Plus Minus Event

PROGRAMME

Ben Jameson, Construction in Metal (2015)

Matthew Shlomowitz, Lecture About Bad Music (2015)

Construction in Metal transplants the subject matter and format of the Guitar Hero video games into the concert hall to explore relationships between the real and the virtual, between authentic and inauthentic performance, and the musical and choreographic associations of the electric guitar's history. Drawing on scholarship from a range of fields, Matthew Shlomowitz’s Lecture About Bad Music employs musical demonstrations and recreations of psychological experiments to consider what is going on when we make aesthetic judgements.

PERFORMERS

Vicky Wight

Maarten Stragier

Mark Knoop

Aisha Orazbayeva

Ben Jameson

Matthew Shlomowitz

GROUP BIOG

Formed in 2003 by Joanna Bailie and Matthew Shlomowitz, Plus Minus Ensemble is distinguished by its interest in avant-garde, conceptual, and experimental open instrumentation pieces such as Stockhausen’s 1963 classic, from which the group takes its name. +- has worked with composers such as Peter Ablinger, Johannes Kreidler, Alex Schubert, Jenny Walshe and Bernhard Lang. +- has performed at the Borealis (Bergen), Cut and Splice (London) Huddersfield, Transit (Leuven) and Ultima (Oslo) festivals and has upcoming concerts in Bilbao and Berlin.

Gloucester born composer and guitarist Ben Jameson is currently studying for a PhD in composition at the University of Southampton. Ben’s work often engages with popular music and culture, especially in his recent explorations of the electric guitar's significance as a cultural object. His work has been performed in the UK and Belgium, and he is also active as a performer of contemporary music for the electric guitar.

Matthew Shlomowitz is a composer of concert music and performance pieces. Raised in Adelaide, Australia, he now lives in London. He is Associate Professor in Composition at University of Southampton, and co-directs the new music ensemble Plus Minus. Matthew has composed works for groups such as asamisimasa, Ensemble Offspring, EXAUDI, Ives Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, Speak Percussion, Wespoke New Music Company and soloists Juliet Fraser, Mark Knoop and Håkon Stene.