23/04/2009 15:04

The Viking of 6th Ave - The Music of Moondog
Saturday 30 May 7.30pm
Barbican Hall

Barbican Contemporary Music

Saturday 30 May 7.30pm
The Viking of 6th Ave - The Music of Moondog
Tickets: £15 / 20 / 25
Barbican Hall

Saturday 30 May 11.30pm
Moondog Around Midnight
Tickets: £5 (50% discount for main concert ticket holders)
St Giles Cripplegate

Presented by the Barbican and Eat Your Own Ears; part of Only Connect

A glimpse into the world of iconic American composer Moondog (1916-1999), whose music has influenced generations of artists, from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Charlie Parker, and later devotees like Mouse On Mars, Anthony Hegarty, Damon Albarn and Elvis Costello.

Moondog was the pseudonym of Louis Thomas Hardin (1916-1999), a blind American composer, musician, cosmologist and poet. He spent much of the 1950s and 1960s living on the streets of New York; the Viking costume that he adopted made him one of the most photographed and familiar urban figures of the period. Moondog's prolific works have been sampled, cited and celebrated by generations of musicians, on both sides of the Atlantic.

This unique concert event features a number of guest artists who reflect the extraordinary range of the composer. Before the show, a Freestage set from composer Max de Wardener and percussionist Tom Skinner will explore the canonical music from the 1970 Moondog 2 album.

The first half will feature the specially–assembled Moondog Choir featuring the idiosyncratic vocals of Lightspeed Champion, Pictish Trail and Adem; they will perform with London Saxophonic, joined by pianist Liam Noble, percussionist Paul Clarvis and others. Domino Records stalwarts Clinic will also perform two Moondog compositions in the Hall before their own set on the post-show Clubstage. In the interval there will be a Clubstage DJ set from Caribou.

In the second half the Britten Sinfonia will perform under the baton of André de Ridder of the Viva Orchestra, along with Andi Toma (of Mouse On Mars), who collaborated with Moondog on the music for Elpmas while the composer was living in Germany. The Britten Sinfonia will perform some gems from Moondog’s classic CBS repertoire as well as previously unheard works.

Alongside Clinic on the post-show Clubstage will be a DJ set from Four Tet, in which DJ Kieran Hebden mixes sounds from all kinds of genres and crosses any musical borders he can find.

In a companion event, Moondog Around Midnight takes place in the beautiful setting of the church of St Giles Cripplegate at 11.30pm on the same evening. US organist Paul Jordan, a veteran Moondog collaborator, will play a concert of the composer’s organ music; tickets are at a 50% discount for main concert ticket holders.

‘Moondog was as recognisable in the New York City landscape as the Empire State Building’ - New York Times

‘Wonderful music: strange, jaunty, sad, eerie, virtuosic, maddeningly catchy’ - The Independent

Box Office: 0845 120 7550 www.barbican.org.uk

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