Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Press Release

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
Wednesday 28 October 2015
Brighton Dome Concert Hall
8pm, £23.50

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Fresh from releasing their fifth studio album Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress earlier this year, Canadian post-rock juggernauts Godspeed You! Black Emperor head to Brighton with an inimitable live show.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE) began in the early 90s with guitarists Efrim Manuel Menuck and Michael Moya with bassist Mauro Pezzente playing a handful of shows and recording a self-released cassette as a trio before deciding to transform the group into a large band.

‘this is music that can make you glad to be alive.’ - Stereogum

Recruiting numerous Montreal musicians through 1995-1996, GY!BE mounted sense-rattling wall-of-sound performances, featuring as many as 14 musicians and several 16mm film projectors, before recording their debut vinyl-only Constellation album in 1997. They transformed a warehouse space into the Hotel2Tango; a DIY hive of activity with band rehearsal rooms, silkscreen and wood shops, and weekend shows that took place under the radar.

‘dark genius’ – The Guardian

The group settled into a permanent nine-piece line-up by late 1998, touring and recording incessantly and winning significant support from The Wire and John Peel - however, by 2003 and four records, the band announced a hiatus to pursue other musical projects.

‘challenging, intense, evocative’ – BBC Music

This lasted until December 2010, when the band returned to curate and perform at All Tomorrow’s Parties followed by extensive international touring. October 2012 saw the release of Allelujah! Don't bend! Ascend!, their first recorded work in a decade, to widespread critical acclaim. This was followed up by latest album Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress released in March 2015. Slowly and steadily put together through late 2013 and 2014, it emerged with a mighty slab of superlative sonics, shot through with the band's inimitable signposts and touchstones: huge unison riffage, savage noise drone sounds, oscillating overtones, guitar vs. string counterpoint, inexorable crescendos and scorched-earth transitions. The album finds GY!BE in top form; a sterling celebration of the band's awesome dialectic, where composition, emotion and 'note-choice' is inextricable from an exacting focus on tone, timbre, resonance and the sheer materiality of sound.

Live, the band are peerless, with a reputation for mesmerising shows, marked by orchestral dynamics, epic rock power and clunky, beautiful film loops. 

For further enquiries, please contact our press team:

Emma Robertson, Head of Press & PR - [javascript protected email address] | 01273 260803
Chris Challis, Senior Press Officer – [javascript protected email address] | 01273 260838
Anna Whelan, Digital Marketing Officer – [javascript protected email address] | 01273 260825

Ticket Office - 01273 709709 | brightondome.org
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Notes To Editors:

• Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival manages a year round programme of arts at Brighton Dome – a three space, Grade 1 listed building made up of the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre - and produces the annual Brighton Festival in May.

• It aims to champion the power of the arts, to enrich and change lives, and to inspire and enable artists to be their most creative.

• Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Ltd is a registered arts charity

• Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival are working with the Royal Pavilion & Museums on a joint masterplan to realize a future vision for the Royal Pavilion Estate. For updates and news please click here.