Andrew Poppy

“Bewitching, beautifully crafted and highly addictive.” The Wire

“Gloriously abundant in cascading cycles of notes and noises” The Guardian

SUSTAINING ENSEMBLE
 solo performance at Chelsea Theatre and Lewis Arts Lab 2009

Since the late 70s composer Andrew Poppy has made solo performances and devised different
sized ensembles to perform his music. From recent solo club dates at Lewis Arts Lab and a
salon in Düsseldorf to the large scale performance installations at Museum of Science &
Technology in Paris these events explore different ways of presenting a unique brand of
contemporary concert music.

As a solo performer he plays piano and keyboards, supported by speaking parts, electronics
and video projection.

Sustaining Ensemble is the most recent version of work with other musicians which toured UK
in the autumn of 2009
 Andrew Poppy’s
SUSTAINING ENSEMBLE

is

Andrew Poppy:
piano, keyboard, bass guitar and voice

Genevieve Wilkins:
marimba, vibs, glock and percussion

Jez Wiles:
vibraphone, glock and percussion

Kate Halsall
piano and keyboard

Martin Langthorne:
Lighting

Julia Bardsley
video

Oxford Contemporary Music Oxford Dec 09

 performance and CD

‘. . . a n d t h e S h u f f l e o f T h i n g s ’ is inspired by Francis Bacon’s

thoughts about the urge to collect things. Dark ambient grooves, Schubert and the funk, classical
piano and some oscillators accompanied by enigmatic stories of lost submarines and the head of
Orpheus as a football. Compositions, improvisations and songs without singing.
 in previous episodes
Performance for the opening of the
Ambassadors Theatre London French National Museum of Science &Technology.
La Villette Paris.

Voices : Sheila Smith, Udo Scheuerpflug

Saxophone : Jo Pretzel.
Trombone : Ashley Slater.
Percussion : Maritz Oswald
Keyboards : Glyn Perrin, Schaun Tozer, Alex Maguire
Piano : Andrew Poppy
Voices : Sheila Smith, Udo Scheuerpflug
Saxophone : Jo Pretzel.
Trombone : Ashley Slater.
Percussion : Moritz Oswald
Keyboard : David Owen
Piano : Andrew Poppy
Sound Engineer : Bob Krausar
 THE LOST JOCKEY

Conductor: John Barker

Voices: Sue Bickley, Frances Lynch,
Jeremy Birchall,
Mary Wiegold, Allen Belk, Angela Tunstall
Violins: Elliet Makreel, Steve Jones, Ross Lorraine
Viola: Julia Eisner
Cello: Ali Robinson, Caroline Verney, Glyn Perrin
Flute: Charlie Seaward
Saxophones: Andy Blake, Martin Ashwell
Bass Clarinet: Rory Allam Roger Heaton
Marimba: Simon Limbric
Piano & Keyboards: Andrew Poppy, Lucy Wilson,
Schaun Tozer, Orlando Gough, David Owen,

Sound Engineer: Gareth Jones

ALMEIDA MUSIC FESTIVAL


Biography
ANDREW POPPY (1954) is a composer and musician. His
early musical life included playing bass guitar in an
improvising rock band, playing Bartok and Debussy on
the piano and making music concrete with his father’s
tape recorder. He went to study music at Kingsway’s
College and Goldsmiths College, London University,
graduating in 1979.
During the 1970s he developed a strong interest in
contemporary American composers Cage, Feldman,
Riley, Glass and Reich. He attended a summer school
with John Cage and Merc Cunningham and played in an
ensemble with Christian Wolff.
In the early 1980’s he was an accompanist at the Laban
Centre for Dance and pianist and composer with The Lost
Jockey, a large ensemble playing pulse based music that
became known as Minimalism.
Particularly interested in the creative part recording plays
in the music of today Poppy moves between
conventionally notated scores and studio work influenced
by pop production. He was signed as a contemporary
composer and recording artist to Trevor Horn and Paul
Morley’s Zang Tumb Tuum Records (ZTT) in 1984. His
first CD The Beating of Wings includes performances of
32 Frames for Orchestra and Cadenza for piano and
electric piano and was released in 1985. This was
followed in 1987 by Alphabed which featured the Firelight
music computer, the first Akai samplers and vocal
performances from Annette Peacock.
After ZTT Poppy continued to record for independent
labels: Recordings, includes 14 Poems and Toccatas for
violin and piano performed by Elisabeth Perry and
Andrew Ball and premiered by them at the Huddersfield
Festival. Ophelia/Ophelia, a chamber opera was selected
by ISCM for the world music days in Denmark. Rude
Bloom contains two contemporary dance scores (for
Siobhan Davies/ Linda Gaudreau). Time at Rest
Devouring its Secret an electro acoustic installation
premiered at NRLA and Tramway. Recently ZTT Records
have released a 3 CD box set containing all Poppy’s
recordings for the label during the 80’s and including an
unreleased album Under The Son
An experimental music theatre, often based on the
composer’s own texts has been part of his creative
initiative. Songs of the Clay People was a collaboration
with Impact Theatre in 1983. There are also three
chamber operas The Uranium Miners (ROH Garden
Venture) Baby Doll (NTS/Cottesloe) Ophelia Ophelia
(ISCM). An oratorio Something In The Air (Levitation And
Fall) was commissioned by the Estonian National Male
Choir conducted by Kaspars Putnins premiered in Tallinn
in January 2006.
Since 1989 he has developed a collaborative partnership
with visual and theatre artist Julia Bardsley Projects
include Avalanche Thoughts a multimedia work
premiered in New York .in 2002 and more recently
Improvements on Nature was commissioned by the
Sacred Festival at Chelsea Theatre London.
Concert works include Horn Horn, a double saxophone
concerto for John Harle and Simon Haram commissioned
by The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Last Light
recorded by The Smith Quartet, Revolution No 8: Airport
for Joseph Beuys for orchestra and electronic delays.
More Matter Less premiered by Noszferatu at the
Cheltenham Festival 2003
His unusual body of work constantly explores different
musical contexts There are scores for theatre, film &
video, contemporary dance and art installation; writing
collaborations and arrangement for industrial rock and
synth pop artist including Psych TV, Erasure, Claudia
Brucken and Bernardo Devlin
Recent concert commissions include for Darwin’s Sin
Draw a violin concerto for Darragh Morgan and The Crash
Ensemble, Hatch for The Smith String Quartet, Playing
the Pulse for CoMA ensemble, Periscope for prepared
piano for pianist Mary Dullea, Hoarding Flap for
harpsichordist Jane Chapman and Definitely Disco
commissioned by The London International String
Quartet Festival as a competition test piece. BBC Concert
Orchestra recently played 32 Frames for orchestra at the
QEH in London.
Poppy also performs: solo, with electronics and with his
own ensemble of various combinations. Its most recent
form, The Sustaining Ensemble has just completed UK
tour dates with music from the CD ‘…and the Shuffle of
Things.
 Discography
All recordings produced by Andrew Poppy. All ensembles directed by AP

ALPHABED
THE BEATING OF WINGS
(8/87) ZTT Records CD 4509-94752-2 Dist. Warner UK
(7/85) ZTT Records CD 4509-94751-2
45 is, Goodbye Mr G, The Amusement
Distribution Warner UK
32 Frames for Orchestra,
The Object is a Hungry Wolf for large ensemble
Cadenza
Listening In

RECORDINGS
(9/92) Bitter+Twisted Records CD SPIN992 Dist.
32 FRAMES FOR ORCHESTRA
Impetus
Poems and Toccatas piano Andrew Balll violin Elisabeth
12 INCH ZTT
Perry Ember: String Quartet performed by Balanescu
32 Frames for Orchestra, The Impossible Net
Quartet\ Movie Momento performed by Andrew Poppy

OPHELIA/OPHELIA
THE AMUSEMENT
(95) Impetus Records CD19426
mezzo Margaret Cameron, b.cl Roger Heaton Keybds
7&12 INCH ZTT
AP
The Amusement ,/ Listening In
 RUDE BLOOM ANOTHER LANGUAGE (05)
with Claudia Brucken
(95) Art Gallery Records CD07.Dist. Wotre Music There Music Dist. Mute Records
France 1)Lipstick Vogue 2) White Noise Maker 3) Drive in Saturday
Eight Movements for Piano Trio 4) Broken English 5) Nice Dream 6) Running Up That Hill 7)
Melody Versus the Brittle Funk Amsterdam 1897 8) Breakfast 9) Die Nebensonnen 10)
Libertango 11) You Do 12) Wooden Heart
voice Claudia Brucken piano/guitar Andrew Poppy
arrangements by AP

TIME AT REST DEVOURING ITS SECRET ANDREW POPPY ON ZANG TUUM TUMB

(00) Source Research Recordings Dist. World Serpent (05) ZTT Records

Disc one: THE BEATING OF WINGS

The Object is a Hungry Wolf /32 Frames for Amplified
Orchestra /Listening In
Cadenza for Piano and Electric Piano /Inside the
Wolf/The Impossible Net
Listening In (re-modelled)

Disc two: ALPHABED (A MYSTERY DANCE)

BLOOD SUGAR The Amusement/45 Is/Goodbye Mr G/The Amusement (12 inch) /King Kong
(Bitter + Twisted Records, 2003) Presto/East Fragment/King Kong Adagio
Last Light for string orchestra, Snowdronia for
Disc three: UNDER THE SON
chamber ensemble, Revolution Number Eight: airport
The Sequence/The Passage (Parts 1, 2, 3)/Sometimes It Rains
for joseph beuys orchestra and electronics, TARDIS
electronics …AND THE SHUFFLE OF THINGS

(08) Field Radio Records Dist. Rough Trade/Mute

Bank

Something Secret/Wet Fold/My Stress Mistress

Balcony Scene/ Wave Machine part 2 and 3
RUNNING NAKED The Head of Orpheus Football/ What Else: What
THROUGH THE GARMENT DISTRICT then Now My Fathers Submarines/Almost the
Same Shame
Perfprmed by AP Sustaining Ensemble
(Bitter + Twisted Records, 2003)
Latvian Radio Choir Kaspars Putnis
Drum machining/Double Stitch/Lining for a Desirable
Suit
text and this document © high bridge projects and andrew poppy

all photographs © the photographers

Henrik Knudsen
Anton Corbyn
Julia Bardsley
Manuel Vason
Richard Smith
A.J. Barret
Ana Borralho

Sound: www.myspace.com/andrepoppy
Scores info pdfs at www.scribd/field radio
Contact: andrewpoppy@orpheusmail.co.uk