Coming to the Vortex

From London’s Vortex Jazz Club:

Tuesday 6 | 8.30pm
Kammer Klang
The first night of Kammer Klang at the Vortex, including Pierrot Lunaire (extracts) by Scheonberg, Michael Finnissy‘s Walrus for accordion and Number Pieces by John Cage, headlined by music composed especially for Kammer Klang by Adem Ilhan.

Adem Ilhan
Adem Ilhan is an eclectic musician whose works span the experimental and electronic. His mass improvising collective, ‘Assembly’, will play one of Adem’s pieces composed specifically for the event.

Adam de la Cour (voice) and Mark Knoop (piano)
Schoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire (first cycle) (1912)
Love, sex, religion and the intoxication of the moon make up the themes of the of the first cycle of Schoenberg’s melodrama for voice and small ensemble. Veering away from his previous expressive style Schoenberg begins his journey towards the twelve-tone technique with this psychoanalytical (and possibly autobiographical) portrait of Pierrot in turmoil.

Michael Finnissy – Walrus (2010)
Michael Finnissy’s Walrus portrays this fat, smelly, noisy mammal as it disrupts a North Sea costal town fair featuring Mark Knoop on accordion.

Matthew Shlomowitz – Letter Piece No.1(2007)
Shlomowitz’s Letter Pieces combine physical actions, music and text. The performers create the material themselves, but the structure of each piece is determined. The result has been described as the ‘formalistic patterrning of the everyday world’ and ‘arty fart charades’. This realisation features Mark Knoop as superhero with Matthew Shlomowitz (sampler).

John Cage – Five (one) (1988)
One of Cage’s earliest number pieces written for five voices or instruments or voices and instruments. Performed by regular Klangers.

Wednesday 7 | 8.30pm
Vijay Iyer Trio
It’s been an incredible couple of years for Vijay’s trio since his album ‘Historicity‘ was released in 2009. Not only has the album won plaudits around the world, but the trio has also just been named ‘best ensemble (international)’ in the ECHO Jazz Awards, the German equivalent of the Grammys.

Thursday 8 | 8.30pm
Vijay Iyer Trio
As Wednesday 7.

Saturday 10 | 8.30pm
Alexander Hawkins Ensemble
Bringing together five of the country’s most exciting young creative musicians, alongside established star multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson, this sextet exploits its highly unusual instrumentation to explore structural boundaries and the composition / improvisation question.

Featuring original compositions by the leader, labelled by All About Jazz as ‘one of the brightest rising young stars of British jazz and improvisation’, together with arrangements of works by composers such as Braxton, Ellington, Ra and others, the musicians come together to create a compelling sound world.

The group’s debut album, No Now Is So, was variously called ‘an incredible record’ (Bagatellen) and ‘an unqualified success’ (All About Jazz), and appeared in various ‘best album’ and ‘best debut album’ of 2009 lists.

Featuring Alexander Hawkins (piano), Javier Carmona (drums, percussion), Otto Fischer (electric guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Hannah Marshall (cello) and Orphy Robinson (steel pan).