Dubstep heads to perform live with London Improvisational Orchestra

Sunday 22 November 2009

@ THE SOUTHBANK CENTRE // The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, 3-7 FREE ENTRY

As part of the London Jazz Festival, Trouble Tune has rounded up a line-up of dubstep producers and jazz improvisers to play alongside one another. Bass Clef and Geiom will be performing with members of the London Improvisers orchestra – pretty much unmissable considering it’s free.

It takes place at The Clore Ballroom (the Royal Festival Hall), the largest ballroom space in the UK, which for one day will transform into a huge dancefloor and meeting ground for dancehall, dubstep and electronic music, live musicians and digital art.

Taking influence from Chicago progressive-minimalist group Tortoise, performing in the Royal Festival Hall the same evening, this is a set of futuristic fusion that acknowledges its rich roots and the artists that paved the way for an event such as this.

To coincide with the release of his new album ‘May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way’, UK producer and multi-instrumentalist Bass Clef (Ralph Cumbers) will perform a special set in collaboration with guests from the London Improvisers Orchestra, including bassist John Edwards, Japanese multi-instrumentalist Kenichi Iwasa, and legendary pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, led and conducted Shabaka Hutchings and Jason Yarde, two of the most exciting horn players in UK improvised music today.

Also performing in collaboration with the live musicians, will be dubstep artist and founder of the Berkane Sol label Geiom, whose track ‘Reminissin’ (featuring Marita), released last year, became a dubplate favourite, with remixes by Kode9, Shackleton and Skream.

Geiom improvises music for the dancefloor from his distinctive Atari-driven old school hardware, mixing the intricate with minimal and melodically involved textures. He has recently remixed Shackleton, D1, Clouds, Brackles and Shortstuff and has also been in the studio with Appleblim – the pair created the ‘Shreds’/'Flame Tree’ 12″ which has been in great demand since its release in March 2009.

Laurie ‘Appleblim’ Osborne will also be DJing on the day, having just recently finished curating ‘Volume 6′ of Tempa’s prestigious Dubstep Allstars series.

The show will also feature two sets by electronic music pioneers Matt Yee-King and Click Nilson, who demonstrate a practice called ‘live-coding’ which uses a computer software programme to write and manipulate sound, visuals and, in this example, live dance performance.

London pop-up exhibition company the Tilt Collective, have also been commissioned to curate and perform a series of sound/visual works using Southbank Centre’s floor-to-ceiling multi-media installation ‘ScreenPlay’.