The shortlist for our most popular event of the year – Battle of the Bands 2020 – has been announced.
Featuring a smorgasbord of new and experimental music, the following acts have been shortlisted as finalists:
James McIlwrath, an experimental composer-performer
Lara Jones, saxophonist and improvisor
Nobuto, a composer and pianist
New music group Ret Frem
Rosie Middleton, mezzo soprano
DIY artist Yorgo Stenos
They’ll be battling it out in front of judges Gillian Moore CBE (Director of Music, Southbank Centre), cellist Abel Selaocoe, composer Gabriel Prokofiev (Artistic Director, Nonclassical) and Natalia Franklin Pierce (Executive Director, Nonclassical) at The Victoria, Dalston on 29 January 2020, 8pm.
James McIlwrath
James describes himself as someone who does things and make things. He is a composer-performer who writes a range of experimental works, including people singing on bikes, music for boxes and performing on tiny drums kits.
This Battle of the Bands he’ll be performing Alison Knowles’ Shuffle Piece, Niel Luck’s THING and Oogoo Maia’s Maximum Effort.
Lara Jones
Saxophonist, improviser and composer Lara Jones has performed at the Vortex Jazz Club, London Jazz Festival, Kings Place and Cafe Oto, and has worked with the likes of Jo Thomas, Courtney Pine, Novelist, Roller Trio, Portico Quartet, Matthew Bourne, Elliot Galvin, Laura Jurd and Shiva Feshareki. As a soloist, she has recently been awarded a place on the Manchester Jazz Festival’s Hothouse programme, and is a mentee on the Brighter Sounds mentorship programme, where she is mentored by Anna Meredith.
On the night, Lara will perform a solo set of original works for saxophone and electronics.
Nobuto
Composer and pianist Nobuto combines solo piano and fixed electronics. He draws influence from ambient, electronic and contemporary classical idioms to create immersive, long-form soundworld. He’ll be performing his own composition (as yet untitled), which involves rapid, collage-based techniques, electronic samples, and sparse ambient/drone textures; touching on themes relating to the internet, information overload and British-Japanese identity.
Ret Frem
Ret Frem was founded in 2016 by composer and artistic director Will Handysides and comprises of new music specialists Jenni Hogan (flute), Abi Heath (clarinets), Kate De Campos (viola) and Fraser Bowles (cello). They are committed to the performance and promotion of music by living composers from around the world, as well as bringing new music to young people who are denied access to the arts at school.
They’ll be performing Will Handysides’ Come Apart and Swedish composer Frej Wedlund’s with a certain degree of pointlessness.
Rosie Middleton
Specialising in new music, mezzo soprano Rosie Middleton has collaborated with composers Laura Bowler, Catherine Kontz, Esin Gunduz and Michael Betteridge, and was recently artist in residence at Snape Maltings and The Banff Centre. Past performances include Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Southbank Centre (reviewed as ‘staggeringly good’ by the New Statesman) and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre.
She’ll be performing Laura Bowler’s Cover Squirrel, a solo work which combines the voice, recording and a detuned violin.
Yorgo Stenos
Yorgo is a sonic scavenger; a full-time explorer of hardware stores, kitchens and junkyards in quest for noise-making treasures. As a performer of experimental music he's lately focusing on his solo project, playing home-brewed noise makers and micro-percussion, amplified objects, turntables and electronics. He also makes audiovisual works, installations and music compositions for instruments and fixed media, while also performing with his band Trigger Happy.
He’ll perform a set of his own music, with strong elements of improvisation.