The Alehouse Sessions

Product Information

There is a busking verve and jangle pop quality to these arrangements, each a study in dynamism and invigoration. Whether you're a player, maker, teacher or enthusiast, you'll find ideas and inspiration from leading artists, teachers and luthiers in our archive which features every issue published since January 2010 - available exclusively to subscribers.

You won’t be able to bring any bags over 40 x 25 x 25cm into the Queen Elizabeth Hall, so please leave large bags at home.The Alehouse Sessions” has already enjoyed success in both the US and Europe, and you can get in on the action on September 23 at the Southbank Centre. BBC Four is broadcasting our Alehouse Sessions which filmmaker Dominic Best filmed in Battersea Arts Centre one snowy night in December. Londoners are spoiled for choice — but have you ever floated back to a 17th century tavern by way of classical music?

One moment you’ll be swept away by Henry Purcell overtures, and the next bobbing along to sea shanties, all aiming to take guests back to this unsettled period of history. Backed by his Alehouse Boys, a merry band culled from the Barokksolistene ensemble Eike leads, the project's latest CD is a sonic re-creation of 17th-century English taverns. By evening's end, I found myself pondering the prohibitions that led to this fountainhead of creativity, and couldn't help but reflect on the current landscape of political lockdowns, scandals, and hypocrisies. This was immediately followed by a version of Purcell's “Lead Me” that was even more resolutely alive than the album version. Above all I just knew that if we were going to play this kind of English music, we had to take it back to where it was performed.Eike and friends worked the stage like a knotted muscle into relaxation, proving at every turn that their brand of spontaneity could only be born of fierce training. A Changing Places toilet is located on Level 1 Royal Festival Hall next to the JCB Glass Lift, for the exclusive use of disabled people who need personal assistance to use the toilet. Along with a variety of classical stringed instruments, their own arrangements delight us in a joyful mix of vocals, percussion, harmonium, guitar, charango and storytelling. Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene is an alchemical miracle of an ensemble, a collective of virtuosos whose instinctive, playful communication and delight in one another’s skill amplifies their individual performances, transforming them into pure musical gold.

The exotic sound-world of Purcell’s 17th century London is brought vividly to life by one the world’s most dynamic and virtuosic performing groups, Barokksolistene, led by Bjarte Eike. Some four centuries later, the Barokksolistene created the Alehouse Sessions, a project in which they perform folk melodies, sea-shanties, bawdy ballads and cheeky ditties alongside ayres and dances by Purcelland Playford in homage to the sonic world of 17th century tavern music.

Speaking on the project, Bjarte Eike said: “The signature of this project is the interaction on stage between the players and the audience. A joyful celebration of 17th-century folk music, fiddle tunes, drinking songs and sea shanties, brought vividly to life by virtuoso musicians Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene.

In this exclusive video clip to The Strad, Norwegian violinist and the Barokksolistene perform Wallom Green from The Alehouse Sessions. Eike is a charismatic artist with a talent for conceiving imaginative live and recording projects … Innately theatrical, genre bending and suffused with great musicianship and string playing, this is a substantial and fine piece of work. We have a great line of music for everyone, with professional lighting, stage and sound all weekend.

The facility includes a height-adjustable bench, tracking hoist system, a centrally-placed toilet, a height-adjustable basin and a shower.