Prepare to embark on a journey.

Let’s weave and howl.

Let’s flood the fields with colourful harmonies
and chattering gestures.

Let each movement tell a story.

Let’s come together and celebrate the power of community,
of daring to build extraordinary things…

Expect a curious, jubilant parade, replete with intricate rhythms,
expressive bustle and a healthy dose of hope.
You will travel in procession, exploring some of the jewels of the fields/city on the way.
Under the big sky, marvelling in the moment, hearts open.

We are delighted to announce the commission and creation of a new promenade performance and suite of music!

The performance combines an original progressive pop score with Visual Vernacular; a unique blend of physical theatre, signed poetry and mime. We will be developing this with incredible Deaf & BSL poet Zoë McWhinney.

Catch the inaugural performances here:
Brighton Festival (World premiere): 18th & 19th May
Timber Festival: 6th & 7th July
Stockton International Riverside Festival: 3rd August

There will also be a new album of accompanying music to follow…

The Journey is supported by Without Walls and commissioned by Stockton International Riverside Festival, Timber Festival, Brighton Festival.

With additional thanks to 101 Outdoor Arts and Premises Studios for their support.

Dear friends, dear listeners! Finally it’s here!

Perhaps Contraption proudly present, our first theatrical experience – Nearly Human
(we are, each of us, a little universe)

An abstract piece of gig theatre inspired by the words of cosmologist Carl Sagan, which contemplates life’s baffling origins and the tiny stories within. 
The journey of an atom…through various states of being.

Full of intricate rhythms, enormous choral harmonies, dynamic choreography and ruminations about stars and happenstance.

Bursting with triumphant horns, fascination and wonder.

A concept album to accompany the show with follow later this year…but before that…

We are going to need your help. This production is a mighty, risky undertaking. 
Please please help us spread the word by sharing this video / coming to our performances.

Tickets are on sale now!
For both our London preview and the run at Edinburgh Fringe.

London preview: Greenwich Theatre, Sunday 21st July
Tickets: https://bit.ly/2Iu6Gnx
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2523703164348549/

Edinburgh Fringe Premiere: Pleasance Queen Dome
31st July – 26th August
Tickets: https://bit.ly/2IVeoWX
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/316313712611537/

Also, sign up to our mailing list for free downloads and advance information: http://eepurl.com/b5PrfL

We hope to see you there,

Love and starstuff,

Perhaps Contraption x

At the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings. Photo by Paul McHale

It’s nearly here. Our debut theatrical performance is coming, and it’s called
Nearly Human.
After a year and a half of songwriting and incubation, our production enters the final stretch…

I’m delighted to announce that the show will premiere at Edinburgh Fringe 2019, and the Pleasance Queen Dome will be our theatrical home for a month.
The show premieres on August 3rd (previews July 31st, August 1st and 2nd) and will run until the 26th August (with the exception of August 13th).

Tickets are on sale! And you can grab them here

Between £10 – £12

I hope you can make it up to see us in action, we’re so proud of what we have made, and truly believe it’s our strongest work yet.

After the run in Edinburgh we hope to investigate other touring options, and a concept album to accompany the show will be arriving in the Winter.

Eternal gratitude to Snape Maltings, The Pleasance and Les Enfants Terribles LET Award for believing in us!

:::::::::NEARLY HUMAN:::::::::::::::

How unlikely is your fleeting existence?
This nine piece, multi award-winning progressive brass band embark on a curious audio-theatrical journey.

Replete with intricate rhythms, enormous choral harmonies, dynamic choreography and ruminations about stars and happenstance.

This is gig theatre which contemplates our baffling origins, and the tiny stories entwined within. Bursting with triumphant horns, fascination and wonder.

‘Completely extraordinary’ (BBC 6 Music)

‘High-energy progressive brass’ (The Guardian)

In praise of Perhaps Contraption’s previous album ‘Mud Belief’:

‘A glorious symphony of strangeness that embraces and reconfigures such diverse influences as contemporary classical, jazz, post-minimalism and the avant-garde’
(R2 Magazine)

 

Hello Listeners,

We did a thing, a big new thing!

It’s not finished yet, but it’s well on the way.
On September 7th we aired the first draft of our new theatrical performance, inside the shell of a derelict factory in Suffolk, for Snape Malting’s ‘Festival of New’. 

You can see the highlights, and some chatter about the process so far in the mini-documentary above.

This is the first time we’ve worked with our own staging, radio clip mics, sound design and such detailed choreography.
It was a big step forward, and we think it really intensifies the live experience, and indeed, the essence of what we do.
Eventually, we want bring this thing to theatres and interesting locations around the globe, if you know anyone that you think might like to book it, please share share share.

Next, we’re excited to add more songs, more movement, and crucially, lighting design and projection.
AND this week, we start recording the album to accompany the production…

The premiere/release will be sometime in Autumn, 2019.
Big things afoot.

If you’d like to see the next couple of work-in-progress showings, then please join us in the wilds of Suffolk. There will be Q&A after each performance. We’d love to know what you think!

The ‘Open Sessions’ will be in the Britten Studio, at Snape Maltings on;

-Sunday 10th February 2019 – 4pm
-Saturday 25th May 2019 – 6pm

Tickets available here:
https://snapemaltings.co.uk/whats-on/open-session-perhaps-contraption/

As ever,
Thanks for your support.

We have SO much new material.

We think it’s our best yet, and we can’t wait for you to hear it.

Squier X

 

 

Oh hi: There’s a delirious glut of Perhaps Contraption action this weekend, and it will probably be the last blast before we go back into the laboratory for a while…to make new sonic constructions.

As part of EFG London Jazz Festival, we play Southbank Centre this Friday 18th, for a FREE show in Royal Festival Hall, Clore Ballroom, at the strangely convenient post-work slot of 5.30 – 7pm.

On Saturday we head to Tooting, as part of ‘The Streets’ as part of the Jazz Festival: a whole day of parades and shows in unusual places.

The same goes for Sunday, but we will be in Twickenham all day, popping up, and parading…

Keep an eye on Twitter for parade routes and timings should you fancy seeing us ‘free range’.

We will have new songs and a special, expanded 10 piece lineup for these outings!

Much love, over and out. X20151206-_dsf7256

 photo by Daniel Ross