Category: News

It’s been a long time since the last news bulletin BUT we have great pleasure in announcing Matthew Bourne presents Matthew Bourne’s World Tour of London. There will be four shows around the capital between October 9 and 14.

So, the idea behind these shows was to do something slightly different for each performance – kicking off on Oct 9 at Laban Theatre, Bourne will be playing a series of piano duos and taking part in a piano ‘relay’ which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Jazz on 3 show at a later date.

Show number two, on Oct 11, forms the opening night of Talvin Singh’s Symbiosis Of Sound festival at King’s Place. A sonic exploration of the piano alongside Ustav Lal and a pre-concert introduction from Singh.

A performance of Bourne’s recent Montauk Variations album at St. John’s Smith Square is the penultimate date of the tour on October 12th.

A debut performance of Billy Moon, preceeded by a solo Memorymoog set AND a set from Andrew Plummer’s World Sanguine Report at the Shacklewell Arms rounds up this trailblazing World Tour of London on October 14th. This is a free gig BUT YOU WILL STILL NEED A TICKET – make sure you click HERE to get one!!.

Check out the live page for full details and ticket links.

Don’t forget to sign up to the newsletters for more updates and information about upcoming events!

In honour of the World Tour of London and this Jubilee year, Bourne pays tribute to our reigning monarch with this rendition of God Save The Queen…

At last, a place where all of Bourne’s available recorded output can be purchased. The PUBLICLY AVAILABLE page features all published albums that feature Bourne’s work as a solo artist, collaborator and sideman (listed in reverse chronological order), available at the bargain price of £9.99 each!

The PRIVATE ARCHIVE page will feature previously unissued works from Bourne’s private archive of recordings, available for download only (320kbps mp3). Including a ten-year back catalogue of a huge number of solo concerts from around Europe, recordings of compositions, individual selections from large-scale works and other, one-off rarities; the PRIVATE ARCHIVE balances the weight of Bourne’s available collaborative work by addressing the shortage of the available recorded output of his work as a solo artist.

Priced at a recession-friendly £1.99 each (a large number of the tracks are 30-40 minutes in length), these will be released gradually and in chronological order, so be sure to stay tuned either by subscribing to the blog or by joining the mailing list to receive occasional newsletters about these releases (and other things) as they occur.

0504012030 – for John Zorn & Mike Osborne, recorded at the Perrier Jazz Awards on April 5th 2001, is the performance that exposed Bourne to a wider public. This is a RARE recording and has not been officially released in any format until now. The works of Michael Brecker, Roni Size, Lionel Ritchie and dialogue from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory are just some of the influences that put in an appearance…

Visit the blog page for more background information.

Bourne, along with long-time collaborator and friend, Sam Hobbs, were commissioned by Ninja Tune (via The Leaf Label) to create reinterpretations of tracks from Tobin’s latest album ISAM. The re-workings of tracks Lost & Found and Piece of Paper will feature alongside other artists’ work, (including Julia Kent, Pete Wareham, Lorn Reel et al.) in Tobin’s eponymous, limited edition boxed set of new, unissued and archive recordings. If you are a fan of Tobin’s work then this is an essential item. Be sure to catch it at the special pre-order price of £90…

As some of you may already be aware, Bourne’s blog is now being updated regularly with news, thoughts and also video footage capturing ongoing glimpses of his six-week residency in Xiamen in the Fujian Province of China (more information about the residency scheme can be found on the websites of The British Council and the PRSF Foundation).

Do visit the blog and, if you’d like to receive blog updates automatically you are welcome to subscribe by entering your email address and clicking the subscribe button at the top left-hand side of the blog page* (and don’t forget you can also share these posts using share tab at the bottom of the posts).

* Please note that this is not the same as subscribing to the newsletter – you can subscribe to these by using the form on the homepage or by visiting the mailing list sign-up page .

After two years of thinking and three days of recording, Bourne’s debut solo album for The Leaf Label, Montauk Variations, is now available for pre-order and will be released on February 7th 2012. Montauk Variations marks the beginning of a new creative relationship with the highly-respected label; and is the first in a series of project albums Bourne will be making for the Leaf Label catalogue over the next few years.

The album launch will take place at Cafe Oto, Dalston on the 15th February 2012. So, click HERE to pre-order the album and HERE for more information about the launch. Here’s a picture of what Cafe Oto’s piano keys looked like after the last performance there:

Please do come down to hear variations on the Variations…