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Sonic Pioneers Tortoise To Play Closing Day Of The London Jazz Festival

• 13th Nov 2009

Sonic Pioneers Tortoise to play closing day of The London Jazz Festival With support from Seminal Electronic Pioneers, Cluster

Sunday 22nd November 2009, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm,
Tickets £20 £17.50

Maverick Chicago natives, Tortoise return to London for a special one-off date at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Jazz Festival 2009. The show on 22 November features material from their acclaimed new album Beacons of Ancestorship. This is Tortoise’s sixth full-length album and their first release of new material in five years, featuring nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges.

20 years after its founding, the band’s signature sound – a fluid intersection of dub, dance, jazz, techno, rock, and classical minimalism – remains an American and international original. While the group has spawned many imitators, Tortoise remains unique in the world of contemporary music for their unmistakable compositional voice, and their synthesis of seemingly contradictory sound worlds.

Supporting and collaborating on the night are seminal electronic pioneers Cluster, the duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, who have been a key influence for musicians such as David Bowie and Brian Eno since their beginnings in Berlin in 1970. They return to London following the release of Qua, their first studio album in over a decade, earlier this year. Legend has it that Tortoise and Cluster first met in an elevator in Athens – leading to this historic collaboration during the London Jazz Festival.

Taking influence from Tortoise, Trouble Tune is a specially curated afternoon of free live music and visuals exploring the territories between jazz and experimental music. From 3pm on the day, The Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall will be transformed into a meeting ground for live collaboration between musicians, DJs and visual artists. This special afternoon will feature a 60-minute DJ set by 'Appleblim' (Laurie Osborne), one of the most respected names in UK dubstep; a special collaboration between dubstep multi-instrumentalist Bass Clef (Ralph Cumbers) and a collective of live musicians led by Shabaka Hutchings and Jason Yarde; live dubstep artist Geiom (Kamal Joory); Matt Yee King performing with a piece of computer software which uses live-coding to generate music; plus live visuals by the Tilt Collective.

Southbank Centre Ticket Office: / Book online link
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/gigs-contemporary/tickets/tortoise-49185