Brexit Big Band One of the only unambiguous positives to come out of the UK’s decision to leave the EU has been the formation of Matthew Herbert’s latest boundary pushing sonic experiment. Formed shortly after the referendum vote of July 2016, The Matthew Herbert Brexit Big Band (aka The Matthew Herbert Great Britain and Gibraltar European Union Membership Referendum Big Band), has enlisted over 1000 musicians and collaborators from across the Continent including Arto Lindsay and Caryl Churchill to reimagine British and European identity in the face of the split. In true Herbert style, physical representative elements of this have been incorporated into the sonic mix - from a Ford Fiesta to an English Breakfast to the sound of a ferry crossing the channel. This has been the starting point for a series of live shows across the continent as well as a 16 track album, “The State Between Us”, due to be released on March 29th - the scheduled date for the UK’s exit.

Matthew Herbert is an award-winning composer, artist, producer and writer whose range of innovative works extends from more than 30 albums (including the much-celebrated Bodily Functions) to scores for Oscar-winning films (A Fantastic Woman) as well as music for the National Theatre, Broadway, TV series (Noughts and Crosses BBC), games (Lego) and radio. He has performed solo, as a DJ and with various musicians including his own 21 piece big band and 100 piece choir all round the world from the Sydney opera house, to the Hollywood Bowl and created installations, plays and opera.

He has remixed iconic artists such as Quincy Jones, Ennio Morricone, Serge Gainsbourg and Mahler and been a long time collaborator of Bjork’s. He has had work commissioned by the Royal Opera House, the BBC and Deutsche Gramophon amongst many others but he is best known for working with sound, turning ordinary or so-called found sound in to electronic music. His most celebrated work ONE PIG followed the life of a pig from birth to plate and beyond. His debut book The Music published by Unbound in 2018 and he is the creative director of the New BBC Radiophonic Workshop.