Get us in your inbox

Search

Don't miss the London Contemporary Music Festival this December

Written by
Ellie Broughton
Advertising

Here are six shows to catch in the adventurous annual fest, held in a huge concrete hall.

Ragnar Kjartansson
Back after last year’s barnstorming Barbican show, the Icelandic artist opens LCMF with another treat: the UK premiere of ‘An die Musik’. Over seven hours, he will build a ‘sound sculpture’ as five singers and pianists layer a single song by Schubert over and over. Talk about earworms. Sun Dec 3.

Juliana Huxtable
This pioneer of NYC cool founded all-female queer-and trans-friendly nights and has performed to compositions by Elysia Crampton at MoMA in New York. Her new commission for LCMF – a mix of music, AV and spoken word – is still under wraps, but is not to be missed. Mon Dec 4.

Pan Daijing
Berlin-based electronic musician Pan Daijing makes dark noise-inspired techno that mixes sexy, yet creepy, vocalisations with harsh synths. After a night that opens with Carolee Schneeman’s cult art/ sex film ‘Fuses’ (1967) and charged performances such as Kajsa Magnarsson’s ‘StrapOn and Electric Guitar’, she will take the vibe to a wild and thrashing climax. Dec 7.

Philip Corner and Phoebe Neville
Corner’s best known for his violent compositions written as part of the Fluxus collective, involving pianos being smashed to smithereens. But this time he’s taking a more softly-softly approach. Corner and wife Phoebe Neville open Saturday night with something a little more delicate: sweet and spare piano pieces that glorify sound with silence. Dec 9.

Moor Mother
Camae Ayewa is a poet, activist and a visionary afrofuturist – with a live show packed with radical politics and barbed resistance. Expect raw powerful synths, heavy beats and sharp, excoriating lyrics that take on racism and police violence with unrivalled fury. Dec 9.

Joan La Barbara
Mentored by John Cage, this experimental vocal artist uses early electronics and her huge repertoire of vocal techniques, from multiphonics to ululation, to compose weird songs – the likes of which would frighten the life out of a karaoke booth. Dec 10.

LCMF runs from Tue Dec 3-Dec 10 at Ambika P3. £14 per concert.

Find more great gigs taking place next week.

Popular on Time Out

    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising