Electronic musician, composer and improviser Leafcutter John presents the UK premiere of a new multichannel piece, and is joined by creative violist Julia Dos Reis for an improvised set, interacting with John's custom software and City St George's surround-sound speaker array.
Admission:
General admission: £5 - please sign up to attend here.
Unwaged: Free admission - please sign up to attend here.
City Students / Staff: Free admission - please sign up to attend here.
Nothing Makes Sense was composed in 2025 for a concert at the legendary Inner Spaces Primavera Festival in Milan. The backbone of the piece is a pre-recorded improvisation, utilising the sounds of a broken and dismantled 3D printer, electric guitar, Cretan lyre, and hand drums, out of which electro acoustic passages branch, creating a dynamic and compelling sonic journey that contrasts the freeness of improvised playing with the precision of tape music.
John and Julia have worked together for several years, John having remixed Julia's J.A.M String Collective. A concert together was curtailed due to Covid. Recently they have been exchanging ideas online and investigating ideas around the live treatment of the viola in an improvised context. In this performance, they will use software written by John to treat and spatialise Julia's live input. This will be the first time the two have played together in person.
About Leafcutter John
Bradford-born and Wakefield-raised, Leafcutter John has built a remarkable career in experimental music over the last 24 years. Gaining initial recognition through Mike Paradinas’s Planet Mu record label, John has gone on to develop a varied musical practice. He has released 7 solo studio albums, collaborated widely, and was a key agitator in the twice Mercury-nominated band Polar Bear. His discography spans the experimentalism of The Housebound Spirit to the folk-infused melancholy of The Forest and the Sea, which includes Seba, a track that comedian James Acaster put in his top essential tracks of all time list.
A few years ago, John moved to Sheffield, where he quickly fell in love with the Peak District and climbing. These new passions have become significant sources of inspiration for his new music, as seen in his innovative use of gritstone specimens. His latest pieces seamlessly blend natural elements with self-made machines to create truly unique performative experiences.
About Julia Dos Reis
Julia Dos Reis is a creative violist who resides in London; a musician who is most content when moving freely from composing to performing, most keenly performing with improvisatory elements. She does this with her primary musical love, her improvising string trio, J.A.M. String Collective (Peter Whittingham Developmental Award), who released their debut EP J∆M in May 2023, featuring legendary British saxophonist Steve Williamson (TSWE, The Roots). J.A.M. are set to release their debut album this November, featuring a collaboration with composer Oleta Haffner with a Suite for strings and loop pedals, as well as material composed by Julia.
Julia also regularly performs with bands such as the grime/country outfit The Rooftop Assembly, as well as with larger ensembles such as The Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Jazz Jamaica All Stars, and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Her extensive performing has taken her to venues across Europe, including London's Ronnie Scott’s supporting Nubya Garcia, and Paris’ Grande Halle de La Villette with The Nu Civilisation Orchestra tour of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?. In 2023 she joined Courtney Pine for his 14-date Spirituality tour, and in 2019 supported Steve Williamson in a UK-wide tour.
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Performance Space
Northampton Square
College Building
280 St John St
London EC1V 4PB
United Kingdom