12 Songs of Serious
Its been a busy year – with hundreds of shows, thousands of exciting musicians from across the globe bringing music to millions. To celebrate the holiday season, we have brought together tracks from 12 brilliant artists with whom we’re working with now and into the future.
Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year!
From the Serious Team
Julian Lage Trio
Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians" (New Yorker), Julian Lage returns to the UK after two sold out shows in November 2021 at Cadogan Hall, to perform with his brilliant and deeply attuned trio of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King.
RIOPY
Following a sold-out European tour, RIOPY – the self-taught pianist/composer, with more than half a billion streams to his name and an album which has been at the top of the US Billboard charts for over 100 weeks – now undertakes his first UK tour.
For more information click here.
Lau Noah + Francesca Ter-Berg
The first Catalan artist to ever perform an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Lau Noah brings the worlds of baroque classical music, Spanish folklore and jazz to a special show at Kings Place. This will follow her extensive run performing with Chris Thile and the two sold-out Nickel Creek shows which she will be opening for in January. Supporting Lau Noah is cellist, composer & producer Francesca Ter-Berg. Known for her style which blends Klezmer, improvisation and electronic synthesis.
For more information click here.
Liniker
Expect to hear more from the trailblazing trans soul singer Liniker whose poetic reflections and love songs are a liberating force, normalising the conversation around trans people in Brazil.
Suzanne Vega + Sam Lee
Opening for Suzanne Vega on her extensive UK Tour will be Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee, who has taken a world of old songs and given them a sharp new focus. Sam Lee will be featuring songs from his forthcoming album produced by Bernard Butler.
For more information click here.
Emma-Jean Thackray
Emma-Jean Thackray reimagines dance floor classics at Village Underground with a live club night to celebrate the grooves that made the UK a dance music capital of the world. Expect Acid House, Broken Beat, Drum & Bass, UKG, and special guest DJs, to move the body, move the mind, and move the soul.
For more information click here.
Hiromi
Japanese jazz composer and pianist Hiromi is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her compositions. Expect to hear more from Hiromi in 2023.
Bonny Light Horseman
Following their latest album release Rolling Golden Holy, Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman, and Eric D. Johnson of Bonny Light Horseman undertake their February 2023 UK Tour, performing two special nights at Union Chapel.
For more information click here.
Coby Sey
Coby Sey is a producer, vocalist and DJ, who, after years spent buzzing around the DIY artist circuitry of south east London, has developed a distinctive presence as a performer and producer offering a shifting, disorienting vision of club music. The Lewisham artist’s collaborations with other forward thinkers including Tirzah, Mica Levi, Dean Blunt, Kelly Lee Owens and others is testament to the organic and expansive world in which he operates.
Coby Sey's debut album Conduit released this September is a sonic outlier that sits on the fringes of grime, dub and jazz and brings to life a space that is often uneasy, examining histories, politics and protest alongside something more frank and interior. Listen here
Nickel Creek
The platinum-selling, internationally renowned trio who revolutionized folk and roots music return to London for the first time in nearly two decades with two sold out nights at Union Chapel.
For more information click here.
Bassekou Kouyate
Bassekou Kouyate returns to London with his band, Ngoni Ba, which includes ngoni players (featuring ngonis with differing tonal sizes), percussionists (talking drum, Yabara, Calebasse) and the fantastic singer Amy Sacko. Together they have revolutionised the sound of the ngoni, and radically fired centuries of griot tradition into the future.
For more information click here.
Rhiannon Giddens + Francesco Turrisi
Rhiannon Giddens will celebrate the release of her latest album They’re Calling Me Home (Nonesuch, 2021), recorded with Francesco Turrisi in Ireland. Featuring several traditional songs, it reflects the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland – as well as a new song written by Giddens. The record speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death. They both perform at Union Chapel in May 2023.
For more information click here.
