'Do we really have a grip on our relationship with technology?' – Roller Trio Explores 'New Devices' on 5-Date Tour

'Do we really have a grip on our relationship with technology?' – Roller Trio Explores 'New Devices' on 5-Date Tour

Jazz/electronica trio's Music Network tour to feature music from latest album exploring ideas on surveillance and social media.

The Leeds-based Roller Trio will embark on a five-date Music Network tour this month, beginning on 23 October at Whelan’s in Dublin.

The trio are renowned for their fusion of contemporary jazz improvisation with tight, indie-rock inspired riffs. Formed while studying at the Leeds College of Music, The Guardian’s John Fordham described them as the latest ‘technically awesome young genre-bending firebrands to have emerged from the whirring production line of Leeds’s new-music scene.’  In 2012, their self-titled debut album was nominated for a Mercury Prize.

The trio’s fifth album, New Devices, released on Edition Records, is the first to feature new addition to the band Chris Sharkey, adding layered guitar and electronics and allowing an expansion of their sound. He joins James Mainwaring  on sax and electronics and Luke Reddin-Williams on drums.

Our relationship with technology
New Devices
 was released in June and will be at the heart of their Irish tour. It explores society’s relationship with technology, social media, and our willing participation in self-surveillance. Speaking about the album, Mainwaring said:

We couldn’t have made this album without technology, the devices used in music-making and the online communication, yet we’re concerned about the future and the impact social media will have on the next generation – do we really have a grip on our relationship with technology?

The new album and tour marks the band’s return after a brief hiatus in which Mainwaring and Reddin-Williams have been collaborating as a duo as well as on other projects. Among them are Reddin-Williams’ side-project Tipping Point featuring Matthew Bourne, and as a guest with band leaders John Law, Sean Foran, Morten Schantz (Godspeed) and Nduduzo Makathini.

The Roller Trio’s Music Network tour starts in Dublin on 23 October and then visits Tralee (25 Oct), Tinahely (26 Oct), Newbridge (27 Oct) and Cork (28 Oct). For full details, visit www.musicnetwork.ie.

This news item is supported by Music Network.

Published on 16 October 2018

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