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Travels Over Feeling: The Music of Arthur Russell

Played by Speakers Corner Quartet and friends

Celebrating the life and work of the musical visionary and cellist Arthur Russell, Speakers Corner Quartet join forces with cellist and ambient pop artist Lucinda Chua for an evening that also marks the publication of Richard King’s expansive new book: Travels Over Feeling: Arthur Russell, A Life (Faber & Faber, 18 April 2024). The evening will also feature a few special guests, yet to be announced.

Across a twenty-year career, Arthur Russell created a pioneering body of work that defied classification and which continues to influence music to this day. An artist resistant to the idea of genre, his talent allowed him to excel in any number of styles and musical dialogues. For this very special one-off performance, Russell’s music will be performed by Speaker’s Corner Quartet – a close-knit, creatively fluid collective who started out as the house band at an open-mic night in Brixton in 2006 and who return now following a sold-out performance at the Barbican in 2021: Further Out Than The Edge. Speakers Corner Quartet is bassist Peter Bennie, drummer Kwake Bass, flutist Biscuit, and violinist Raven Bush. Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in South London.  Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric and enchanting.

King’s book, published by Faber & Faber in 2024, brings together the largely unseen handwritten scores, lyrics, photos, letters, and drawings found in both Russell’s archive and other private collections and also includes a wide range of interviews with contemporaries, collaborators, friends and family. In a similar spirit, the concert of Travels Over Feeling has been curated with a close attention to the detail and nuances of Russell’s rich and varied catalogue to produce and event that both honours his restless musical spirit and places it in a vital and contemporary context.

On Arthur Russell:

‘One of the twentieth-century’s true musical visionaries.’ Guardian

‘One of music’s great lost icons.’ Dazed

‘A kind of deity.’ New Yorker

‘More relevant now than ever.’ Washington Post

Generously supported by Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley

Produced by the Barbican in association with Eat Your Own Ears

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