Klavikon

Klavikon reimagines ‘electronic’ music without the use of conventional processes - no loops, no laptops, no sequencers. Instead, pianist Leon Michener employs a unique system of amplified prepared piano. Augmenting the 88 keys with his own inventions and found objects - a custom made pick up, a robot dog- he delivers cascading batteries of percussion, sub-basses and abstract soundscapes. This amalgam of virtuosic technique and real-time analogue processing is at once connected with Classical traditions of Stockhausen and Cage and the experimental dancefloor idiom of Amon Tobin and Bochum Welt. The result is a fertile sonic territory, sincere in it’s eccentricity, restlessly inventive, that resists easy categorisation.

Image © State51

Abstruckt

Formed in 2014, Abstruckt are one of the most exciting percussion ensembles to come out of the UK in recent times. With a focus on theatrical performance, the ensemble reworks its repertoire to uniquely fit their performance space, creating an immersive experience for the audience.

As well as performing core works for percussion ensemble, such as Reich’s ‘Mallet Quartet”, Cage’s ‘Living Room Music’ and Xenakis’ “Okho”, Abstruckt are passionate about pioneering new repertoire for percussion, and have given a huge number of UK and World premieres of pieces by composers based all around the globe.

Equally at home performing in concert halls, basements, crypts and car parks, highlights of the ensemble’s work include multiple projects for Multi-Story/Bold Tendencies and Nonclassical, as well as recitals at venues including the Barbican, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.

Image © Dimitri Djuric

Ben Nobuto

Ben Nobuto is a British/Japanese composer, pianist and producer from Kent, UK. With a style described as ‘postmodern’ (Nonclassical), ‘utterly contemporary’ (Manchester Collective) and ‘sonically dazzling’ (RPS Awards), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. Often combining acoustic with electronic sounds, his interest lies in how processes from one can be applied to the other, and the relationship between the ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ in the context of a performance.

Previous commissions include works for Manchester Collective, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ligeti Quartet, Southbank Sinfonia and BBC Singers. His music has featured on BBC Radio 3 and 6, Times Radio and Resonance FM and has released on NMC Recordings and Nonclassical. He was recently awarded an Ivors Classical Award for his choral work Sol and a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for SERENITY 2.0. As a pianist, he often performs his own work, combining a genre-fluid style of piano-playing with electronics, as in his performance at UK New Artists’ Leicester Takeover Festival in early 2022.

Image © Manchester Collective / Phil Sharp

Gabriel Prokofiev (DJ)

Composing music that both embraces and challenges western classical traditions, Gabriel Prokofiev has emerged as a significant voice in new approaches to classical music at the beginning of the 21st century. After completing his musical studies at Birmingham and York Universities, and dissatisfied with the seemingly insular world of contemporary classical music, he developed a parallel music career as a dance, grime, electro and hip-hop producer. This background in dance music combined with his classical roots gives his music a unique and truly contemporary sound.

Gabriel has built up a large body of orchestral and chamber works and has composed seven concertos (three featuring turntables), as well as many electronic works, often combining synthesisers and samples with classical instrumentation. His works have been performed internationally by orchestras including Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Copenhagen Phil, Luxembourg Philharmonique, Buenos Aires Filharmonica, Porto Symphony and Real Orquesta de Sevilla. Also, he frequently collaborates with contemporary dancers and has worked with companies including Stuttgarter Ballet, Rambert Dance, Bern Ballet, Shobana Jeyasingh, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alexander Whitley Dance and Gandini Juggling. In 2019, his first full-length opera Elizabetta was premiered by Regensburg Opera in Bavaria.

Gabriel is also an events curator, producer and founder of the Nonclassical record label and club night, home to a host of artists who defy conventions. Through Nonclassical, he has been one of the leading proponents of presenting classical music in non-traditional venues; and he regularly performs in East London nightclubs, warehouses and electronic music festivals, often DJing and doing live remixes of the works just performed.

Image © Dimitri Djuric