About Me
Led by percussionist Joby Burgess, Powerplant brings together some of the most dynamic young British artists to explore hi-octane percussion-led music with an electronic sound and strong visual performance. Powerplant made its debut in July 2005, with a sell out performance at the Southbank Centre, London and has since performed extensively throughout the UK; in 2006 Powerplant was one of the few ensembles to perform at Steve Reich's Barbican birthday celebrations 'Phases'.At the heart of the Powerplant sound is the percussion and live electronics duo of genre trashing virtuoso, Joby Burgess and Liverpool based composer and live sound engineer, Matthew Fairclough. Coupled with specially created film and live camera work from Bristol based visual artist Kathy Hinde, the trio has created an experimental and challenging repertoire fusing seminal percussion works alongside their own work, improvisations and remixes.During 2006-07 Powerplant received an ITEM research grant from Arts Council England, hosted by FACT - The Foundation for Art & Creative Technology - Liverpool, which led to commissioning Graham Fitkin’s Chain of Command, a highly political and confrontational new work for xylosynth and live electronics.In November 2008 Powerplant released their debut album Electric Counterpoint on Signum Records, which includes remixes of Steve Reich and pioneering dance masters, Kraftwerk, featuring the Elysian Quartet. The release coincided with a nine-date UK tour that saw the premiere of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Import/Export, a thirty minute commission with global resonances for a quartet of truly ‘junk’ objects.LIVE REVIEW @ DIALOGUES FESTIVAL, INFORMATICS FORUM, EDINBURGH'Presenting electronic music in a user-friendly format is somewhat problematic given there is little or no visual element. However, Powerplant – an inspiring collaboration between percussionist Joby Burgess, sound designer Matthew Fairclough and visual artist Kathy Hinde – have addressed these challenges by giving electronic music a multimedia makeover. For most of the concert, Burgess played the xylosynth, a cross between a xylophone and synthesiser, and something of a musical shape-shifter programmed to produce an infinite variety of sounds, from samples of exotic instruments to synthesised material and even the human voice. Graham Fitkin demonstrated the latter superbly in his new work Chain of Command, made up entirely of samples from speeches by George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld about Guantanamo, Iraq and Abu Ghraib. The layers of speech producing music; at times quite sinister, as words and phrases emerged from the hypnotic whirlpool of soundbites. Gabriel Prokofiev's premiere Import/Export also contained a powerful message underlined by his use of instruments: an oil drum, wooden pallet, plastic bag and Fanta bottles, from which Burgess produced an imaginative array of sound effects. Other highlights were Javier Alvarez's Temazcal, with virtuoso maracas from Burgess, and Steve Reich's seminal Electric Counterpoint.' Susan Nickalls The Scotsman | November 2008One of Britain’s most diverse percussionists, Joby is best known for his virtuosic, often lissom performances, daring collaborations, extensive education work, and regularly appears throughout the UK, Europe and beyond.Joby commits much of his time to three chamber music projects - Powerplant, New Noise and Ensemble Bash - of which, he is either the artistic or co-artistic director.Dedicated to the development of the percussion repertoire, often in combination with electronics, Joby spends much of his time commissioning and recording new music. Recent highlights have included premiere performances of major multimedia works from Gabriel Prokofiev and Graham Fitkin, releases of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint on Signum, Peter Maxwell Davies’ Ave Maris Stella with Gemini on Metier and a retrospective of British electronic music Recovery/Discovery for the British Council.Joby regularly performs and broadcasts with many of the UK’s leading chamber ensembles, and in 2003/04 was guest principal percussionist with the Britten Sinfonia for tours performing music by J.S. Bach, Moondog and Arvo Pärt with Joanna MacGregor, Andy Sheppard and Nitin Sawhney. He is also a member of Stephen Deazley’s Edinburgh based ensemble, Music at the Brewhouse, for which Joby was commissioned to arrange A-ha’s pop classic Take On Me, for the 2008 St Magnus Festival in Orkney.
