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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

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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