In the Round Festival 2024
Iconic Camden venue, Roundhouse, announces first wave of artists for its 2024 flagship series, In The Round – running from 18 – 27 April 2024
Featuring: The Songs of Joni Mitchell featuring Emeli Sandé, Eska, Kate Stables (This Is The Kit), Lail Arad, Sam Amidon, Vashti Bunyan + more TBA, hosted by Cerys Matthews
Tirzah
Vashti Bunyan
Death Songbook: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson & Charles Hazlewood + guest TBC
Lucy Rose
Lonnie Holley and Matana Roberts
Samara Joy
The iconic Camden, London venue Roundhouse is delighted to announce the return of its flagship event series, In the Round (ITR), from 18 – 27 April 2024.
The 2024 festival series, now in its seventh year, will again feature incredibly special performances from a diverse and wide scope of exciting emerging and established artists across an array of genres.
In the Round Festival has become a renowned annual concert series that sees an eclectic mix of artists perform incredibly special, intimate gigs on the arts venue’s famed circular stage. Fully seated while surrounding the performances, it’s the venue like you’ve never seen it before: spectacular while offering a singular kind of closeness. Artists often perform bespoke shows, one-off collaborations and other special projects tailored to the space, all designed to create a uniquely immersive experience.
On Joni Mitchell’s 80th birthday, today 7th November, Roundhouse is proud to announce The Songs of Joni Mitchell as the opening event on 18 April 2024. Artists including Emeli Sandé (appearing at In The Round for the second time), Kate Stables (This Is The Kit), Vashti Bunyan, Lail Arad, Sam Amidon, Eska and the Roundhouse Vocal Ensemble + more TBA will all appear on the circular stage for intimate, stripped back performances, with vocals and lyrics boldly at the forefront, showcasing the magnitude of Joni’s repertoire and the musical diversity of the artists she continues to inspire. Roundhouse Vocal Ensemble is part of the venue’s creative programme, offering the chance to young singers to attend workshops and rehearsals, culminating in a performance on the Roundhouse stage, following a nationwide callout. Co-produced and curated by Lail Arad, and hosted by Cerys Matthews, the unmissable night will be a celebration of Joni Mitchell in her 80th year.
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Tirzah will headline the Friday night, 19 April, performing songs from her three albums, Devotion, Colourgrade and the recent, trip9love…???. Tirzah’s music is the sound of contemporary contemplation: morning-after party rhythms, hazy melodies, hands-on instruments and the private space between them, and amid these post-Grime beats are hallucinatory songs from the emotional interior.
Saturday 20th April sees the iconic English songwriter Vashti Bunyan take to the stage for a headline performance. Now based in Edinburgh, Vashti’s story tells of the thwarted promise of early fame, disenchantment, long-term exile and eventual rediscovery. The show follows the release of her first book, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live, last year and will also mark ten years since the release of her third studio album, Heartleap.
Death Songbook: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson & Charles Hazlewood + guest TBC will perform on 24 April 2024. This rich set – amplified by the diversity and virtuosity of Paraorchestra musicians, features delicate new versions of songs about death, the death of love, of loss, and ultimately of transcendence. It reminds us that music is our greatest friend in bleak times; inviting us to crouch around a candle and meet our sorrow head-on, comforting, nourishing, and uplifting. Reinventing the orchestra for the 21st century, Paraorchestra features an ensemble of disabled and non-disabled professional musicians who blend artforms, genres, and technology to create large-scale music projects that challenge ideas of what an orchestra can and should be. Brett Anderson, the lead singer and primary lyricist of the band Suede, along with the conductor Charles Hazlewood and more guests TBC, will perform alongside.
The lauded English singer-songwriter Lucy Rose will headline on 25 April 2024, following the release of her latest single, “Could You Help Me”. Musically, the track is a marked change from the candid, stark intimacy of her fourth album, No Words Left, released in 2019. There’s a musical experimentalism present here, with skittering, atmospheric beats, unexpectedly gnarly violin solos, and Lucy found stabbing beautifully at a piano creating this almost free-form, jazz-imbued sonic space, a world away from her previous work. The production was shared with British composer/producer Kwes. Confident and bold, it belies the fraught, seismic, but also beautiful years Lucy experienced leading up to its release.
The US artist, art educator, and musician Lonnie Holley will take to the circular stage on 26 April 2024, for a co-headline with Matana Roberts. Lonnie Holley‘s biography is a radically forced version of the American Dream. Born in 1950 as the seventh of 27 children in Birmingham, Alabama, Holley experienced poverty and abuse in his childhood and struggled along as a day labourer until he “accidentally” found his way to art. As a sculptor, photographer, draughtsman or performance artist, the self-taught artist found recognition in the international art scene. Holley released his debut album, Just Before Music, at the age of 62. Like an exemplary blues singer, he transforms the pain and suffering of his biography into something positive and life-affirming. Lonnie Holley released his sixth album, Oh Me Oh My, this year via Jagjaguwar, featuring guest appearances from Michael Stipe and Bon Iver.
The US-based sound experimentalist, visual artist, jazz saxophonist, clarinettist, composer, bandleader and improviser, Matana Roberts, co-headlines on Friday 26th April. Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the latest instalment in the artist’s visionary project exploring American history through ancestry, archive and place. Weaving together elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word, Roberts’ album was produced by TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone and was described by Uncut as “a patchwork quilt: a stitching together of spirited free jazz, harmony singing, simmering electronics and raucous fife-and-drum blues that feels both artfully constructed and loaded with personal significance.”
The festival’s closing night on 27 April 2024 will feature the double Grammy Award-winning US jazz vocalist, Samara Joy. Her voice – rich and velvety yet precociously refined – has already earned her appearances on the TODAY Show and millions of likes on TikTok, cementing her status as perhaps the first Gen Z jazz singing star. Samara picked up the award for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards, and her second album, Linger Awhile, released last year and showcasing her timeless, irresistible sound, won the Grammy award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
More events will be announced soon.
Roundhouse’s Head of Music, Lucy Wood, states:
“This year’s In The Round features extraordinary young talents like Samara Joy alongside singular artists I’ve wanted to work with for years, like Lonnie Holley and Vashti Bunyan, and this year a special show celebrating one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Joni Mitchell. Audiences will have the chance to preview music from Lucy Rose’s new Kwes-produced album, and experience unique performances from innovators like Matana Roberts, Tirzah and Paraorchestra up-close in a beautiful space. Once again musicians from Roundhouse’s Resident Artist programme will perform at every show throughout the festival. I’m really excited for audiences to hear the amazing music being produced by the emerging talent from our programmes.”
Roundhouse Resident Artists will again appear as special guests, details of which are to come. Unique collaborations between artists and Roundhouse’s creative programme have also yet to be announced.
A go-to festival for eclecticism, previous mainstage performers include acclaimed veterans Ronnie Spector, Patti Smith, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Beverly Knight, Emeli Sande, Guy Garvey and Ghetts. Young emerging talents who have seen critical and mainstream success, such as Hak Baker and Goat Girl, have also performed at the festival.
The full 2024 line-up so far is as follows:
– 18 April 2024 – The Songs of Joni Mitchell featuring Emeli Sandé, Eska, Kate Stables (This Is The Kit), Lail Arad, Sam Amidon, Vashti Bunyan + more TBA, hosted by Cerys Matthews
– 19 April 2024 – Tirzah
– 20 April 2024 – Vashti Bunyan
– 24 April 2024 – Death Songbook: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson & Charles Hazlewood + guest TBC
– 25 April 2024 – Lucy Rose
– 26 April 2024 – Lonnie Holley and Matana Roberts
– 27 April 2024 – Samara Joy
– + More TBA
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