Serious is proud to be a commissioning partner in PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial 2019 in London’s Southbank Centre on 5-7 July and Hull on 12-24 July, with a piece called Where To Build In Stone by AV duo NUMB MOB, which is a development and expansion of a work they wrote for and performed at the Hull City of Culture programme which Serious produced in 2017.
NUMB MOB is made up of electronic musician Liam van Ryn (who was previously on Brownswood's Future Bubblers Programme) and video artist Joseph Bird, and for this commission they've also brought on board James Rushworth and Pete Minns to play a combination of synths, trumpet, saxophone, and drums. Significantly, they're the only group in the whole festival that are from Hull.
Here's a short description of the piece from NUMB MOB themselves:
Inspired by the shapes and sounds of Hull, ‘Where to Build in Stone’ is an audio-visual project that explores the city over the course of a day. Hull-based duo Numb Mob will be performing their live soundtrack to the film, weaving a variety of electronic and acoustic instruments into a haunting and vivid soundscape embroidered with evocative melodies. Focusing on the quiet drama in the scenes that are everywhere and overlooked, the piece evokes a mysterious and oddly beautiful side of the city.
Their full performance will be in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Saturday 6 July at 8pm, and tickets are free by registering here
They'll also be doing a duo performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer on Friday 5 July at 5.15pm as a Friday Tonic. Details can be found here
Then in Hull they’ll be performing in Fruit on Saturday 13 July - which is already sold out.
New Music Biennial features a series of pieces by composers of a wide variety of genres and backgrounds, commissioned by organisations such as ourselves and the likes of BBC Radio 3, Southbank Centre, London Contemporary Orchestra, Opera North, and funded/organised by PRS Foundation in partnership with Southbank Centre and Absolutely Cultured.
There's plenty of great music to check out throughout the festival including two of Serious’ Take Five alumni (Kit Downes and Arun Ghosh), and a performance of Shiva Feshareki’s Dialogue with the BBC Concert Orchestra that was premiered at the 2018 EFG London Jazz Festival. All the pieces will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the coming weeks and released digitally by NMC Recordings later this year.
