Over the past 11 years, Southbank Centre's Ether Festival has celebrated innovation, technology and experimentation staging cross-genre and cross-artform events such Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke playing alongside London Sinfonietta (2005), performances of Stravinsky's Rites with dancer and 3D visuals (2011), appearances by Lou Reed, David Byrne, Brian Eno, Gil Scott-Heron and celebrations of composers ranging from Thomas Adès (2008) to Iannis Xenakis (2011). Ether festival returns in October 2012 for its 11th edition with a programme featuring UK and London premieres, a mix of electronics, classical music, visual arts, dance, and a celebration of John Cage's centenary.
After performing with Philip Glass at All Tomorrow's Parties' I'll Be Your Mirror festival in New York in September, Tyondai Braxton makes his Southbank Centre solo debut on 9 October. Jointly presented by Southbank Centre and Resident Orchestra London Sinfonietta, the former singer, guitarist and keyboardist of Battles joins London Sinfonietta and New York-based Wordless Music Orchestra for a full performance of Central Market, his critically acclaimed second solo album released by Warp in 2009. Caleb Burhans conducts the performance, which features electric guitars, pedal effects and a whole kazoo section to bring Braxton's layered orchestral loops to life. Leo Hussain conducts the London Sinfonietta in the first part of the programme, including works by Ingram Marshall, Edgard Varèse, Toru Takemitsu and The National's Bryce Dessner.
On 13 October, John Cale returns to the Royal Festival Hall for the first time following the 2010 concert performance of his much-loved 1973 album Paris 1919. He presents songs from his new album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, which will be released by Domino at the beginning of October and which includes the single 'I Wanna Talk 2 U', co-produced by Danger Mouse (13 October).
New York's Bang on a Can Artistic Director Michael Gordon brings his symphonic score to Southbank Centre for the UK premiere of Bill Morrison's film Decasia, screened with live accompaniment by Aurora Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon (14 October). A meditation on old silent movies made up of a collection of decaying archive sequences, Decasia was created by Gordon and Morrison in collaboration with director Bob McGrath and visual designer Laurie Olinder. Gordon's score features a de-tuned orchestra, four de-tuned pianos and sliding pitches to match the decayed celluloid of the images.
On 11 October, Ether hosts the world premiere of a new work by one of Bang on a Can's Artistic Directors Julia Wolfe. Wolfe's percussion concerto, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Colin Currie, will be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Ether 2012 also offers the occasion for Southbank Centre to join John Cage's centenary celebrations with Danza Preparata featuring Rolf Hind performing the Sonatas and Interludes and a dancing cat called Mia (16 October). On 15 October, the Royal Philharmonic Society Award-winning avant-gardistas Apartment House presents an all-Cage programme following their sold-out Cage concert last year. On 8 October, violinist Darragh Morgan and pianist John Tilbury play Morton Feldman's 1982 homage to the American composer, For John Cage.
On 7 October at the Royal Festival Hall, Jonathan Harvey's latest work Weltethos will be premiered in London with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conductors Edward Gardner and Michael Seal, and narrator Samuel West. Written for the London 2012 Festival, Weltethos is an epic 80-minute tribute to the shared spiritual heritage of the world's six major religions: Christianity, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The performance brings together 200 singers from the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, Youth Chorus and Children's Chorus singing a brand new text by the celebrated Swiss theologian Hans Küng, incorporating passages from the sacred books.
Other highlights of the festival include an electronic music double bill with British singer-producer Ghostpoet and Austrian 'Wunderkind' 22-year-old composer Soap & Skin (6 October), classically-influenced German techno group The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble (5 October), composer Anna Meredith+Horsebox performing brand new material plus songs from her recent EP Black Prince Fury (10 October), the first ever London performances of the acclaimed Australian dance company Chunky Move with a score by electronics maestro Ben Frost (19 & 20 October) and the London premiere of Christian Marclay's new work Everyday, where short film clips are used as a video score for improvising musicians Steve Beresford, John Butcher, Mark Sanders and Alan Tomlinson (13 October).