RUBATO is a three-piece ensemble from East London that sounds like nothing you have ever heard before. It explores the LIMITS of CONTEMPORARY musicianship, combining classical piano composition with pulsating rhythms and atmospheric electronics . Rubato’s music is at once MELODIC and SEDUCTIVE, wrapping a unique brand of live improvisation around the inspiration of Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Chopin. Rubato reinterprets pieces by master composers, occupying a liminal space between genres that flits between moods associated more closely with classical and AVANT-GARDE composition than with the dance floor. The ensemble’s music lives up to the literal definition of its name, subtly manipulating rhythm and TEMPO to allow for a nuanced musical expression that reverses expectations, making the computer follow the HUMAN touch.
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'Building bridges between perceived high-brow orchestrations and sophisticated electronic production, making classical music palatable for the modern audience.' Q Magazine
'Finding the missing link between classical and electro.' The Times |
The ensemble is made up of Russian born concert pianist MARINA LIEBERMAN, drummer YUVAL JUBA WETZLER, and multi-instrumentalist producer RAZ OLSHER. The project emerged from Olsher’s experimentations with the piano, which led him to reflect on how fluctuations in dynamics and tempo have effectively disappeared in a world dominated by sequenced rhythmic patterns. Sharply contrasting the vast landscape of programmed sounds, Rubato moves through dynamics with agility, drawing whole worlds of emotion out of the smallest variation. Its three musicians are dedicated to the mutability of rhythm, and perform as textural elements working together to create a delicate juxtaposition of the human and the electronic. An album is scheduled for release later this year and will feature collaborations with the likes of Bishi Battacharya, Jess Grieve and Ayanna Witter Johnson.
Like their music, Rubato’s live show is immersive and energetic, and has the potential to be transformed by collaborative opportunities with choreographers, larger ensembles, and visual artists. Equally at home at a festival and in a concert hall, Rubato’s performances ramp up the improvisatory feel, with live audiovisual manipulations that ensure that every individual performance is unique and unrepeatable. Rubato dreams of a music without inhibitions, and by making the familiar sound new they invite audiences to listen without prejudice and inhabit this vision with them.
Like their music, Rubato’s live show is immersive and energetic, and has the potential to be transformed by collaborative opportunities with choreographers, larger ensembles, and visual artists. Equally at home at a festival and in a concert hall, Rubato’s performances ramp up the improvisatory feel, with live audiovisual manipulations that ensure that every individual performance is unique and unrepeatable. Rubato dreams of a music without inhibitions, and by making the familiar sound new they invite audiences to listen without prejudice and inhabit this vision with them.