Contemporary ensemble Jetsam present a night which celebrates the strange and surreal. Jetsam will perform their 2013 work, A Dream Life of Hackney Marshes alongside writer and blogger Gareth E. Rees, providing dark and brooding reflections on the marshes of the Lea Valley. Sam Mumford will support, creating music admist chaos and Jetsam will also perform a new work created in collaboration with drummer Dave Smith, tonight performed by the invincible Guy Wampa.
Formed in 2008, Jetsam are an eclectic contemporary ensemble who create and perform original and commissioned works as well as contemporary repertoire.
With backgrounds in classical music, dance/electronic music, and songwriting, the band seeks to blend these influences and their shared experiences to create their unique sound. Recent performances have included works by George Crumb, Fred Rzewski, Stephen Montague, Louis Andriessen and Trent Reznor as well as original works inspired by time spent in Singapore, Bali, West Africa, Japan, Somerset and France. In recent years Jetsam have performed alongside Bang on a Can Allstars at the Barbican’s Steve Reich Immersion Festival, at Union Chapel London, the Vortex Jazz Club and in Trafalgar Square.
In 2011 Jetsam were commissioned by the Barbican Arts Centre to create a work inspired by the gallery exhibition, Future Beauty, 30 Years of Japanese Fashion. The resulting work, Disruption went on to form their first album and has been performed at the Barbican Centre and as part of the 2013 Japan Matsuri Festival. Their most recent project, A Dream Life of Hackney Marshes, is a collaborative work combining the band’s intimate and ethereal sound with the words and wanderings of writer and blogger Gareth E. Rees. A Dream Life of Hackney Marshes will be released by Clay Pipe Music in November 2013.
Jetsam are:
Detta Danford – Flutes
Eliza McCarthy – Piano
Sam Mumford – Guitar and Vocals
Heather Truesdall – Cello
Jo Wills – Bass, percussion and electronics
Natasha Zielazinski – Cello
