Riot Ensemble: Sonic Illusions

Riot Ensemble unwrap works by the great American sound pioneers, James Tenney and Alvin Lucier, and deliver a world premiere by Jasmine Morris.

Sonic illusions on a huge scale: this concert presents a programme of new and exciting acoustic and electronic chamber music featuring music of delicacy and beauty.

American composer James Tenney’s Glissade, a spellbinding work for viola, cello, double bass and electronics, is full of searching, sliding sounds and Tenney’s trademark conceptual innovation. This evening also features electric guitar with a focus on Alvin Lucier’s duo Criss Cross – a meditative and rarely-heard sonic journey.

The Riot Ensemble then comes together for the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work by the young British composer Jasmine Morris  (winner out of 750 applicants of Riot’s most recent Call for Scores) before Jose Manuel Serrano’s Balbulus for solo double bass and pre-recorded double basses leaves us pondering if what we are seeing is really creating the sound we are hearing…