Ether, Southbank Centre’s annual music festival of innovation, art, technology and cross-arts experimentation, returns from
16 – 24 April this year with a mix of rock iconoclasts, rap pioneers, audiovisual experimenters and contemporary-classical innovators.
This year’s festival features a very special show from
Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio based on Reed’s radical and controversial 1975 album Metal Machine Music and a rare
Gil Scott-Heron London gig in which he’ll be showcasing material from his brilliant new album I’m New Here (released on XL Recordings), alongside support from 2009 Mercury Prize Winner
Speech Debelle. Kicking off Ether is a one-off collaboration between
Stereo MCs and
The Bays, plus
The Herbaliser opening the gig, while on Friday 23 April film director and video artist
Chris Cunningham performs a live show of original and remixed music and film, with support from
BEAK>, the new project of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.
Also playing at this year’s festival are one of the greats from the Warp roster,
Broadcast, who are joined on the bill by
Micachu and The Shapes and young cellist
Oliver Coates. Meanwhile, LA art-noise band
HEALTH team up with the genre-trashing, visually-spectacular
Chrome Hoof for a mouth-watering double-bill, and
Will Dutta plays with special guests
Plaid,
Max de Wardener and
John Richards.
Always a platform for showcasing new work, Ether in 2010 features an evening of premieres of music by
Mark-Anthony Turnage (UK premiere) and
Philip Glass (European premiere) plus
Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 played by the
London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, the festival features
Varèse 360° – the complete works of musique concrète pioneer and formative influence on Frank Zappa,
Edgard Varèse.
There’s more to be announced including a series of talks and discussions so keep look out for further updates here and at
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/ether