Balladeste + Tullis Rennie

A collaboration between Preetha Narayanan (Violin) and Tara Franks (cello), string duo Balladeste explore contemporary minimalism, Indian classical and folk. The duo co-creates all original compositions that are vibrant and experimental yet melodic and filmic in quality – songs without words with a contemporary alt-folk twist. They released their much anticipated sophomore album Beyond Breath in October 2021. A reflective collection of new compositions taking inspiration from a set of Indian devotional songs from the Sathya Sai lineage. Part song, part narrative, part modal imagery, the devotional melodies weave their way through the album, fragmented, played in their entirety, re-invented and interspersed with original reflective responses. www.balladeste.co.uk

Tullis Rennie is a composer, improvising trombonist, electronic musician, and field recordist. His varied career to date has touched upon many different conceptual approaches, examining the impact of listening with jazz musicians Matthew Bourne and Graham South on 2018’s Muscle Memory and investigating the hidden process of performance preparation with Vonnegut Collective on 2021’s 48 Hours (Moving Furniture Records). He’s also a founder member of Barcelona-based AV collective Insectotròpics and co-director of community-oriented arts organisation Walls On Walls. In 2022 Tullis released Fixed Freedoms on Accidental Jnr’s Room 2 – a new series for Matthew Herbert’s label dedicated to electronic music outside the main thoroughfare of club tracks. www.tullisrennie.com

Balladeste and Tullis Rennie is a new trio, presented in public for the first time at Sonics.