LUMEN MACHINE
Lumen Machine will take you to the bleeding edge of musical technology. In a thrilling collaboration with London based ‘cyborg pianist’ Zubin Kanga, we’ve commissioned four new chamber concertos that combine musical analogues with a microtonal keyboard, motion-sensor ring, voice-controlled electronics and an old-school synthesizer. This virtuoso dance with the future concludes with the reprise of an Ensemble Offspring favourite: Anna Meredith’s joyous and exhilarating Bumps Per Minute.
DETAILS
Saturday 12 April 7:30pm, The Neilson ACO On The PierPre Concert Talk 6:45pmSunday 13 APRIL 4pm, Newcastle Conservatorium of Music
PROGRAM
TRISTAN COELHO Captain Keyboard* (2024)
AMANDA COLE Dream Garden* (2024)
ZUBIN KANGA From the Machine* (2024)
BRIGITTA MUNTENDORF Weight and Load* (2024)
ANNA MEREDITH Bumps Per Minute – selections from 18 Studies for Dodgems (2021, arr. Jessica Wells 2023)
* World premiere
PERFORMERS
Zubin Kanga (piano, keyboards)
Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director, percussion)
Lamorna Nightingale (flute)
Jason Noble (clarinet)
Véronique Serret (violin)
Blair Harris (cello)
Ben Carey (sound)
Pre Concert Talk Host
Vanessa Hughes
DESCRIPTION
Lumen Machine will take you to the bleeding edge of musical technology. In a thrilling collaboration with ‘cyborg pianist’ and Ensemble Offspring alumnus Zubin Kanga, we’ve commissioned four new chamber concertos that will bring everything we find exciting about music – its drama, its personality, its virtuosity – into a futuristic sound world.
What’s in store? Wielding special powers through a motion-sensor ring, the protagonist of Captain Keyboard – initially a force for good – turns ‘increasingly villainous’. Dream Machine employs the game-changing Lumatone keyboard and Amanda Cole’s own 48-note scale (Cube Tuning) in a mesmerising contemporary chaconne. Renowned German-Austrian composer Brigitta Muntendorf uses Vochlea voice-control software to transform the pianist into an alien-like soloist, a ‘monstrous techno-social hallucination’. Meanwhile, Zubin Kanga turns to the rhythmic arpeggiations of an old-school analogue synthesizer to spin a vibrant, whirling dance in From the Machine. And we’ll leave you smiling with the Ensemble Offspring arrangement of Anna Meredith’s Bumps Per Minute, an exhilarating sound experience that has been likened to ‘drinking several very strong cups of coffee in fast succession’.
“Kanga is an equally exciting pianist, effortlessly virtuosic and in complete command of this (quite literally) electrifying modern repertoire”
“A fearless pianist, composer and technologist, Zubin Kanga is a true advocate for the new and unknown.”
“Discovering new music is made an accessible and enjoyably open-minded experience in Ensemble Offspring’s capable hands”
“For Kanga, electronics are clearly not an addition, but a fundamental part of working with his instrument, and the physicality of his performance a keystone rather than an afterthought.”
“Immersive: tick. Interactive: tick. Innovative: tick. Collaborative: tick. Fortunately, it never takes itself too seriously”
