In Sean Shibe’s second performance as part of his Festival residency, he is joined by 12 Ensemble and GBSR Duo, winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2025 Young Artist award, to combine their considerable talents for a programme of high and low art, from the 17th century to the present.
That grand sweep of musical history is rich with intriguing documents, objects and the composers who repurpose them: from the Scottish Lute Manuscripts that freely combine settings of traditional indigenous melodies with fashionable tunes from overseas; to the evocative recording of fairground organ repurposed to discombobulating effect in Tim Parkinson’s Project 9000; from John Dowland extracting a whole series of musical Teares from his own ‘signature song’ Flow my Tears; to John White extracting unexpected sounds of beauty, humour and melancholy from the humble beer bottle.
The composer, violinist and electronic musician Sasha Scott, who contributes a new work for 12 Ensemble, joins this conventicle of musical magpies, whose works will be performed by an all-star cast of musicians who love to shine light on hidden musical gems.
All those players join forces to perform Oliver Leith’s huge Doom and the Dooms, the recreation of an imaginary concert by an imaginary band. The setlist ranges from headbanging to torch songs to shredding, sometimes a bit out of tune, out of time, or occasionally interrupted by memory lapse – all of it haloed in soft-focus nostalgia for a music that never was.
Selection from the Scottish Lute Manuscripts [Sean Shibe]
Rowallen MS: Swint Sant Nickola
Straloch MS: Canaries
Rowallen MS: A Scots Tune
Dowland Lachrymae Antiquae [Sean Shibe & 12 Ensemble]
Sasha Scott New work [12 Ensemble]
Tim Parkinson Project 9000 [GBSR Duo]
John White Drinking and Hooting Machine [Sean Shibe, GBSR Duo & 12 Ensemble]
Oliver Leith Doom & the Dooms [Sean Shibe, GBSR Duo & 12 Ensemble]
