After the Rain with Gavin Bryars Ensemble and Jess Walker: songs of Waits, Cohen and Weill

Recipient of the 2024 Ivor Novello Innovation award, Gavin Bryars is one of the most influential composers of our age. For After the Rain he reunites with singer Jess Walker and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble for his hypnotic arrangements of iconic songs by Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Kurt Weill.

Gavin Bryars, recipient of the 2024 Ivors Innovation Award, is one of the most influential composers of our age. For After the Rain he reunites with the remarkable singer Jess Walker to build on their Tom Waits collaboration, Mercy and Grand, which Tom Waits himself referred to as giving his songs ‘an elegant night on the town.’ This new programme with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble includes his hypnotic arrangements of iconic numbers by Waits, Leonard Cohen, Kurt Weill and Neil Young. Scored for strings, sax, electric guitar, piano and voice, the arrangements include the world premiere of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart.

This event will last approximately 2 hours including an interval.

About Gavin Bryars

One of the most important British post-minimalist composers, Gavin Bryars mixes classical, jazz, and modern influences in his intellectually engaging, yet emotionally moving, music. He is best known for his seminal works The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, which achieved cult status on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records. He has since composed widely for dance, working with choreographers such as Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Carson, written several operas and created an extensive body of vocal compositions, working in particular with early music performers on vocal laude and madrigals.

About Jessica Walker

A genre-defying creator and singer, Jessica has made and performed work for Opera North