ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The politics of massed rapping
SIMON DUFF admires new work at the LSO Jerwood Composer + Showcase that employs rap, sampling and live music to explore unashamedly political themes
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Politics of the Imagination
LSO, St Luke’s London
ANSELM McDONNELL is an Irish Welsh composer based in Belfast who has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber groups and electronics, performed all over the world.
As curator for the event, he has a wide musical imagination with a vision to match, whose two works are central in an event that features 12 compositions by nine composers, covering a variety of styles, ranging from dubstep to Balkan rhythms, rap and beyond, all designed to stimulate the imagination around themes of playfulness, imagination with political concerns to the fore.
The core line-up on stage consists of Louise McMonagle (cello), Heather Roche (clarinet), and Matthew Farthing (percussion), working alongside rap artists Barrowclough, Joel the Custodian and Kosyne.
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