Lau w/ Northern Sinfonia: Strange Attractors Brian Irvine: Conductor City Halls, Glasgow 4th February 2012, 7.30pm

Folk powerhouse trio Lau, world-class orchestra and maverick composer writhe in fiery fusion at Celtic Connections

7.30pm, City Halls, Glasgow

4 February 2012

UK folk trio, Lau, and maverick Northern Irish composer, Brian Irvine, have joined forces once more to perform the groundbreaking ‘Strange Attractors’ with Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, at the Celtic Connections festival.

Irvine and Lau make very different music but have very similar mindsets and this is the second ever time this collaboration has been performed – truly a work full of raw energy and excitement. Lau play in their trio format for the first half of the concert.

Lau are one of the most critically successful UK folk bands in recent years, combining awe-inspiring musicianship with a freewheeling approach to genre. Live, they perform their ingenious compositions and reworkings – from labyrinthine instrumental passages to hurtling acoustica.

Brian Irvine is an extremely busy composer working with orchestras, choirs, free improvisers, film and his own ensemble on works with such intriguing titles as ‘My Cow’s not pretty but it’s pretty to me’ and ‘We don’t stay here because of gravity, we stay because we like it’. The combination of chamber orchestra and adventurous folk trio provided a new challenge. Determined to shatter the staid formula of an orchestra accompanying a traditional group, Irvine has brought together two powerful musical forces that alternately stand side by side, entwine and unravel, dance together and move apart creating a new music that is thrilling and utterly unique.

Northern Sinfonia is noted for its dynamic approach to programmes and performances, ranging from small-scale ensembles in intimate locations to the full orchestra in the major concert halls of Europe including The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Philharmonie in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna.

Lau say: “We are extremely excited by the work we have done so far on Strange Attractors. Brian has helped us consider entirely different ways of approaching both the music we write for Lau and methods of combining musics of different genres. We feel he has a really deep understanding of the music that Lau make, and coupled with his incredible orchestration style, we believe we have created something that is true to both styles”.

The name ‘Strange Attractors’ was partly inspired by the work American sculptor Sarah Sze and takes its name from one of her installations. This work was commissioned by The Sage Gateshead, from Brian Irvine and Lau, and was made possible with funding through Beyond Borders from the PRS for Music Foundation, Creative Scotland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales and Foyle Foundation.