Archives: Artists

London Contemporary Orchestra makes the orchestra contemporary.

We build new music in the room—live, with collaborators—and design nights that first-time listeners and long-time fans want to be at. Immediate sound. Open doors. Made for now.

Since 2008 we’ve worked across scenes and disciplines—Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Mica Levi, Jonny Greenwood, Actress, William Basinski, Anoushka Shankar, Bryce Dessner, Sigur Rós, Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift; artists Holly Blakey, Bill Morrison, Conrad Shawcross, Ron Arad, Hannah Perry; and platforms Secret Cinema, NTS, Boiler Room, DAZED, Resident Advisor—on stages including BBC Proms, Barbican, Southbank Centre, Roundhouse, Printworks, Tate Modern, Meltdown Festival. In fashion, we’re a permanent fixture, working with Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Nike, Burberry, and more.

We exist for bold live performances, commissioning and premiering new work, creating real pathways for emerging players, arrangers, and composers, and widening access through participation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. We’re committed to an orchestra that reflects the diversity of London—on stage, behind the scenes, and in the room.

Max Cooper is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art.

He holds a PhD in computational biology at the same time as being the first contemporary electronic musician to perform at the ancient Acropolis theatre in Athens and one of the first clutch of musicians to produce in Dolby Atmos.

Cooper has enquired for over 15 years through music, collaborations, and his label Mesh, to explore the intersections between the arts and sciences with installations, performances, immersive experiences, online media, music videos and live events. Anchored throughout is his emotive approach, connecting how ideas and forms feel, in a manner accessible to us all.

“I’ve always had a strong emotive bond with aesthetics, and found at an early age that the purified forms of electronic music carried a lot of weight for me, as did the reductive natural aesthetics of the sciences. That felt connection to both opened up a world I’ve been lost in ever since.”

Pivoting from computational biology to electronic music might not seem like the most natural career transition, but for Cooper the commonalities are obvious:“In both fields, you’re in a sense, free. Free from the limits of living systems, free from the limits of corporeal sound. The only constraints are in your mind.”

Max Cooper has collaborated with Zaha Hadid Architects, Dolby, L-Acoustics, 4DSOUND, Barbican Centre, W1 Curates, The Babraham Institute and exhibited work at museums including the Pompidou Metz, ZKM Karlsruhe, Museum Wave Seoul and The Science Museum London.

“Striking performances that are nothing short of pure spectacle” – RA

“It’s a mighty explosion of colour and sound, like the universe is fragmenting before our very eyes – the sheer mind-bending array of imagery is astonishing…” – Electronic Sound

Cardiff based N’famady Kouyaté has been building an enthusiastic UK audience with his unique musical style ever since he relocated to Wales from Guinea in 2019. His primary instrument is the balafon – a traditional wooden xylophone, sacred to West African culture and his family heritage of the griot/djeli, and he fronts an indie/jazz band. N’famady’s music is a blend of his West African heritage and western musical influences from the likes of Super Furry Animals, The Flaming Lips and 9Bach who he has recorded and toured with. His performances create vibrant & joyous atmospheres that are fuelled by his charisma and charm onstage, wielding balafon & guitar throughout the show with a masterful ease, backed by some of the finest musicians the Cardiff scene has to offer. Since coming to the UK, N’famady has been playing and touring extensively, with highlights being festival shows at The Great Escape, Celtic Connections, Greenman, SXSW Austin, Latitude main stage and many more. In 2023 he won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, further signalling the bright future of this rising star.