Events

This gig is for a seated audience

MacGillivray
... is the Highland name of Scottish writer, performance artist and musician Kirsten Norrie. Her second poetry collection 'The Nine of Diamonds: Surroial Mordantless' is published by Bloodaxe in 2016 in addition to an American second edition of her first book 'The Last Wolf of Scotland' by Los Angeles press Redhen which originally came out with Brighton based Pighog in 2013. MacGillivray plays electric autoharp, grand and toy piano, harmonium, dulcitone.

As a musician she has made five records, releasing her fifth album 'Once Upon A Dirty Ear' on Hundred Acre Recordings in July 2015 following a strong review in the Wire Music Magazine of her previous album 'Horse Sweat Chandelier' in 2014. A long time collaborator with James Young who performed extensively with Nico, co-wrote with John Cale and wrote music cult classic 'Songs They Never Play On the Radio' (Bloomsbury), MacGillivray has performed internationally, been aired on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction and The Verb and Radio Wales and provided soundtracks for British film 'Swandown' (Channel 4/Britdoc) and appeared in 'By Our Selves' (2015) in a cameo alongside graphic novelist Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta ) and Toby Jones (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games) whilst also contributing two tracks to the soundtrack.

She has worked with The Fall, Thurston Moore, Arlo Guthrie, Arthur Brown, Shirley Collins, Jem Finer (The Pogues), Iain Sinclair, Trembling Bells, Olivia Chaney, Alan Moore, Current 93, Gallon Drunk, Don Paterson, Michael Moorcock and Vic Godard and the Subway Sect. As a performance artist MacGillivray is part of the European collective 'The Wolf in Winter' founded by B. Catling who have worked in Greenland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK. As a solo artist MacGillivray has worked in Vietnam, the US, Norway, the UK, Spain and Germany. She has performed at spaces such as the CCA, the Whitechapel, the British Library, the South London Gallery, Edinburgh College of Art, the Holywell Music Room, Dorchester Abbey, o2 Academy Islington, Sketch, Cafe Oto, Union Chapel, the Volksbuhne, Pianos NY and the Rockwell Music Hall, Brooklyn.

MacGillivray has walked in a straight line with a dead wolf on her shoulders through the back streets of Vegas into the Nevada desert, eaten broken chandelier glass in a derelict East German shopping mall, headbanged in gold medieval stocks in Birmingham allotments, burnt on a sunbed wearing conquistador armour in Edinburgh's underground city, breast-fed a Highland swan in Oxford and regurgitated red roses in Greenland. She remains clan chief...

macgillivraymusic.bandcamp.com
www.macgillivray.org.uk
www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/macgillivray

Laura Cannell
Based in rural East Anglia, Laura Cannell’s work draws on the emotional influences of the landscape and the sometimes dissonant chords of early and medieval music. With deconstructed bow and the extraordinary sound of double recorder, Laura’s music has grown out of unearthed fragments that became improvised pieces. Her music encompasses both wild animal calls and long forgotten liturgical fragments, which drawn through Laura’s music seem to originate from the same, ahistorical place.

With a background in traditional folk, early and experimental music, she creates a solitary minimalist chamber music, where one player makes all the harmonies.

Since founding and touring with duo Horses Brawl a decade ago, Laura has established her practice as a solo musician with recorder and fiddle her primary instruments. Her first solo album Quick Sparrows over the Black Earth (2014) found an audience keen for more, and she has followed the release with the highly acclaimed Beneath Swooping Talons and a busy touring schedule that has included her debut at Royal Festival Hall, as well as venues and festivals throughout the rest of the UK from London’s Café Oto to Cathedrals and National Trust castles.

Recent performances also include festivals in Holland, Switzerland and Denmark as well as interviews and airplay on BBC 6MUSIC, BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, NTS Radio and many others.

www.lauracannell.co.uk

Harpoon Group
Harpoon Group is the alias of Robin Alderton, a sometime sound artist, musician, and fine artist who can be found surrounded by antiquated audio technology: dansettes spinning dubplates, reel to reel recorders flailing, clicking dictaphones, overdubbed cassettes and bust samplers. He creates shifting textural compositions out of field recordings, found sounds and the technology itself, considering the process a form of collage. His performances resonate with ideas of sound recording technology, nostalgia, memory and place - the processes of deterioration, and of the failure of (or grasp for) memory.

Robin has presented work at The University of the Arts Gallery, London, The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and Colchester Arts Centre, as well as collaborating with the Britten Sinfonia for a commissioned work at Colchester Public Library and presenting a performance for the British Forum of Ethnomusicology’s annual Conference.

He is best known as 1/3 of the UK's finest avant folk ensemble Dead Rat Orchestra, whose work has included soundtracks for BBC Scotland, Tate Modern and ZDF television, releases on Critical Heights (Fire Records), Antigen Records, Champion Version and Palimpsest Recordings, and extensive UK and International touring with Godspeed You Black Emperor, Eric Chenaux, Baby Dee and C Joynes, amongst others.

Tickets £7 / £6 concessions.
Doors open 7.30pm.