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Richard Dawson: Delight is Right
Saturday 28 March 2020, Barbican Hall, 7pm 
Tickets £17.50 – 25 plus booking fee 

Following the release of 2020, his new and highly-anticipated sixth solo album (out on 11 October 2019 on Weird World/Domino), celebrated Northumbrian songsmith Richard Dawson presents a specially curated evening at the Barbican – a gathering of his friends, fellow travellers and favourites. The eclectic line-up (tba) will reflect the breadth of Dawson’s influences and performances will stretch across two stages and culminate in a headline Richard Dawson set in the Barbican Hall. For this he will be joined by a full band, presenting new material from 2020 – a hard-hitting state-of-the-nation study on contemporary Britain which introduces the listener to grand themes through small lives and portraits of human beings struggling with recognisable concerns, conflicts and desires. Dawson’s music has been described as a blend of traditional English and jazzy psych folk and North Country Blues.

Produced by the Barbican
On sale to Barbican members on Thursday 12 September 2019
On general sale on Friday 13 September 2019
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Guest Artists / Further Line-Up Details Announced

Moor Mother with the London Contemporary Orchestra: The Great Bailout
+ Klein 
Wed 23 Oct 2019, Milton Court Concert Hall, 7.30pm  
Tickets £20 plus booking fee 
In this first-time collaboration, Afro-futurist artist, musician and poet Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother teams up with the London Contemporary Orchestra and conductor Robert Ames in a project of music and spoken word with the British slave industry as a core theme. Their collaboration, The Great Bailout, is aiming to demonstrate the rarely acknowledged links between the pavements we all walk on and the slave trade.
Fellow interdisciplinary artist and producer Klein from South London will open the evening. Klein uses disjunctive experimentalism to create a sensory world that melds popular reference points with personal associations.
Produced by the Barbican
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Hannah Peel & Will Burns: Chalk Hill Blue
with special guest Chris Watson
+ On Vanishing Land
Sat 26 Oct 2019, Milton Court Concert Hall, 7.30pm 
Tickets £20 plus booking fee 
Poet Will Burns and electronic composer Hannah Peel present their collaborative project Chalk Hill Blue. Released in March 2019 and recorded with producer/artist Erland Cooper, the album is a moving and original record exploring the troubled landscapes of England and the mind. Inspired by the chalk heaths of Buckinghamshire and the iridescent disappearing butterfly, poetry alongside Peel's analogue compositions, weave in and out of one another to entrancing and unsettling effect. Their Milton Court date sees an expanded version of their collaboration and both artists will be joined on stage by a larger ensemble and special guest artists, including Chris Watson. The ex-Cabaret Voltaire member and pioneering field recordist will be interweaving his recordings of the Chalk Hill landscapes live on stage around the music from the album: Grasshoppers and crickets, skylark, stone curlew, corn bunting, lapwing, barn owl and muntjac deer, along with winds through the grasslands and a summer thunderstorm will all be heard. On Vanishing Land will be opening this evening’s performance. This project can be described as an audio-essay, which was the second audio-work collaboration by philosopher, sound artist and author Justin Barton and the late teacher, cultural theorist, and author Mark Fisher.
Produced by the Barbican
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New Start Time

Jenny Hval: The Practice of Love
Sun 29 Sep 2019, Milton Court Concert Hall, NEW: 8pm  
Tickets £20 plus booking fee 

The Practice of Love is a new multidisciplinary immersion in music, literature, theatre and movement by Norwegian musician, composer and writer Jenny Hval. Based on material from Hval’s forthcoming album (out on 13 Sep 2019), the project explores sonic, visual and chorographical ideas, aiming to stage the writing process as a performative practice. With a multinational ensemble including experimental musicians, vocalists, dancers and video artists, this project extends Hval’s work into new and even more challenging territory. 

The Practice of Love is co-produced by Black Box teater and Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. The premiere is on 20 September 2019, Black Box teater/Ultima Festival. 

Presented by the Barbican in association with Bird on the Wire

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