BBC SSO to offer online archive performances from its experimental music festival this weekend

Music fans missing Glasgow’s Tectonics Festival can still get their hit of new and experimental music when the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will share content from previous years to create a ‘virtual festival’ on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 May. The Tectonics Rewind Weekend will take place on the dates scheduled for this year’s event which has been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

From 3pm on Saturday, the orchestra, which has staged the festival since 2013, will post video and audio of complete performances throughout the day, as well as new and archive interviews. These will be available via the homepage.

Performances include: a set from Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir; Peter Brötzmann and Heather Leigh; Julia Holter, Catherine Lamb and Laura Steenberge; Japanese microtonal pop duo SYZYGYS; chamber works by Éliane Radigue; electronics wizard Takehisa Kosugi; vocal ensemble Exaudi singing works by Cassandra Miller and Christian Wolff; and legendary jazz trio The Necks improvising with the BBC SSO and its Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov, who is also the co-curator of the festival.

The orchestra itself will make appearances in works by Linda Catlin Smith, Alvin Lucier, Naomi Pinnock, Roscoe Mitchell, James Saunders, Iancu Dumitrescu and others.

BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show will also mark the festival by broadcasting works from previous years on its programme this Saturday night.

All individual performances will be available on the orchestra’s site for 30 days after this weekend.