This autumn/winter season in Brighton continues to be full to the brim with events. It seems like everywhere you look on the calendar there’s another little festival focusing another stream of diverse creativity. The last weekend of October saw the return of Dreamy Place, a swathe of future-thinking events and installations scattered across Brighton in an impressively wide yet illuminating arc, with the rave-spine light show underneath Brighton Station Collectif Scale: Ammonite an exciting and accessible centre piece. The sublime Brighton Early Music Festival was also brought to a close in the same weekend.
The latter portion of November continues the trend with In The Box, a festival put on by The Old Market in Hove bringing another dimension to live performance with events that incorporate audiovisual experiences designed to envelop and enlighten like a guided meditation session beneath a weighted blanket. Running from November 21st to November 30th, these performances will be digging deep into our ancestral collective unconscious with shows from sound artists, musicians and storytellers aiming to convince us that thinking in the box is the new thinking outside the box.
Electronic producer Matthew Barnes AKA Forest Swords, who has built a strong presence as a remixer of Bjork, Anhoni and Wild Beasts, as well as releasing three critically-acclaimed albums, will play on Friday November 22nd. The arboreal theme is further developed on Thursday 28th November with A Night With The Trees, an evening of stories and original songs centred around the trees of the Druidic or ‘Ogham’ tree calendar, led by storyteller Xanthe Gresham-Knight, singer-songwriter Kate Daisy Grant and multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn. This promises to be a true communion with the spirits, exploring the woodland symbols and stories that underlie our symbiotic relationship with nature. Due to popular demand from Hovarian dendrophiles, a second show has been added the same night.
The haunting ambience of experimental sound artist Ah! Kosmos will be supported by the blissful soundscapes of local artist Johanna Bramli on Thursday 21st November. Nick Pynn (another perennial Brighton character) returns with his own show on Wednesday 27th November with Visions / Revisions and Impressions, an immersive multi-instrumental concert featuring music from across his career combined with video projections of 19th-century paintings that inspired his work.
Third Bloom bring a dystopian, futuristic audiovisual experience on Friday 29th November, showcasing new pieces written specifically for In The Box that make use of the unique 360 degree environment offered by The Old Market. Then, Wes Banderson: The Music of Wes Anderson on Saturday 30th November reminds us that there is still room for whimsy and romance. They’re a five-piece ensemble of multi-instrumentalists playing selections from the rousing soundtracks of The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, etc.
There are some real gems here. In The Box is another lovingly curated programme of events in what has already been a culturally rich season in Brighton & Hove. Tickets available for all events here. Book two or more events at the same time and get 20% off.
