Assembly 2026: Ellen Arkbro and the London Crumhorn Consort
Ellen Arkbro and the London Crumhorn Consort
00:00
Raheel Khan
00:00
Somerset HouseTickets 20 £
After its premiere at CTM Festival 2026, composer and musician Ellen Arkbro presents her new piece for crumhorns and reed organ at Somerst House Studio's Assembly 2026 festival. Commissioned as part of the Goethe-Institut London x Somerset House Studios Residency in partnership with CTM Festival Berlin, »For Crumhorns and Regal« continues Arkbro’s inquiry into finely tuned harmonic architectures. Developed during her three-month London residency in early 2025, the music draws on the unique texture and resonance of the crumhorn – a Renaissance period double-reed woodwind instrument – that through precise intervallic playing, blends with Arkbro’s sustained reed organ.
Performed by players from the London Crumhorn Consort, the quartet’s held tones attempt to create stable compositional chordal blocks, a compound sound almost resembling a synthesizer; a challenge due to the crumhorn’s breath-bound nature, buzzy timbre and resistance to perfect steadiness in pitch. Intimately involved with the tuning of each chord, the players strive for harmonic clarity, sounding and listening as one. It’s in this heightened attentiveness and tension that the soul of Arkbro’s piece emerges - the unreachable ideal of a pure tone and the effort required to approach it.
Also on that night is artist and composer Raheel Khan with the new work »Oh Forewarn«. The work draws on horns as signalling devices of the past, mechanical systems as material conditions of the present, and the Islamic angel Isrāfīl, whose trumpet remains a call from the hereafter. Joined by London based tuba player and composer, Hanna Mbuya, the compositional form will explore sustained tones, slippage and melodic contour through lower registers of brass and analogue synthesis. Khan is a recipient of the Assembly Residency opportunity, a 12-month programme for emerging artists shaped by Somerset House Studios in collaboration with artist mentors Beatrice Dillon and Elaine Mitchener. During his residency, Raheel’s research has been interested in exploring themes such as infrastructural residue, acoustic dissonance and devotional loops, most recently through cross disciplinary works presented at Nottingham Contemporary, Goldsmiths CCA and Camden Art Centre.
The Assembly series activates the Somerset House’s neoclassical spaces with live concerts, audio explorations and critical conversations from a range of leading practitioners working across contemporary art and music. Initiated in 2018, Assembly emerged from the recognition of sonic art and sound-based practices as a foundational pillar within the Somerset House Studios’ resident artist community. Now in its fifth edition, the series continues to support the development of new composition and performance works, bringing together artists in a programme dedicated to commissions and premieres.
Ellen Arkbro's work is commissioned as part of the Goethe-Institut London x Somerset House Studios Residency in partnership with CTM Festival.