Luke Howard

In the organizer's words:

Like all Melbourne residents, Luke Howard experienced the world's longest Covid lockdown. Time that the contemporary classical composer and pianist knew how to use well to concentrate fully on his second solo album for Mercury KX.

The result, All Of Us, is a remarkable portrait of isolation, loss, resistance and reconciliation - born from the strong and rich shades of piano, orchestra and electronics.

In this strange, unsettling and unexpected world, Luke Howard turned to French writer Albert Camus' classic and absurd 1947 novel 'The Plague', in which the prediction of a plague ravaging the Algerian city of Oran serves as an existential allegory for humanity's vulnerability and inability to control its own destiny.

Throughout the album, Howard alternates between subtle permutations of shifting sounds, applying his trademark intimacy and restraint with a palette both minimalist and expansive; the BudapestArt Orchestra (conducted by Peter Pejtsik) plays strings, guests added flugelhorn, viola, double bass and modular synthesizers, while fellow composer Ben Lukas Boysen provides additional programming, production and mixing on Critical Spirit and The Opening Of The Gates.

The uncanny alliance between the music's beauty and its unsettling tension is exemplified by the first single release, ' The Opening Of The Gates': a quiet ebb and flow of low frequency pulses and synth loops beneath Howard's piano, conveying a sense of anticipation and nervousness as the quarantine in Oran is finally lifted.

Eight years after the release of his captivating debut album Sun, Cloud, Luke Howard has established himself as one of the most important and exciting musicians in contemporary classical music. The composer is at the forefront of opening up access to piano music for a new generation, while challenging the notion of what can be achieved in this form. He has twice been nominated for the Australian Music Prize. His 2019 work Beating Heart Stories features stunning reworkings of his acclaimed album Open Heart Story.

In the same year, Howard's first film soundtrack The Sand That Ate The Sea for director Matthew Thorne's documentary about the Australian outback was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the ARIA Awards. He has performed in ballets with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden and Atlanta Ballet. In addition to his solo career, he leads the Luke Howard Trio and has recorded albums with jazz bassist Janos Bruneel and Grammy award-winning trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis. Luke's latest album All That Is Not Solid from 2020 is his boldest and most exciting album to date. It documents four concerts in January with completely improvised music that highlights his breathtaking melodic talent.

For the first time since 2021, Luke Howard is now returning to Hamburg to play a very special concert in the intimate atmosphere of Halle 424 in Oberhafen.

"Absolutely heavenly" - Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC Radio 6 Music

"Contemporary classical music does not get much better than this. Simply

stunning." -Sunday Express

"Notes glide, swoop and cartwheel across rhythmic beds of undulating bass notes...

free-spirited musical impressionism is still at the heart of what he does." -UNCUT

"Remarkably beautiful" - Clash

"Cinematic grandeur" - Big Issue North

"Through his short yet prolific career, Luke Howard has distinguished his pianobased

work amidst a sea of imitators by its variety and, more importantly, its honesty

- the precious sense of his instrument bringing to song his brightest adventures and

deepest anxieties." -A Closer Listen

"An ambient masterclass" - Musos' Guide