Innovative Leeds-Based Festival Programmes Female-Led Line Up

Cutting-edge festival Sounds Like THIS returns to Leeds this March with a strong female line-up of ground-breaking music, sound art and visual installations by leading artists and emerging talent.

The line-up features headline shows from composer and producer AGF, who explores speech and spoken word within the depths of electronic music, an audiovisual live concert from Vicki Bennett’s People Like Us, and Nonclassical Club Night featuring leading vocal ensemble, Juice, notable cellist Cecilia Bignall, and recorder player Sylvia Hinz, who share the bill with versatile ensemble Northern Contemporary Collective.

Experimental classical composer and DJ Shiva Feshareki is set to open the festival with a showcase from the Both Sides Now artist residency at Leeds College of Music – an initiative from Brighter Sound charity which aims to support, inspire and showcase female artists from the North, supported by Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence Fund. The residency, which features 15 emerging female artists from across Leeds, begins on International Women’s Day and culminates in a performance on Monday 12 March on the opening night of the festival.

Gazelle Twin’s acclaimed live show Kingdom Come will be showcased at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club in a mind-blowing audio-visual double-bill with Ambrose Field & Sammy Chien, who join the impressive line-up to present new festival commission Quelque chose pour le weekend.

Sounds Like THIS was awarded Arts Council England Grants for the Arts funding to assist with producing the 2018 edition of the festival, which will see the event expand to six independent venues across Leeds – Brudenell Social Club, Belgrave Music Hall, Hyde Park Picture House, Royal Armouries, Studio 24 and The Venue at LCoM.

Nina Baptiste, Senior Relationship Manager, Arts Council England said “I’m really pleased that the Sounds Like THIS festival is returning to Leeds next March bringing with it more opportunities for electronic music artists and, in particular, female artists. The line-up so far looks exciting and I’m delighted that we have supported the festival’s development through our National Lottery funded Grants for the Arts programme.”

 

Also featured on the eclectic line up are contemporary composer Ed Bennett’s Decibel Ensemble, refugee torture survivor music collective Stone Flowers, and new operatic production, The Paradise Club, by Gina Perry and Adriana Festeu. The Sounds Human conference will celebrate and evaluate the personal and social impact of musical engagement, and explores how this forms a vital part of what it means to be human.

For full listings and further information, visit www.soundslikethis.co.uk

Festival Director Dr Paul Abbott says; “We’re absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to build on last year’s festival and make Sounds Like THIS even bigger and better for 2018.

Sounds Like THIS gives a voice to new and exciting music which is traditionally under-represented in the mainstream, and funding from Arts Council England will allow us the opportunity to bring even more diverse and eclectic ground-breaking artists to Leeds.

We’re conscious of the role festival programmers must play in redressing the gender imbalance within the music industry – and we’re proud to present such a strong female line-up of cutting-edge artists who take risks and push boundaries”