DENNIS BROE surveys the offerings made at Series Mania Festival
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Churchy vibe
WILL STONE is seduced by the chance encounter of a DJ and a Baroque composer in a brutalist entertainment zone
SIT-DOWN RAVE: Max Cooper gets up close and personal with the Baroque
[Michal Augustini ]
SCOTT ALSWORTH assesses the follow up to Disco Elysium, the first-ever genuinely Marxist videogame
GEORGE FOGARTY wallows in a celebration of music as a community practice
RITA DI SANTO listens out for the undertow of political film-making at this year’s festival
This year’s Venice Biennale marks a major shift in European cultural politics suggests CLARE CAROLIN
ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve
Max Cooper presents Seme
Barbican
ACCLAIMED electronic artist Max Cooper, the nonpareil of audio-visual DJs, performs the UK premiere of new work Seme, his most classically influenced project yet.
Inspired by the rich tapestry of Italian culture, its art, architecture, music and religion, the show was considered highbrow enough to receive its world premiere at Austria’s prestigious Salzburg Easter Festival of opera and classical music. Cooper said ahead of the event: “I feel like a bedroom DJ has smuggled themselves into high classical culture.”
But Seme is no mere DJ set. Joined onstage by soprano Kim Sheehan, cellist Niels Orens and pianist Tom Hodge, a churchy vibe is evoked with the plaintive Palestrina Sicut and Gabriel; a harmonious marriage of electronica and traditional music inspired by the late Renaissance Italian composer.
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