The Bubbly Blue and Green

Artic Circle present a four-day festival of eclectic ‘water music’ influenced by shipwrecks, rivers, waves and lighthouses. There are somehow still tickets available for this magnificent event, so be super quick and grab one before they are gone!

Housed in the halls of Kings Place, the festival runs from the 24th to 27th February 2010 and features Philip Jeck, Janek Schaefer, Hauschka, Hildur Gudnadottir, ISAN, Samphire Band, The Sleeping Years, Iarla O’Lionaird, The London Snorkelling Team, Paper Cinema and The Willkommen Orchestra.

Ben Eshmade of the Arctic Circle: “When pondering the relationship between music and water the first thing that came into my head was a jaunty Disney image of a big iron bed drifting like a meandering melody along the bottom of a Technicolor ocean. Dismissing childhood cartoons, I then began thinking about other, more literary resonances: the angry sea in Shakespeare’s The Tempest or the watery poignancy of Coleridge’s The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner. This festival of concerts at Kings Place presents an opportunity to tap both vaunting classical and more quotidian marine references via a glistening miscellany of musical genres, from electro-acoustic experiment to film score and everything in between.”

Tickets are on sale with very limited SAVER SEATS available online at £9.50 for all concerts.
Prices (unless stated otherwise): £24.50, £19.50, £15.50 Premium seats available.

Kings Place,
90 York Way,
London,
N1 9AG

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The Bubbly Blue and Green:

Wednesday – Hall One 8pm

Touch recording artist Philip Jeck is an awarding winning turntablist feted for collaborations with the likes of Gavin Bryars. Using dusty vinyl records and processed Dansette record players the Liverpudlian conjures a galaxy of poignant, immersive textures – not least on An Ark for the Listener, a new work inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem The Wreck Of The Deutschland.

Innovative sound designer and sonic artist Janek Schaefer has made music using everything from three-armed record-players to voice-activated devices circulated through the Royal Mail. Tonight he performs ‘Phoenix & Phaedra holding patterns’ his latest composition for FM transmitter, 9 portable radios, surround PA, and an empty stage, as we motor along the waterways of our sonic imagination.

Hear a rehearsal Philip Jeck’s work in progress version of An Ark for the Listener:
soundcloud.com/arcticcircle/philip-jeck-ark-overture

More on Janek Schaefer ‘Phoenix & Phaedra holding patterns’:
www.audioh.com/releases/phoenixandphaedra.html

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Thursday – Hall One 8pm

Hauschka is the alias of Dusseldorf keyboardist Volker Bertelman. His critically acclaimed albums on the 130701 imprint evince a playfully accessible approach to the often austere realm of the prepared piano. Haushka is joined tonight by gifted Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir to essay a major new, aquatically themed commission. ISAN’s Robin Saville and Antony Ryan may reside in distinct, watery locales (Southend, Essex and Orrefors, Sweden respectively) but their collaboration proceeds regardless. This is a rare live outing for the pair, currently working on the latest of their fluid, Eno-esque albums for Berlin’s Morr Music label.

ISAN’s performance will include the debut of the Drispsophone:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVzVH5p27A

Hauschka:

vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=33823079
www.bandstandbusking.com/artist/hauschka

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Friday – Hall One 8pm

Molly Nyman and Harry Escott are BIFA-nominated film composers. With their 12-piece Samphire Band they present highlights from their repertoire, much of it inspired by the British coastline. The band will perform a live score to a film called ‘The Lighthouse’ and it is a animated film about a little girl who lives with her father in a lighthouse and has been made by the award winning filmmaker Pedro Serrazina. The Samphire Band will be joined by guest singer Kristin McClements to perform four sea songs arranged specially for the event. They will also be performing the Shifty Suite along with a film created by Nick Hornby.Dale Grundle grew up on the Ulster coast. Water was a recurring leitmotif of his former band the Catchers and latest incarnation The Sleeping Years. Accompanied by members of both – and the newly convened Arctic Circle Brass Ensemble – Grundle will perform songs in special arrangements by John Jermy and the late Nick Drake collaborator Robert Kirby.

the previous work of Pedro Serrazina: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAyjOydHhI

The Sleeping Years: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OREF-kjTmY0

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Saturday – Hall Two 5.30pm (Tickets from £6.50)

Highly original theatre company Paper Cinema, what happens at the accidental meeting of inkblots, photocopies, cardboard, angle-poise lamps, the occasional table, video technology, a laptop and a banana box? A cast of hand-drawn paper cut-outs are magically brought to life by the Paper Cinema.

Highly original theatre company Paper Cinema make watery narratives using projections of intricate marionettes against a white screen, accompanied by improvised live music. King Pest is an adaptation of the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, tells the tale of two sailors who flee London seeking refuge in a sealed off plague town. The Night Flyer is a tale of crossing the night, of stolen freedoms and dreams, lost birds and invisible serpents, mysterious trains and a very special girl. The Paper Cinema is live video animation featuring the hand-drawn marionettes of Nicholas Rawling.

Watch Paper Cinema in action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGTwLHt5ui0

Hall One 7pm

Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir has collaborated with the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Múm and Haushka. She released her debut solo album in 2007. An electronic-tinged follow-up, Without Sinking, appeared in 2009 on the Touch label.
Iarla O’Lionaird’s solo albums, Seven Steps To Mercy and Invisible Fields (Realworld) showcased a truly extraordinary singing voice. The former Afro-Celt Soundsystem member’s solo work draws on a rich Irish Sean-Nos (‘old-style’) tradition and contemporary electronica, with rivers and nature prominent. Iarla will be joined by Graham Henderson founding member of Moving Hearts (Piano) and Keith Donald (Saxes). (Presented in association with Note).

Hall One 9pm

The London Snorkelling Team is the brainchild of soundtrack composer and erstwhile Bjork remixer, Tom Haines. He and his sub-aquatic bandmates make cabaret music they “imagined happening in the 1950s”, using brass, cocktail drums and glockenspiels.

Comprising affiliates of popular Brighton label the Willkommen Collective, the Wilkommen Orchestra will be playing the songs of Shoreline, The Sons of Noel & Adrian, The Miserable Rich and The Climbers repertoires (a new Willkommen and friends project featuring members of The Leisure Society) all arranged especially for the occasion. It’ll be the first time any of The Climbers songs have been played live, ahead of the debut album release in the Spring. Recent high profile shows for the Willkommen Collective bands including supporting Laura Marling at the Royal Festival Hall, Efterklang at the Barbican as well as both Sons of Noel and Adrian and Shoreline touring with Mumford & Sons.

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The Bubbly Blue and Green
24th – 27th February 2010
Produced by the Arctic Circle
www.jointhecircle.net
Presented in association with The Line Of Best Fit / Note

Download a Bubbly Blue and Green 13 track MP3 sampler with exclusive tracks from Philip Jeck, ISAN, Sone Institute, Simon Scott and the London Snorkelling Team: www.jointhecircle.net/documents/BBAG.zip

Information:

Full information and ticket options can be found here

Links:

www.jointhecircle.net
www.kingsplace.co.uk
www.philipjeck.com
www.audioh.com
www.myspace.com/hauschka
www.myspace.com/isanmusic
www.myspace.com/mollyharry
www.myspace.com/thesleepingyears
www.thepapercinema.com
www.myspace.com/hildurness
www.myspace.com/iarlamusic
www.myspace.com/thelondonsnorkellingteam
www.myspace.com/willkommencollective