Ninth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and once again it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances!
The festival once again sees the addition of a ‘raffle’ to the all-day free event in aid of Drake Music who are the leaders in music, disability and technology.
In March of 2020 the ninth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across three days. For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music.
This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on no less than three either current or former members of global electronic giants Tangerine Dream.
On Friday evening, the headliner is Ulrich Schnauss, who as well as being a distinguished solo performer in his own right is a ‘modern day’ member of Tangerine Dream. Ulrich will be playing a rare live set alongside the founder of Engineers, Mark Peters. On the same bill you also get psychedelic electronic rock behemoth’s Teeth Of The Sea.
On Saturday evening, the headliner is Tangerine Dream ‘bandleader’ Thorsten Quaeschning who will also play a set alongside Ulrich Schnauss in which they will perform tracks from the ground breaking “Synthwaves” album as well as material from their new album. If that wasn’t enough, there will also be a very rare solo alto flute and loops ambient set by Theo Travis of Soft Machine/Gong/King Crimson.
On Sunday, Mark Jenkins performs “50 Years of Tangerine Dream” where the instrumentation will literally go from “metal stick” to “cash register” to modern day “Synths” in an all-encompassing show.
To cap it all, the Festival finishes with Steve Jollife (who played in one of the earliest incarnations of Tangerine Dream) and he will be performing the Tangerine Dream album Cyclone ‘in-full’.
Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle at
https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/ and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up of staying all day!
The Seventh Wave
Festival of Electronic Music: Number 9
Friday 06 March 2020
The Seventh Wave presents
Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters
With Very Special Guests Teeth Of The Sea & John Biddulph
Friday 06 March 2020 Doors 6.00 pm.
Curfew 10.00 pm. St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Square, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B3 1QZ.
Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters
The master of ‘shoegazer indietronica’ Ulrich Schnauss (current member of Tangerine Dream) joins Mark Peters, guitarist and songwriter with Engineers, for a rare ‘live’ outing. These are two musicians blessed with the ability to create
beautifully transporting music. With an acute attention to creating the most delicate, soul-suspending moods and atmosphere, their collaborative output recalls the most memorable themes of classic electronica by Boards of Canada, The Orb, Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, peering over lush pastoral scapes of almost bacchanalian degrees, to the kind of sonic environments we could happily book a two-week holiday to, if such a thing were possible. Ultimately it’s life-affirming and deeply positive music, maybe not quite deliriously happy, but content and warmly comforting, sensitively balancing melancholy moments like the Stereolab-like swoon of ‘Forgotten’ with the heart-melting harmonic wow and flutter of ‘Yesterday Didn’t Exist’ … always keeping something even sweeter and more lovely up its sleeve.
Teeth Of The Sea
Since their formation in 2006, London-based Teeth Of The Sea have metamorphosised into the most adventurous psychedelic rock outfit in the UK. Taking on board influences like Morricone, Eno, Delia Derbyshire, Goblin, and the Butthole Surfers, they’ve arrived at an incendiary sound that marries the aural enlightenment of an avant-garde sensibility with the reckless abandon of trashy rock & roll.
John Biddulph
Electronic music, Ambient, Experimental and the occasional synth pop creation made with an Eurorack Modular set up and other electronic kit ……. and the occasional saxophone.
Saturday 07 March 2020
The Seventh Wave presents
Thorsten Quaeschning (Tangerine Dream)
With Very Special Guests:
Quaeschning & Schnauss (Synthwaves / Azure Vista Recs & Tangerine Dream)
Theo Travis (Soft Machine / Gong / King Crimson)
Saturday 07 March 2020 Doors 5.00 pm.
Curfew 10.00 pm. St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Square, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B3 1QZ.
Thorsten Quaeschning (Tangerine Dream)
Thorsten Quaeschning is the current bandleader of Tangerine Dream whom he joined in 2005. He performs synthesizers, vocals, guitar and drums. Quaeschning has a second band called Picture Palace Music.
Quaeschning & Schnauss
Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich Schnauss (Tangerine Dream) pay homage to the masters of the past ….. crisp, interlocking patterns are modulated and mutated with mathematical precision into pieces of pristine, post-kosmische sounds to float away to.
Theo Travis
Theo Travis was born in Birmingham and moved to London in 1992 where he soon established himself as one of the finest tenor sax players on the British jazz scene. He has led his own jazz quartet for over 20 years, recorded ten albums as leader having composed, arranged and produced the material and performed all over the UK as well as at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London over 75 times. He is increasingly known as one of the top saxophone and flute players in the world in Progressive music and has appeared as featured soloist on over 120 albums. With guitarist Robert Fripp he formed Travis & Fripp in 2007 and the duo have toured internationally and recorded 4 albums which Travis co-wrote and produced. In 2006 he became a member of Soft Machine Legacy, taking over from the late Elton Dean, and since then he has co-written and co-produced their 3 albums as well as toured Europe, Japan and Brazil. Travis has performed and recorded extensively with Steven Wilson as featured soloist, and they have worked on 23 albums together. Travis also was a member of Gong from 1999 to 2009 and in 2015 he joined David Gilmour’s band for the ‘Rattle that Lock’ tour. Travis has also performed and recorded with David Sylvian, Bill Nelson, The Tangent, Roger Eno, Keith Tippett, Harold Budd, John Foxx, Steve Hillage, John Etheridge, Cipher and Mick Karn. In 2014 he wrote his first book ‘Twice around the world’, a diary of blogs from the Steven Wilson world tours of 2012/13 and he has appeared as a walk on artist in film and TV such as ‘Notting Hill’, the Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘Foyle’s War’. In 2015 he released his latest solo album ‘Transgression’ (Esoteric). He lives in London with his wife, son and 16 saxes and flutes.
Sunday 08 March 2020
The Seventh Wave presents
Mark Jenkins performs ’50 Years of Tangerine Dream’ – Live
With Very Special Guest Cellistica
Sunday 08 March 2020 Doors 1.30 pm.
Curfew 5.00 pm. The Blue Orange Theatre, 118 Great Hampton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6AD.
Mark Jenkins performs ’50 Years of Tangerine Dream’ – Live
Since 1970 and their first album release ‘Electronic Meditation’, Tangerine Dream pioneered electro-acoustic, analog electronic and digital music, releasing over 200 albums including some epic and groundbreaking tracks.
Now in 2020 music journalist Mark Jenkins presents a live show featuring covers from all the band’s most popular periods, with familiar tracks, pastiche pieces and amazing insights into how the band created their music.
Using the latest analog and digital synthesizers and software, Mark recreates the finest ambient, rock and electronic textures of one of the world’s leading instrumental bands, backed by a stunning lighting, computer graphic and laser show – a unique performance not to be missed.
Cellistica
Based in London, Cellistica is the music of Hannah Chappell (Cello) and Mark Jenkins (keyboards).
Sunday 08 March 2020
The Seventh Wave presents
Steve Jolliffe – Cyclone Revisited & Other Sonic Adventures.
Q&A/Talk about Tangerine Dream and Steve’s Musical Journey.
With Very Special Guest tony adamo / b.nine
Sunday 08 March 2020 Doors 6.30 pm.
Curfew 10.00 pm. The Blue Orange Theatre, 118 Great Hampton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6AD.
Steve Jolliffe – Cyclone Revisited & Other Sonic Adventures.
Tangerine Dream’s ‘Cyclone’ released in 1978 marked an innovation for the German synthesizer band, layering the wind instruments, keyboards and voice of Steve Jolliffe over their driving sequencer-led sound. Now Jolliffe revisits the album alongside recounting his memories of Tangerine Dream and his musical journey from then until now ……
tony adamo / b.nine
Freelance photographer, film maker and electronic musician (ten:ten, b.nine, lichen [with Peter Coyle]).
Saturday 07 March 2020 (10.00 am to 5.00 pm)
FREE ADMISSION EVENT
The West Midlands Synth Network presents A Fourth All Day FREE Event Featuring
A Midlands Modular Meet, Synth Manufacturer Attendance, Talks, Demonstrations and Live Performances
Saturday 07 March 2020 10.00 AM to 5.00 PM
The Birmingham and Midland Institute
9 Margaret St, Birmingham B3 3BS
•First 100 through the door receive ‘goody bags’
•Charity raffle on behalf of ‘Drake Music’
•Midlands Modular Meet room, manufacturer rooms, live performance spaces, video room and a café
•Rooms curated by Leon Trimble , Martyn Greenwood and Martin Christie
•Demonstrations by Infection Music, Korg, Roland, Novation & Others
•Live performances by John Biddulph appearing as HandMadeSound, Ten:Ten, Concept Devices, The Garwin Project, Peter Challoner, Modulator ESP, The Mashed Swedes Cafe Orchestra & more to be announced
Some of the biggest names in synth are involved in this event – Korg, Moog, Roland, Novation, Ableton and much, much more …… and unbelievably, all of the Saturday day-time event is ‘free admission’!
St Pauls Church is a Grade 1 listed building set in the Jewellery Quarter area of Birmingham