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Hayden Thorpe: Song of Ness

with Robert Macfarlane & Propellor Ensemble

Thursday 16 October 2025, 7.30pm

Milton Court Concert Hall

From £25, plus booking fee

Singer-songwriter and former Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe makes his Barbican headline debut bringing the poignant words and melodies from his latest album Ness to Milton Court Concert Hall on 16 October 2025. Inspired by the eerie fable of best-selling place author Robert Macfarlane and artist Stanley Donwood’s book of the same title, the album reimagines the atmospheric landscapes of Suffolk nature reserve Orford Ness and will be brought to life by Thorpe, performing alongside Macfarlane, Propellor Ensemble and musicians from Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Ness speaks. Ness speaks gull, speaks wave, speaks
bracken & lapwing, speaks bullet, ruin, gale, deception.

Through bold orchestration and ethereal choral arrangements, Hayden Thorpe’s Ness takes audiences to the other-worldly nature reserve of Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast – once a cold war military base and now, paradoxically, a rewilded place. In collaboration with 12-piece Propellor Ensemble and composer Kerry Andrew, Thorpe crafted this album by extracting words from Robert Macfarlane’s book to unearth hidden songs, haunting melodies and innovative soundscapes. Akin to the record, audiences can expect to be taken on a journey through folk, experimental orchestral music and elegant pop in this special Barbican performance at Milton Court.

A deeply personal project, Ness serves as both a meditation on human impact and a celebration of the natural world’s resilience, brought to life in this one-of-a-kind performance that will also feature large ensemble, choir and projection mapping created from artwork by Stanley Donwood.

The performance will also include a world premiere of specially commissioned Ness work with new songs from Thorpe and Macfarlane alongside arrangements for orchestra and choir by Jack McNeill (Propellor Ensemble) and Kerry Andrew, the creators behind the acclaimed album.

Produced by the Barbican

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