BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show presenter Kate Molleson describes Oliver Leith’s 2018 composition as “deadpan, subversive, quietly anarchic, disarmingly heart-sore and sweet-sour,” music that makes “masterful use of space, placement, sparse forces and really deft repetition.” Leith calls it a tender look at the simultaneously debilitating and beautiful irrationalities of our everyday lives; how our obsessions and compulsions surface and the rituals, superstitions and routines we all play out to appease our minds… and how that never really works. Created in collaboration with the GBSR Duo (percussionist George Barton and pianist Siwan Rhys, recipients of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award 2025), the work offers disarming reflections on performance, relationships, codependency and mental health, staged within an instrument-strewn setting inspired by the duo’s own flat.

TECTONICS: GBSR Duo

Old Fruitmarket

In 1995, Stockhausen was asked to listen to the music of Aphex Twin, commenting that Aphex should ‘immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions’. Aphex Twin responded that Stockhausen might want to ‘stop making abstract, random patterns you can’t dance to’.

GBSR Duo: Stockhausen vs Aphex Twin

Southbank Centre

Originally written for ‘robots’ (solenoid drum machines and prepared player pianos), this transcription for live prepared pianos and percussion becomes a tightly-choreographed dance: the four musicians, freely changing roles and instruments, constantly alter the exact combination of screws, bolts and chains inside the pianos that transform them into the engines of Aphex’s acoustic techno.

After Dark: GBSR Duo Performs Aphex Twin

Four British female composers from different generations and with highly diverse styles: English conductor Jamie Phillips unites top-notch, energetic female power in "Women's Voices/UK." This is especially true of the youngest composer, Laura Bowler. Described in the media as a "provocative, triple-threatening composer-performer," she is considered a "rising star" in the scene. Her work is multidisciplinary, socially critical, and typically expansive.

Women's voices / UK

Stadtcasino Basel

Siwan Rhys and George Barton perform James Weeks’ Blue Hours in St Giles' Cripplegate as afternoon shifts into evening, tracing the changing light through an immersive live performance.

Siwan Rhys

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 20, 2027

GBSR Duo: Blue Hours · Barbican Centre

Past events

May 3, 2026

TECTONICS: GBSR Duo · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Jan 31, 2026

GBSR Duo: Stockhausen vs Aphex Twin · Southbank Centre

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Kontakte by Stockhausen

Southbank Centre

Piano in Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments by Twin

Southbank Centre

About

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