Friday 31 March 2023, 7.30pm
Over the course of four evening events, each a double-bill, eight performers present their latest works or works-in-progress in an intimate and informal setting. The programming within each set is artist-led: repertoire is only announced on the night, giving the performers the flexibility to present whatever serves them best and giving the public special insight into the performer's freshest work. We aim to stimulate your ears and your imagination by presenting a surprising collection of artists working at the experimental fringes of a variety of musical genres.
Letty Stott / ancient horns
Christine Abdelnour / saxophone
LETTY STOTT is one of the UK’s most exciting and versatile horn players, with a career spanning a wide variety of genres. As a classical French horn player, Letty has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and opera companies. She frequently records as a session musician for television and film, recently featuring as a solo artist on Hollywood blockbuster The Northman, for which she performed on a range of Scandinavian horns. Her current collaborations include site-specific work with the Natural History Museum in London, performing on conch shells and natural forms of horn, and collaborative projects with composers Ying-Hseuh Chen, Lior Rosner and John Kenny, for performances in Copenhagen, Madrid and at Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall, respectively.
CHRISTINE ABDELNOUR lives in France but is of Lebanese origin. After discovering improvised music in 1997 she began a process of self-taught study and sound experimentation using the alto saxophone. She has developed a unique personal language, producing sounds that are close to those of electroacoustic music but on a purely acoustic instrument. She approaches sound as a malleable material, rich in concrete textures which combine breath, silence and countless acoustic distortions. She has developed extended techniques and complex patterns of sound production, exploring the microtonal aspects of the saxophone and its high-pitched tones. She employs subtle tonguing techniques, unpitched breaths, spittle-flecked growls, biting, slicing notes and breathy echoing sounds from the bell of her horn. Far from any narrative effects, her music addresses the relation between listening and concepts of perception, time and space.
