Joanne Robertson is a musician and painter. Both forms emerge from her improvisation and expressionistic freedom. She wrote her critically acclaimed album Blurrr, released last year on the AD93, in between painting sessions and raising her child. Loose, playful, and intuitive, Robertson lets her voice and guitar wander and whisper, giving free rein to unprecedented emotions. The album manages to be grand and minuscule at the same time, brimming with immense loneliness. Alongside Robertson’s echoing vocals and her guitar, the album features contributions from cellist Oliver Coates.

Robertson has released several solo albums, such as Painting Stupid Girls and Blue Car, for which she adopted a similar compositional approach. Her tracks capture specific moments and emotional states of a given day, much like fragments from a diary albeit without precise dates. She regularly collaborates with friends, including Elias Rønnenfelt of the punk band Iceage, Dean Blunt on the collaborative album Backstage Raver, and Sidsel Meineche Hansen on Alien Baby. ‘The UK singer-songwriter’s album is spectral and breathtaking. It’s a mood record of immense solitude, beauty, and free expression’ (Pitchfork on Blurrr).

Poetess/vocalist/portraitist S*an D. Henry-Smith will open the evening with their sonic poetry. They explore Black/queer diasporic collaborative practices rooted in experimentalism, improvisation, and transdisciplinarity, working by extension in sound, performance, and publishing.

This concert is organized in collaboration with The Rest is Noise and Subbacultcha. The Rest is Noise is a series by Muziekgebouw for unconventional makers who push boundaries and connect worlds. Subbacultcha is a platform for alternative music and emerging artists, aimed at a curious audience.