N1 - the festival runs from the 24th to 27th February
The festival features Philip Jeck, Janek Schaefer, Haushka,Hildur Gudnadottir, ISAN, Samphire Band, The Sleeping Years, Iarla O'Lionaird, The London Snorkelling Team, Paper Cinema andThe Willkommen Orchestra.
Ben Eshmade of the Arctic Circle: "When pondering the relationship between music and water the first thing that came into my head was a jaunty Disney image of a big iron bed drifting like a meandering melody along the bottom of a Technicolor ocean. Dismissing childhood cartoons, I then began thinking about other, more literary resonances: the angry sea in Shakespeare’s The Tempest or the watery poignancy of Coleridge's The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner. This festival of concerts at Kings Place presents an opportunity to tap both vaunting classical and more quotidian marine references via a glistening miscellany of musical genres, from electro-acoustic experiment to film score and everything in between."
The Bubbly Blue and Green:
Wednesday - Hall One 8pm
Touch recording artist Philip Jeck is an awarding winning turntablist feted for collaborations with the likes of Gavin Bryars. Using dusty vinyl records and processed Dansette record players the Liverpudlian conjures a galaxy of poignant, immersive textures - not least on An Ark for the Listener, a new work inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem The Wreck Of The Deutschland.
Innovative sound designer and sonic artist Janek Schaefer has made music using everything from three-armed record-players to voice-activated devices circulated through the Royal Mail. Tonight he premiers an especially composed piece: Sound Waves Through Space.
Thursday - Hall One 8pm
Haushka is the alias of Dusseldorf keyboardist Volker Bertelman. His critically acclaimed albums on the 130701 imprint evince a playfully accessible approach to the often austere realm of the prepared piano. Haushka is joined tonight by gifted Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir to essay a major new, aquatically themed commission.
ISAN’s Robin Saville and Antony Ryan may reside in distinct, watery locales (Southend, Essex and Orrefors, Sweden respectively) but their collaboration proceeds regardless. This is a rare live outing for the pair, currently working on the latest of their fluid, Eno-esque albums for Berlin’s Morr Music label.
Friday - Hall One 8pm
Molly Nyman and Harry Escott are BIFA nominated film composers. Wth their 12-piece Samphire Band they essay highlights from their repertoire, much of it inspired by the British coastline. They are joined for the performance by some very special guest singers.
Dale Grundle grew up on the Ulster coast. Water was a recurring leitmotif of his former band The Catchers and latest incarnation The Sleeping Years. Accompanied by members of both - and the newly convened Arctic Circle Brass Ensemble - Grundle will perform songs in special arrangements by John Jermy and Nick Drake collaborator Robert Kirby.
Saturday - Hall Two 5.30pm
Highly original theatre company Paper Cinema make watery narratives using projections of intricate marionettes against a white screen, accompanied by improvised live music.
Hall One 7pm
Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir has collaborated with the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Múm and Haushka. She released her debut solo album in 2007. An electronic-tinged follow-up, Without Sinking, appeared in 2009 on the Touch label.
Afro-Celt Sound System member Iarla O'Lionaird’s 2007 solo debut, Seven Steps To Mercy showcased a truly extraordinary singing voice. His work draws on a rich Irish Sean-Nos (‘old-style’) tradition, with rivers and nature prominent. His forthcoming album is built around reminiscences of Dublin’s River Liffey. (Presented in association with Note).
Hall One 9pm
The London Snorkelling Team is the brainchild of soundtrack composer and erstwhile Bjork remixer, Tom Haines. He and his sub-aquatic bandmates make cabaret music they “imagined happening in the 1950s”, using brass, cocktail drums and glockenspiels.
Comprising affiliates of popular Brighton label the Willkommen Collective, the Wilkommen Orchestra will perform the songs of label stalwarts Sons Of Noel and Adrian, Shoreline and the Ivor Novello nominated Leisure Society. This is a rare opportunity to hear the acts in full symphonic glory and will close out the festival on a celebratory communal swansong. |