Date
Thursday 4 July 2013 at 8:00pm
Location
Barbican Centre
Silk Street,
London,
EC2Y 8DS,
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891
Link
Description
An eclectic mix of high profile musicians comes together for a very special night of live music, in which they perform Beck Hansen’s unique album Song Reader.
The line-up includes: Beck himself; Pulp frontman and solo artist Jarvis Cocker, Glasgow’s finest Franz Ferdinand, singer-songwriter Beth Orton, French icon Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joan Wasser aka Joan As Police Woman, Villagers front man Conor J O’Brien, acoustic indie trio The Staves, indie mavericks Guillemots, soul stylist Michael Kiwanuka and singer-songwriters James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail, with more guests to be announced.
At the heart of the evening will be a specially-assembled house band featuring Seb Rochford (drums), Tom Herbert (bass), Dave Okumu (guitar), with music direction by Ed Harcourt and David Coulter.
Beck has always been one of music’s great pioneers and Song Reader is an experiment in what an album might look like in the digital age: 20 songs, including two instrumentals, existing only as a book of sheet music, never before released or recorded. The songs are meant to come to life in a new golden age of home performance, leaving the listener, essentially, to be the performer.
In the lead up to, and at the event, the Barbican and Faber Social will celebrate the life of Beck’s Song Reader so far, with an exhibition of the artwork and a presentation of a selection of some the very best amateur interpretations of the songs.
Line-up (23)
Don't want to see ads? Upgrade Now
