Skip to main content
Toggle menu

MORE MORE MORE

Matthew Herbert's comment on consumerism

Kings Place, London

Book

**Please note: This concert has moved to 8pm on Wednesday 4 November**

Two musicians move around and perform on a stage, following a secret list of performance instructions shared between only them. The rules of the piece instruct them to select different pieces of our rubbish from piles at their feet, and use them to create sounds which are sampled live in the room and replayed through electronics. As the piece progresses, layer upon layer of the sampled sound of rubbish is mixed with their live performance on instruments, resulting in a complex and ultimately overwhelming soundscape which leaves the audience faced with the uncomfortable truth about our disposable culture.

Producer, writer and pioneering electronic musician Matthew Herbert’s London Sinfonietta commission more more more was first performed in the Hayward Gallery in April 2018, and is a comment on endless consumerism. A response to Andreas Gursky’s Untitled XIII (2002) – a fascinating and unnerving photograph of a landfill site in Chimalhuacán, Mexico City, more more more is performed from the contents of rubbish bins collected from public areas around the venue in which it is performed. This fascinating sonic work offers a unique experience of Gursky’s work, capturing the rhythm, colour and complexity of his photographs in music.

The concert begins with a brand new piece by Matthew Herbert, which features electronic looping technology to exploit the full variety of timbre, pitch, and extended techniques possible on a single solo instrument, made even more hypnotically intense by the concentrated pianissimo dynamic.

Alongside, another new piece by Matthew Herbert commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica brings the issue of water as a resource to the fore. Co-created with young people from our Sound Out partners, the piece will use the history, scientific research and perhaps even objects from Antarctica as stimulus for developing a new sister work which looks to express their thoughts and ideas about the climate emergency.

This concert is part of the London Sinfonietta's 2020/21 season curated as a response to the times in which we live. Video streamed live on the internet, the event brings new music to new audiences. 

Join us at Kings Place or stream the concert live online.

Matthew Herbert pianissimo (premiere)
Matthew Herbert (with young musicians from North London) The Melt (premiere)
Matthew Herbert more more more

Torbjörn Hultmark soprano trombone
Oliver Lowe percussion
Matthew Herbert electronics
Tim Gill cello
London Sinfonietta

Kings Place has put additional safety measures in place to protect its audiences against coronavirus - to read more click here

This concert is part of Kings Place’s 2020 year-long series, Nature Unwrapped.

The Melt is co-commissioned by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust as part of its cultural programme Antarctica In Sight. This project also forms part of the London Sinfonietta Junior Academy, which is generously supported by The Leverhulme Trust. With the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Smashing evening @haywardgallery enjoying the arresting #gursky photographs married with evocative, experimental musical responses... Thanks @Ldn_Sinfonietta #unfinishedbusiness Audience member Abigail via Twitter after the April 2018 premiere

Make a donation

All our events this autumn are being presented online for free, so that as many people as possible can experience the best new music being written today. But if you are enjoying our live streams, please do consider donating at whatever level you can afford to support the London Sinfonietta’s work and musicians both now and in the future – in schools, on the concert platform and in the community. It might be the price of a coffee, or the cost of a ticket to one of our live events. 

Text to donate:
Text NEWMUSIC 5 to 70450 to donate £5
Text NEWMUSIC 10 to 70450 to donate £10
Text NEWMUSIC 20 to 70450 to donate £20

Texts cost £5, £10 or £20 plus one standard rate message, and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and SMS. If you’d like to give but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text NEWMUSICNOINFO 5, 10 or 20 to 70450.
 

Book

Please note that booking takes place on external sites.
The link will open in a new window.