SOUNDS OF NOW: HERMES EXPERIMENT

The Hermes Experiment

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Thursday 17 April 2025, 7.30pm

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: HERMES EXPERIMENT

CÉCILE CHAMINADE(arr. SCHOFIELD) La Lune paresseuse (3’)
TOM COULT I Find Planets (6’)
CAROLINE SHAW (arr. DENHOLM-BLAIR) Plan & Elevation: I. The Ellipse (4’)
LISA ROBERTSON, new work (world premiere, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society) (7’)
LAURA MOODY Rilke Songs (movements I & III) (10’)
SOOSAN LOLAVAR Mâh Didam (6’)
ANNA MEREDITH (arr. SCHOFIELD) Fin like a flower (3’)
LILI BOULANGER (arr. SCHOFIELD) Reflets (3’)
KERRY ANDREW (arr. DENHOLM-BLAIR) Fruit Songs (8’)
ERROLLYN WALLEN (arr. WERNER), Tree (5’)
HANNAH PEEL (arr. PASHLEY), The Almond Tree (3’)
MISHA MULLOV-ABBADO The Linden Tree (6’)

The award-winning Hermes Experiment is one of the most exciting forces in contemporary music today. With their arresting stage presence and wildly imaginative programmes, they have been winning over audiences around the country with their effortless ability to bring music from the margins into the mainstream.

Fronted by the captivating singer Heloise Werner, this quartet of sensational musicians (soprano, harp, clarinet and double bass) were recent winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award. They perform works covering all styles of new music in today’s gloriously electric scene.

Caroline Shaw

Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and tv series including Fleishman is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyonce’s Homecoming. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary.

Plan and Elevation

I have always loved drawing the architecture around me when traveling, and some of my favourite lessons in musical composition have occurred by chance in my drawing practice over the years. While writing a string quartet to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Dumbarton Oaks, I returned to these essential ideas of space and proportion — to the challenges of trying to represent them on paper. The title, Plan & Elevation, refers to two standard ways of representing architecture — essentially an orthographic, or “bird’s eye,” perspective (“plan”), and a side view which features more ornamental detail (“elevation”). This binary is also a gentle metaphor for one’s path in any endeavor — often the actual journey and results are quite different (and perhaps more elevated) than the original plan.

I was fortunate to have been the inaugural music fellow at Dumbarton Oaks in 2014-15. Plan & Elevation examines different parts of the estate’s beautiful grounds and my personal experience in those particular spaces. Each movement is based on a simple ground bass line which supports a different musical concept or character. “The Ellipse” considers the notion of infinite repetition (I won’t deny a tiny Kierkegaard influence here). One can walk around and around the stone path, beneath the trimmed hornbeams, as I often did as a way to clear my mind while writing.

Kerry Andrew

Kerry Andrew is a London-based musician, and author. Her debut novel, Swansong, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2018 and her second SKIN in 2021. She made her short story debut on BBC Radio 4 in 2014 with One Swallow and was shortlisted for the 2018 BBC National Short Story Award.

Kerry is the winner of four British Composer Awards and is best known for her experimental vocal, choral and music-theatre work, often based around themes of community, landscape and myth. She sings with Juice Vocal Ensemble and has released two albums with her band You Are Wolf: Hawk to the Hunting Gone (2014), a collection of avian folk-songs re-interpreted, and Keld (2018), inspired by freshwater folklore.

Fruit Songs

I mango
II plum
III blackberry
IV cherry
V apple

I never treat a poem as a ‘straight’ setting: ‘mango’ is fairly schizophrenic in nature, with sections of percussive phonetics interspersed with sung chunks of the whole text. ‘plum’ is simpler, only picking out ‘forgive me’ as a refrain. In ‘blackberry’, I chose an 11-note row, with 1 quaver pitch to a syllable, which is then deconsructed. ‘cherry’ examines a range of extra-vocal techniques using only the word ‘Oh!’, and has a more theatrical interplay between singer and guitarist. For ‘apple’, I stripped down the Drinkwater poem to what I saw as its essentials. Particular musical influences for these songs include Björk, Meredith Monk, Sheila Chandra, English folk, Japanese, West African and Indian music.

Hannah Peel

Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello and Emmy-nominated, RTS and Music Producers Guild winning composer, with a flow of solo albums and collaborative releases, Hannah joins the dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music

From her own solo albums to composing soundtracks like Game of Thrones: The last Watch, or to orchestrating and conducting for artists like Paul Weller, her work is ambitious, forward-looking, always adapting and re-inventing new genres and hybrid musical forms

Hannah is a regular weekly broadcaster for BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks

The Almond Tree

This is a track from Hannah Peel’s 2011 debut album The Broken Wave, which she described as a collection of songs covering themes ranging from “joy and hope of falling in love through to the pain and loss of betrayal.” In 2018 The Almond Tree featured in the opening episode of the Channel 4 / Netflix series Kiss Me First.

Hannah performing The Almond Tree in 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piZCfrpa9kE

Misha Mullov-Abbado

Award-winning, London-based jazz bass player, composer and arranger Misha Mullov-Abbado is a musician who combines great imagination with raw talent and a clear vision. A BBC New Generation Artist and with three critically acclaimed albums on Edition Records under his name, his most recent offering Dream Circus showcases his ‘melodic gift’ (John Fordham, The Guardian) and ability to masterfully combine beautifully-crafted compositions with free-spirited improvisation. Written over a three-year period the album, produced by fellow Edition Records bassist and bandleader Jasper Høiby (Phronesis), marks the arrival of an artist who has been on a voyage of self-discovery.

His aforementioned collective features some of the most exhilarating and sought-after young musicians in London and was formed during Misha’s final year at Royal Academy of Music. An experienced band-leader and versatile sideman, Misha regularly performs all over the UK and around the world, including at top London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, the Vortex, King’s Place and Royal Albert Hall. His vast musical travels have led him to work alongside inspiring musicians

such as Alice Zawadzki, Dave O’Higgins, Tim Garland, Viktoria Mullova, Enzo Zirilli, Sam Lee, Rob Luft, Paul Clarvis, Stan Sulzmann and Nessi Gomes.

A prolific composer and arranger in his own right, Misha embraces his jazz, classical, pop and folk influences and writes for a variety of jazz groups, as well as various classical soloists and ensembles. Commissions include work with the Hermes Experiment, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, LSSO, Hill Quartet, Pelleas Ensemble, NW Live Arts and BBC Radio 3, the latter of which commissioned his cello concerto which was premiered at London’s Southbank Centre by Matthew Barley and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

It’s only a matter of time before Misha seals his place on the international scene at the forefront of a new generation of European creative Jazz musicians.

The Linden Tree (2015)

Misha Mullov-Abbado’s The Linden Tree retains the familiar folksong-like lyrics but crafts a new melody and accompaniment. The flowing tune stays true to the bittersweet melancholy of the original, but the score also introduces a range of jazz and swing elements into the instrumental accompaniment, from a strolling pizzicato bass to the occasional quasiimprovisatory solo from the clarinet.

About the Artists

The Hermes Experiment

Winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2021 and the Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019, The Hermes Experiment is one of the UK’s leading young contemporary music ensembles. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments (harp, clarinet, voice and double bass), The Hermes Experiment regularly commissions new works, as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. They have commissioned over 60 composers at various stages of their careers. They have released two albums on Delphian Records – HERE WE ARE and SONG – both to critical acclaim. Read their full bio here.

SOUNDS OF NOW: PURNIMA – EASTMAN, WOLFE & SINGH

Rakhi Singh

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Thursday 13 February 2025, 7.30pm

Past Event

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: PURNIMA – EASTMAN, WOLFE & SINGH

NICOLA MATTEIS Alia Fantasia (4′)
ANNA CLYNE October Rose for Two Violins (4′)
ALEX GROVES Alula (9′)
ANDREW HAMILTON In Beautiful May (13′)
JULIUS EASTMAN (arr. RAKHI SINGH) Joy Boy (8′)
MISSY MAZZOLI Vespers (5′)
PAUL CLARK Natural Remedies (6′)
EDMUND FINNIS Elsewhere (8′)
JULIA WOLFE (arr. RAKHI SINGH) LAD (17′)

Violinist Rakhi Singh performs works by Edmund Finnis, Julia Wolfe, Julius Eastman, Alex Groves, and more from her debut solo album, ‘Purnima’. A leading artist in the UK’s exciting contemporary classical music scene, Singh has firmly established her reputation touring with cutting-edge artists such as Phillip Glass, Abel Selaocoe, and the London Contemporary Orchestra. She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Manchester Collective, the award-winning ensemble known for its daring collaborations and engaging performances in spaces ranging from concert halls to warehouses, nightclubs to festivals.

About the Artists

Rakhi Singh

Rakhi Singh is a violinist, music director and composer based between Manchester and London, England. In 2016 she co-founded Manchester Collective, who performed their second proms in as many years this Summer, led by Rakhi. In her programming, she continues to endeavour to bring important music to the fore, from 2022’s Julius Eastman Proms performance, to the new wave of British composers in ‘23 with work by Hannah Peel, Ben Nobuto and Oliver Leith (alongside favourites from Lang and Reich).

Alongside her work leading the Collective, Singh has firmly established herself as a violinist and leader of high repute, touring with the likes of Phillip Glass, Abel Selacoe & Hiromi, and guest leading ensembles including the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, RLPO, CBSO, Hebrides Ensemble, Sinfonia Cymru. Since 2021 she has toured as a solo artist, performing headline sets at the likes of Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), National Concert Hall (Dublin), Funkhaus (Berlin) and Kings Place (London).

Alongside her 2023 debut solo album ‘Purnima’ on Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music imprint, she has also released a number of records on Bedroom Community, two albums as curator/director of Manchester Collective and her debut composition EP ‘Quarry’.

As a collaborator she has developed and performed collaborative work for the likes of London Southbank Centre (alongside Vessel & NYX Electronic Drone Choir for NMB 2022), Royal Opera House (alongside Blackhaine), on a new collaborative record by acclaimed violinist & recorder player Laura Cannell (also featuring Gazelle Twin, Nik Colk Void and Lori Goldston) as well as, as a recording artist on the records of Fever Ray, Clark and Vessel amongst others.

Born to an English mother and Indian father in rural Wales, Rakhi’s upbringing was influenced by many different cultures and traditions.

SOUNDS OF NOW: LULLABY

Manasamitra

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Wednesday 1 May 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:
£8 – £10

Past Event

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: LULLABY

SUPRIYA NAGARAJAN vocals
DUNCAN CHAPMAN field recordings & electronics
LUCY NOLAN harp

Lullaby is an entrancing evening of music in which the hypnotic purity of Indian music meets contemporary electronica and live instrumental improvisation.

Inspired by traditional Indian lullabies, this is an entrancing evening of music in which the hypnotic purity of Indian music meets contemporary electronica and live instrumental improvisation.

Timeless night-time sounds from around the world – chirping cicadas, the call of the night jar, the soft fall of rain – have been captured and located within the rhythmic pattern and soothing cadence of a lullaby to create an immersive experience that both soothes and stimulates. The space is yours to do as you please – sit, stand, lie down, slump into cushions and drift off, or remain alert and engaged throughout.

Devised by Supriya Nagarajan, a composer and southern Indian singer of the Carnatic tradition, who formed Manasamitra with musicians based in the north of England, including the electro-acoustic composer Duncan Chapman, the project also features a collection of sounds gathered in order to create a bespoke soundscape unique to Portsmouth for this performance.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Thanks to funding from the Hinrichsen Foundation.

About the Artists

Manasamitra

Manasamitra is an artist-led organisation based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, delivering a range of exciting and original cross-cultural experiences. Their work is rooted in the creative vision of Supriya Nagarajan, a classically-trained Carnatic singer who is inspired by not only the traditions of her South Asian roots but also by a drive to work with new ideas, forms and aesthetics from across the world, presented within a contemporary British context. Find out more.

SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNA MEREDITH STRING QUARTETS

Ligeti Quartet

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Thursday 21 March 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ANNA MEREDITH STRING QUARTETS

Anna Meredith’s joyful, furious, energetic and restful music dazzles but is never too serious. The critically-acclaimed Ligeti Quartet share tracks from their new album fusing acoustic and electronic music for string quartet by the Mercury-prize nominated composer.

MEREDITH Tuggemo (5’30)
MEREDITH A Short Tribute To Teenage Fanclub (5’)
MEREDITH Honeyed Words (4’)
MEREDITH Chorale (8’)
MEREDITH Shill (3’)
MEREDITH Haze (4’)
MEREDITH Blackfriars (3’)
MEREDITH Nautilus (5’)

Anna Meredith has achieved incredible success straddling multiple musical worlds, never compromising her raw, individual style. This concert is based around the Ligeti Quartet’s new album, Nuc, providing a survey of Meredith’s career to date, heard through her original works for string quartet.

Nuc started life as a conversation between Anna Meredith and Richard Jones (Ligeti Quartet’s viola player) after realising that after a decade of frequently working together, they had almost an album’s worth of music. So an idea developed in which they would not only make the first studio recordings of Anna’s original music for string quartet, but that Richard would create new arrangements of existing tracks by Anna including from her award-winning electronic and dance albums.

The result is a joyful, occasionally furious, never too serious, energetic/restful collection of tracks which dazzle with Anna’s signature compulsive harmonies, rhythmic shifts of gear and sparkling textures.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

“A remarkable, uncompromising collection that shows the composer and ensemble to be uniquely perfect collaborators.”

Buzzmag

About the Artists

Ligeti Quartet

The Ligeti Quartet have been at the forefront of modern and contemporary music since their formation in 2010. They have established a reputation as one of the UK’s leading ensembles, breaking new ground through innovative programming and championing of today’s most exciting composers and artists.

Find out more.

SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

Tabea Debus, Samuele Telari & Elisa Blasi

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Friday 8 March 2024, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

A unique performance of music and movement inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie.

PÄRT Pari Intervallo (5’)
CAGE Harmony XVIII (from 44 Harmonies) (2’)
ROOSENDAEL Rotations for solo recorder (15’)
CAGE Harmony XX (From 44 Harmonies) (5’)
LIM slowly, turning (6’)
CAGE Harmony XXXVI & HARMONY XL (From 44 Harmonies) (3’)
HOSOKAWA Sen V for solo accordion (10’)
CAGE Harmony XII (From 44 Harmonies) (1’)
PÄRT – Spiegel im Spiegel (8’)

A unique programme of music and movement, inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created by virtuoso recorder player Tabea Debus and dazzling accordion player Samuele Telari, in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie.

Featuring a new commission and works from giants of twentieth century music, the show’s choreography of the musicians makes full use of the Guildhall’s intimate ‘in the round’ Studio space.

This performance has no interval. There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists.

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

Presented by Music in the Round, in partnership with the Young Classical Artists Trust.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

About the Artists

Tabea Debus

“Neat, unforced, beautifully articulated.” – The Times

Described by The Times as a charismatic virtuoso, Tabea Debus is constantly exploring the horizons of music for recorder and has performed widely across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Tabea’s keen interest in contemporary music for recorder has led to numerous collaborations with composers throughout the UK and beyond. She has premiered new works at LSO Soundhub, at the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound and Baroque at the Edge festivals, worked with composers including Philip Cashian, Freya Waley-Cohen, Moritz Eggert and Alex Nante, and has appeared as soloist in contemporary recorder concertos with the WDR Rundfunkchor at the Funkhaus in Cologne and the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall. In 2020 the recorder solo Diaries of the Early Worm by Gareth Moorcraft, which Tabea premiered and recorded, won the solo/duo category at the Ivors Academy Awards. Read more.

Samuele Telari

‘His musicianship is so big, so irrepressible, that he transcends the instrument that he’s playing’ (BBC Record Review).

Sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Samuele’s recent solo engagements include recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Berlin Konzerthaus.

Highlights during 2023 include his debut at the Trasimeno Festival in Italy with Angela Hewitt and a ‘Story Teller’ event for the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska. He returns to the MiTO Festival in Milan and Torino to perform Mussorgsky’s Pictures alongside a newly commissioned arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, and will be resident at the Machynlleth Festival in Wales. Read more.

Elisa Blasi

Elisa is an Italian dancer who having trained in ballet and contemporary dance at the Balletto di Roma moved to London to complete her Bachelor’s degree at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

During her time at Rambert she had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Richard Alston, Alleyne Dance, Christopher Bruce CBE and Akram Khan.

Since graduating Elisa has gone on to work with with dance theatre company Sweetshop Revolution and most recently started working with Alexander Whitley Dance Company in October 2022.

SOUNDS OF NOW: VOICE(LESS)

Rosie Middleton & Angharad Davies

The Guildhall Lens Studio, Portsmouth

Thursday 5 October 2023, 7.30pm

Tickets:

£5 – £10

Past Event

Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: VOICE(LESS)

Exploring the sonic force of the human voice and how easily it can be silenced.

Programme includes:

ESIN GUNDUZ – En-he-du-an-na-me-en (3′)
MIRA CALIX – code poem: any chance of war? (c.9′)
LAURA BOWLER – Cover Squirrel (c.15′)
Includes improvisations by Angharad Davies

(A woman sits alone in the room. She tries to speak. Her voice is gone.)

Mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton and violinist Angharad Davies perform a sequence of works that explore the sonic force of the human voice and how easily it can be silenced.

Esin Gunduz examines power and resistance in music that transforms Rosie’s voice through electronic manipulation. Semaphore, morse code and other non-verbal communication inform Mira Calix’s anti-war musical poem. In Cover Squirrel by Laura Bowler, the human voice switches from operatic power to broken and unintelligible fragments. This provocative performance blends music and physical gesture by two captivating, exceptional performers.

Watch and listen to short clips of work from the performers and find out more about the Voice(less) project here:

This performance has no interval. There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists.

Series Discount: 20% discount if you book any 6 or more Portsmouth Chamber Music/Sounds of Now concerts.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

Time advertised is the start time, please check your ticket for door time.

About the Artists

Rosie Middleton

Mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton specialises in new music. In 2019 Rosie was artist-in-residence at Snape Maltings and The Banff Centre, where she collaborated with composers on voice(less) – a series for voice and electronics with works by Mira Calix, Laura Bowler, Esin Gunduz and Michael Betteridge exploring voice loss and communication. Find out more.

Angharad Davies

Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance.

Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation. Find out more.

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SHAW Caroline, The Ellipse from Plan and Elevation

ANDREW Kerry, Fruit Songs

PEEL Hannah, The Almond Tree

MULLOV-ABBADO Misha, The Linden Tree

About the Artists

The Hermes Experiment

About the Artists

Rakhi Singh

About the Artists

Manasamitra

“A remarkable, uncompromising collection that shows the composer and ensemble to be uniquely perfect collaborators.”

Buzzmag

About the Artists

Ligeti Quartet

About the Artists

Tabea Debus

Samuele Telari

Elisa Blasi

About the Artists

Rosie Middleton

Angharad Davies