Icebreaker

12-piece contemporary music group Icebreaker return to the Barbican with their
Apollo project to mark the 50

th anniversary (to the day) of spaceflight Apollo 11’s

moon landing on 20 July 1969.

Their multi-media reworking of Brian Eno's Apollo album will be performed by
Icebreaker, also featuring renowned pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole alongside excerpts of Al Reinert’s film of the Apollo space missions, For All Mankind.

Widely regarded as Brian Eno’s most significant ambient album, Apollo was composed by Brian Eno, Roger Eno and Daniel Lanois, and matches the beauty and tranquil mystery of the moon and earth, the scale and feat of engineering involved, and the banality and the humour of the astronauts as they skitter about the moon’s
surface.

The concert programme is completed by new arrangements of tracks by Anna Meredith and footwork artist JLin, plus two classics from Icebreaker's repertoire - part 4 of Michael Gordon's Trance, and a rare performance of Gavin Bryars' The Archangel Trip.

Icebreaker return to the Barbican following their autumn 2016 appearance, which included the group’s Kraftwerk Uncovered project. Founded in 1989 by James Poke and John Godfrey, Icebreaker’s characteristically individual repertoire includes some of the best known and most influential composers in contemporary music (Andriessen, Glass, Wolfe, Nyman – to name but a few) as well as new interpretations of music by Brian Eno, Scott Walker and Kraftwerk.

Icebreaker’s trademark unusual instrumental combination of guitars, electric strings, keyboards, pan-pipes, saxes, accordion, drums and percussion gives them a distinctive amplified sound.