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Matinee Show

Brudenell Piano Sessions

James Heather, Aby Vulliamy, Ed Carlsen + hosted by Simeon Walker

Brudenell Piano Sessions return for the last event of 2019 with an all-day celebration of music for the piano. Join host & curator Simeon Walker for an afternoon edition of Brudenell Piano Sessions featuring pianist & composer James Heather, singer-songwriter Aby Vulliamy and multi-instrumentalist & producer Ed Carlsen for a special, intimate, relaxed, family-friendly version of this regular and established event.

Stay for food, drinks and pool before joining us for a ticketed show in the evening where we welcome Erland Cooper as part of his UK tour presenting his album ‘Skule Skerry’. Support comes from previous Piano Sessions performers, AVA.

James Heather

As a child growing up in Southampton, James Heathers Grandad on one side of the family taught him composition and how to manipulate the tuning of piano strings, whilst his Granny on the other used to dabble with dreamy improvisations on the instrument. Inspired by a love of Beethoven and Debussy, Heather spent many years honing composition before stepping out, to be able to bring a fresh take to solo piano music, taking influence as much from electronic music in structure, ambience and melody with a classical and jazz grounding. 

In June 2017 Heather started to release music officially via Ahead Of Our Time - Ninja Tune founders Coldcuts resurrected first label and playground for free expression / experimentation. First came “Modulations: EP1”, seven tracks which were written and recorded at different times and in various headspaces. Next came his debut album “Stories From Far Away On Piano” in August 2017, a more unified conceptual piece of work then presented by a follow up of high-calibre remixes and alternate versions titled ‘Reworks’ in 2018. The new album contains a selection of tracks from ‘Modulations: EP 1’ and ‘Stories From Far Away On Piano’ including reworks by DJ Seinfeld, Aparde, Echo Collective, Mary Lattimore and Sarah Davachi and brand new additional string quartet versions by James Heather himself. Supporters of Heather's music include James Lavelle (UNKLE), Actress, Cillian Murphy, DJ Seinfeld, Emika, Mary Lattimore, Mumdance, PBDY (Brainfeeder) and Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings.  

Aby Vulliamy

Aby Vulliamy is a multi-instrumentalist (she sings and plays viola, piano, accordion, musical saw, flute) whose first serious forays into recording and performing in 2005/6 were with Scatter (with Alex Neilson of Trembling Bells and Chris Hladowski of The Family Elan), The One Ensemble (Daniel Padden) and Nalle (Hanna Tuulikki). Since then Aby has shared the stage and/or studio with a brilliant array of musicians from a wide range of genres (including Maggie Nichols and Karen Mantler from the jazz/improvisation world, Krautrocker Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust, indie-rockers Yo La Tengo, folk musicians such as Ali Roberts, Bridget St John and Mike Heron from the Incredible String Band, pop stars such as Stevie Jackson (Belle and Sebastian) and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) and with a range of ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Abys ongoing collaborations include the ones with Stevie Jones (Sound of Yell, since 2012) with Bill Wells (The National Jazz Trio of Scotland, since 2007 with releases on Karaoke Kalk since 2012), with the 14-piece Swiss band Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp (since 2016) with Seth Bennett (En Bas, since 2014) with Matt Bourne (Isotach, since 2017) and with James Mainwaring (since 2019).

Aby features on about 40 albums recorded over the last 16 years. In October 2018 Aby released her first solo album, Spin Cycle, a collection of piano-based songs reflecting on her experience of motherhood.

Ed Carlsen

Ed Carlsen is a composer and producer from Sardinia, Italy. He blends elements from modern classical music, such as intimate piano and strings, with electronic beats and ambient soundscapes.

Professionally trained as a guitarist, it was not until 2015 that Ed began to translate these skills onto piano, using his own compositions as the foundation in which to discover the instrument. This gave him an unconventional approach to the piano, whilst retaining the musicality that he had developed through his studies of guitar.

Seeking to marry this musical knowledge with production techniques, Carlsen pursued a degree in Music Technology at the London College of Music, where he gained an interest in sound design and music composition for film and visual media. That became the vision for his debut album ‘The Journey Tapes, released by Canadian label Moderna Records in 2016. This was followed by a second solo work on the same label, ‘Elusive Frames, and a split vinyl release with Heather Woods Broderick, via Gregory Euclides ‘Thesis’ project.

Inspiration from live performances of other artists and human interaction is a secondary key to Eds work:

“its when Im calm that ideas start popping up in my head. Inspiration comes from different things, it could be a song, a book, a film, a mood, anything really. I like going out to see live gigs as it drives my inspiration pretty good, for some reason. People are also a great inspiration, and this applies to those who make me feel something deep and real, such as love, admiration or a strong friendship bond.”(Contemplative Classical)

All this leads to a creative process where he enriches the typical neoclassical piano (warm and stripped to its raw form) with textures that come from both electronic (guitar, synth, drum beats) and organic sounds.

Ed Carlsens music has now reached almost 10 million streams across all digital platforms and has been acknowledged by media outlets such as, BBC, Elle, Exclaim! and more. As of 2019, Ed is promoting his third album ‘Morning Hour’ (out on Moderna Records), as well as playing live shows across Europe.

 

Sunday 24th November 2019

Price: pay what you feel

14:00 - 16:00

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