New Year Party 2013
Tuesday 8th January, from 7pm ’til 11pm
Scala, 257 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, N1 9NL
Performances from:
Kwes
This South London signed with Warp Records – a label made for him and his lawless use of sound. He calls it ‘free pop’, and it began in Lewisham in 1990, raised on a diet of Top of The Pops and the Top 40 Chart Show. In fact, Kwes is wholly fascinated by all arms of the pop music beast. Today Kwes sees his creative touchstones as The Neptunes, Robert Wyatt, The Dream and multi-instrumentalist Todd Rundgren – a group of artists and producers that few would mention in the same sentence, but fewer would constantly turn to for inspiration. He’s a regular collaborator with Micachu (Micachu & the Shapes) and in 2011 was invited by Oxfam’s DRC Music project, along with Damon Albarn and a team of producers, to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kwes’ debut album will be released in late 2012, when he will further prove that there is nothing wrong with being brought up on a strict diet of popular music.
Kwes received funding through British Music Abroad to showcase at SXSW.
Sam Lee
Sam Lee, Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, promoter and animateur released his debut album ‘Ground of Its Own’ in June 2012. Sam is fast becoming accepted as a new pioneer, defining the sound, sight and texture of contemporary folksong. He was given the 2011 Arts Foundation Award, which for the first time, honoured folk music amongst the art forms. Likewise his live band, Sam Lee and Friends, carve a new acoustic with their homemade and mongrelised instrumentation using unconventional and contemporary arrangements that challenging preconceptions of what traditional folk should sound like.Sam is also an award-winning promoter and live events producer through his 2010 BBC Folk club of the year “The Magpies Nest”, now “The Nest Collective”. The Nest has played a key role in the resurgence of
the live folk music scene and is behind many innovative concerts across London, festival stages around the UK and radio and television appearances.
Sam Lee received funding through British Music Abroad to showcase at WOMEX.
The London Contemporary Orchestra
London Contemporary Orchestra draws together London’s brightest young talent to explore and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience. Formed in 2008, the LCO has worked alongside a distinguished array of composers and artists, including Matmos, Anna Meredith, Biosphere, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Shiva Feshareki, Mira Calix, United Visual Artists, Jonny Greenwood and Foals. In 2010 the LCO was recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards for its audience development work. Recent projects include sold-out performances at the Roundhouse and The Old Vic Tunnels, Ron Arad’s Curtain Call and Mike Figgis’s Just Tell The Truth at the Royal Opera House (Deloitte Ignite 2011). LCO’s performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Sky Arts.
The London Contemporary Orchestra received funding through our Organisations & Groups scheme
Ayanna
Ayanna is an English folk and soul singer, songwriter and cellist who has been nominated for a 2012 MOBO Award. Ayanna has worked with a plethora of UK and international artists including Kronos Quartet, Dutch trumpeter Diederik Rijpstra, Chinese folk artist Xiao Juen, Australian Indigenous musical force Black Arm Band, UK saxophonists Courtney Pine and Jason Yarde, guitarist Nitin Sawhney and singer-songwriters Gwyneth Herbert, Nick Mulvey and Boo Hewerdine. In 2011 she performed in Jazz Voice, the London Jazz Festival’s opening night gala, alongside Michelle Dockerty, Gregory Porter, Ian Shaw, Lucinda Belle, Shingai Shoniwa and the London Jazz Festival Orchestra conducted by Guy Barker. She has also played opposite sensational Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, Jack DeJohnette and Sibongile Khumalo’s project Intercontinental and the legendary South African trumpeter and activist Hugh Masekela.
Ayanna received funding through our Women Make Music scheme.
Hatcham Social (DJ set)
London-based alternative quartet Hatcham Social are brothers Toby Kidd and Finn Kidd, respectively on vocals and drums, plus recent additions David Claxton on guitar and Riley Difford on bass. After a string of unfeasably catchy sold out seven inches on ubercool labels like Loog and WAKS, the band released their debut album ‘You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil’ in 2009 on independent legends Fierce Panda in Europe and on new label TBD, also home to Radiohead, in the US.
Produced by Tim Burgess, ‘You Dig The Tunnel..’ was critically acclaimed and received 10/10 in Vice Magazine, 8/10 in NME and Album Of The Month in Artrocker.
Hatcham Social received funding through British Music Abroad to showcase at SXSW.
Plus New Music 20×12 films as seen on The Space.