SHORTLISTED PROJECTS!

1) DHAFER YOUSSEF & VOX CLAMANTIS -
SACRED VOICES

Website: www.dhaferyoussef.com

Sacred Voices is a special project bringing together two universally acclaimed talents, Tunisian vocalist and Oud player Dhafer Youssef and Estonian choir Vox Clamantis. Both voices draw on the heritage of sacred music to create powerfully emotive sounds that are both ancient and modern.

This new work will be created through a collaboration between Youssef and Estonian composer Helena Tulve (also a member of the choir). The piece will be centred on the equally evocative sounds of the two groups of voices; Youssef’s Sufi influenced singing, and Vox Clamantis’ polyphonic work heavily influenced by the atmospheric sound of Gregorian Chant.

PRESS FOR DHAFER YOUSSEF’S NEW LP, DIVINE SHADOWS

"Aarset and Youssef have forged a thrilling new sound that could make Divine Shadows a crossover hit"
The Guardian

"Youssef's music marries ancient meditative sounds of Arabic origin with up-to-the-second electronica, fractured acoustic funk and jazz-influenced improvisation. Youssef's music continues to cast a considerable spell."
Mojo

PRESS NOTES:
Dhafer Yousseff has performed & worked in Omar Sosa, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Nils Petar Molvaer, Markus Stockhausen, Iva Bittova, Carlo Rizzo, Nguyên Lê, Jatinder Thakur amongst many others.


2) THE RENGA ENSEMBLE FEATURING THE ENGLISH ACOUSTIC COLLECTIVE, KATHERINE TICKELL & HUW WARREN –
UNEXPECTED SOUNDS

Website: www.lpo.org.uk

This project brings together members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (the Renga Ensemble), the English Acoustic Collective (EAC), (violin, fiddle, concertina) Northumbrian piper and fiddle player Katherine Tickell and pianist Huw Warren. Building on Renga’s previous excursions into the world of English traditional music, the ensemble will explore the traditional and contemporary folk worlds developing a new programme of music. This will include music devised by the group, alongside pieces commissioned for the project. The project will be directed by Scott Stroman.

PRESS NOTES:
EAC, Kathryn TickelL and the LPO have won countless awards in their respective categories.


3) ANDREW MCCORMACK –
WEST SIDE STORY

Website: www.dune-music.com

A project celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bernstein’s stunning musical (itself a re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet) this is a admirably ambitious project from Andrew McCormack. For this live performance, Andrew will create a new arrangement for a jazz ensemble and narrator of Bernstein’s score which will illustrate the story, setting the scene in an inner city in the UK and giving this take of love, war and intercultural relationships a 21st century twist. The project combines these with jazz improvisation and original composition.

PRESS:
“Seamlessly laces together an incisive sense of swing in the manner of Herbie Hancock with a more low-key impressionistic style of playing. Elegant virtuosity, imaginative but unfussy improvisation.”
Jazzwise

PRESS NOTES:
Andrew McCormack is a key player in the highly popular Jazz Jamaica Big Band and Denys Baptiste’s MOBO award-winning group.

Time Out’s recent Music Critics Guide to Rising Stars of 2006 said of Andrew McCormack "Most impressive. Compositions show a simple, direct and accessible way with themes."


4) SOLVEIG SLETTAHJELL & THE SLOW-MOTION QUARTET -
THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A WOMAN

Website: www.actmusic.com

Using Robert Shumann’s song-cycle Frauenllebe und Leben, the Slow-Motion players, (featuring Jagga Jaggist & Suzanna & The Magic Orchestra keynoard player Morten Qvenild) will bring a completely new approach to Schumann’s interludes and Solveig’s voice will make this work live again for the 21st century..

PRESS NOTES:
Solveig Slettahjell & The Slow-Motion Quintet won the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy, the Spellemannsprisen, for their album Silver, in February 2005


5) ANDREW CRONSHAW & IAN BLAKE -
DARK MUSIC

Website: cloud valley music

Andrew Cronshaw’s site-specific work, Dark Music builds from development & rehearsal to the performance of a flowing series of new musical works in an intense, intimate, involving event. Drawing on the nature and possibilities of each venue, the work will be co-composed by multi-instrumentalists Andrew Cronshaw and Ian Blake and feature and singer Natacha Atlas.

PRESS FOR ANDREW CRONSHAW’S LAST LP, OCHRE
"As a hardened philistine when it comes to English folk music, I was taken aback to find myself enjoying an album whose sleeve note documents the exact provenance of each track, establishing that they are all indeed English folk tunes.

…the musicians approached the melodies with fresh ears, and the result is an album that will be surely welcomed with open arms throughout the world."
Charlie Gillet, BBC World Service & BBC London

"It’s the sense of rootedness in a gritty, marginal England that allows this music its brush with profundity. And the fact that this landscape exists principally in Cronshaw’s head makes the achievement all the more impressive."
Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph

PRESS NOTES:
Nominated by Radio 2 and Radio 3 in 2005 for his Ochre album, Andrew Cronshaw is known for his fusion projects, often based around his pioneering of an extraordinary 74-string electrified European chord zither.


6) THE TONGUES OF FIRE -
A CARNIVAL OF SOULS

Website: www.tongues-of-fire.co.uk

An audio-visual suite for ten piece band led by Tim Hill, the performance features projections and puppets performed within a specially constructed set. In the piece a slumbering circus of underground characters wake and head for town.

Tim continues the tale thus:
“Deep down ‘Somewhere’ they lay, the rejected and forgotten, the ‘impossibles’, the ‘inbetweens’ and ‘improbables’, half finished and barely imagined. Something stirs them; they wake and head for town. Will their procession tear the town to pieces or will they put on a show? Will their show bring down the walls anyway, as they pound the earth with their angry joy? They form a giant circle and begin……………”

PRESS NOTES:
Tim Hill is currently working on a street band and processional project with funding from the Arts Council England, and has helped recreate outdoor band sounds for TV and film productions like 'Return of the Native', 'Far from the Madding Crowd' and 'Tess of the D'Urbyvilles'

In 2005 Tim was Artist in Residence for Welfare State International at Lanternhouse in Cumbria, working on new songs for modern celebrations and a solo environmental sound and giant wind instrument project.

In 2006 he is working with Folk South West on developing a 'folk' street band called 'The Albion Horns' and creating a processional show for the Sidmouth Festival.