Internationally beloved musician and polymath Matthew Herbert is set to bring together a number of high-profile collaborators for a trio of new projects at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre over the coming months.
Herbert, one of the most important British artists of his generation, will present three shows between October 23 and February 24. On 7 October drummer and musician MettaShiba and Herbert will present new sampling techniques and virtuoso playing in a duo performance of drums and electronics. On 26 November, he will invite actress Ria Zmitrowicz (The Power) and Kirsty Housely (co-director Complicité’s The Encounter) to create a new audio play from scratch with him in A Staged Audio Play in A Day. The final event, Book In A Day on 17 February will see Herbert and author Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Lanny, Shy) devise and create both a brand new physical book, and an audiobook in real time in one day. For each event audiences are invited to observe, and potentially take part in, the creative session in the afternoon as well as the final performance at 8pm.
On 7 October drummer and musician MettaShiba and Matthew Herbert present a one-off show of new sampling techniques and virtuoso playing in a unique duo performance of drums and electronics. Joining them are local hero and visionary instrument builder Henry Dagg and veteran jazz pioneer Evan Parker as they launch their new album: then through now. Amy Cutler completes the initial line up. Cutler is a musician, composer, and a designer who works with unusual analogue and digital instruments, from rain gauges, clock chimes and storm glasses to a robot choir trained on the footnotes of Thomas Browne’s Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial.
Building on the stories and sounds captured at the first event, Matthew Herbert will collaborate with dramaturg Kirsty Housely to create a staged audio play in just one day. The pair will be joined by Ria Zmitrowicz and fellow theatre-makers and creatives to devise, create, rehearse and stage a brand new one woman audio play in the Gulbenkian theatre. Collaborators will include sound designer and Oram Award winner Ella Kay, and movement director Imogen Knight (Chernobyl).
For Book in a Day, Matthew Herbert and Max Porter will devise and create both a brand new physical book and an audiobook in real time in a day. Based on sounds and stories from the second event, Play in a Day, Herbert and Porter will work with a notable actor who will perform and narrate the work. They will collaborate with a designer and bookbinder who between them will design and create a physical version in real time. The day will culminate in a performance and reading of the book in full, and the audience will be able to take home a digital copy.
The trio of works are part of Artistic Director David Sefton’s programme for Gulbenkian Arts Centre in Canterbury for 2023-24, in which he has built upon the Art Centre’s growing reputation since his arrival in 2021, and has brought to Kent a range of bold new work from world-class international artists working in live theatre, dance and music. At the heart of the programme is an impressive roster of Associate Artists, including Matthew Herbert, that Sefton has been developing over the past two years.
Matthew Herbert founded and leads The Radiophonic Institute, an organisation born from the profound legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop that “creates, connects and champions innovation in sound and music”. The Institute aims to inspire and enable a new generation of diverse creative practitioners to collaborate, and to challenge the pre-existing conventions of music making and sound design.
Also coming up in the GAC music programme are Acid Brass – Jeremy Deller’s combination of one of the world’s leading brass bands with acid house music, making a rare appearance in the Gulbenkian’s opening weekend on 30 Sep.
Extra-terrestrial joymongers Henge bring their scintillating live performance to Kent on 4 October, occupying a space between rave and prog rock that nobody knew existed.
