Curiouser and curiouser: Late Junction launches its own festival

Appearing at festivals like The Great Escape, End Of The Road and Latitude is really valuable in that it puts us in front of people who may not know about the programme, but who might like what we do.

But ultimately curating a festival of our own is a fantastic opportunity as it’s a chance to do what we do in its purest form, with our curatorial stamp. For this, our first foray into the festival scene, we’ll be taking over two evenings at a very special new venue called EartH, an old cinema with an impressive quality of sound near Dalston Junction in East London.

Already confirmed on the bill are confrontational electronic artist Gazelle Twin who is bringing a new performance piece based on the horrors of the English countryside and titans of exploratory post punk This is Not This Heat giving a rare live performance in their new 8 piece ensemble form. The festival is confirmed for Thursday the 28th February and Friday the 1st March 2019!

From humble beginnings

When Late Junction started 19 years ago it was based on the idea of broad and deep tastes, and surprising musical juxtapositions. As genre has become less relevant to the culture in general, the sort of eclecticism that Late Junction spearheaded has become more fashionable.

On any given episode of Late Junction you might hear an early piece of choral music next to some grindcore, though there will often be a compositional similarity or rhythmic theme that links them. Following that you may find an significant piece of 20th century avant-garde classical music that takes you on a journey over 17 minutes, or instead an instructional song on how to talk to your house plants. That sort of sonic range rarely happens elsewhere, and we’re proud of it. Unlike a lot of music radio, we try not to follow record industry schedules and cycles too closely, and take our cue from the art world as much as the music industry.

I keep using the word “we” because Late Junction is a team effort, with a focused group of presenters and producers who all have their own specialities, styles, and fatal flaws. This workflow helps us to keep evolving as a music programme, and keeps our ears wide open.

Leading the charge

Our intention is to make radio that is innovative and inventive, just like the music and sound art we like to celebrate in our programme. As one example, earlier this year we invited a piece of AI (artificial intelligence) to collaborate with a live improviser.

The live session that has probably attracted the biggest attention was when we asked FaUSt, an enduring German krautrock band, to play with the performance artist Lone Taxidermist. FaUSt are known for using industrial tools and building materials on stage. I thought what could be more Late Junction than a Christmas song covered by a cement mixer, so I asked them to bring it along to Maida Vale Studios and suggested they cover Silent Night. Talk of that session even made it on to Have I Got News For You!

Late Junction is a broad church and we’ve had all sorts of guests from Bjork to Grimes, Pauline Oliveros to Stewart Lee, as well as the Late Junction super-fan and actor Toby Jones. We’ve recorded Robert Wyatt in his house in Lincolnshire, and Shirley Collins at her home in Hastings.

People have the perception that Radio 3 is just for classical music, but it has a great big footprint that encompasses the worlds of jazz, sound art, slow radio, drama, poetry, literature, world music, and more. We like to think that Late Junction in some way nods towards all of those interests, embodying the free-thinking, adventurous spirit central to the network’s ethos.

Come along to our festival at the end of February and see for yourself!

Late Junction is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 11pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, or listen on BBC Sounds.