Herbert announces new Brexit-themed big band album

  • Share
  • It'll be a two-year project highlighting collaboration across Europe.
  • Herbert announces new Brexit-themed big band album image
  • Matthew Herbert has announced his latest big band album, which will be a two-year project focusing on the ongoing Brexit process. The prolific and long-time dance music producer has already released two albums with The Matthew Herbert Big Band, one in 2003 and one in 2008. This latest one is more than just a record—it'll be a two-year project running parallel to the Brexit process that will take Herbert across the continent. Herbert plans to begin the project when the UK triggers Article 50 to start the Brexit, and then it will "run in parallel across Europe with concerts, recording sessions and workshops," with an album due on the day that Britain formally leaves the EU in 2019. He'll record it layer-by-layer at each concert, with the aim of recording 1000 people at once, singing in different languages from across Europe. Herbert is also launching the Brexit Sound Swap, where users can upload a three-second clip and immediately get access to everyone else's three-second clip, "to create a common resource of new and varied noises, free to everyone to use, hear or download." (The website is currently in beta, and will be finalized for when the UK government triggers Article 50.) "The message from parts of the Brexit campaign were that as a nation we are better off alone," Herbert says. "I refute that idea entirely and wanted to create a project that embodies the idea of collaboration from start to finish."
RA