Jo Quail to headline post classical festival Forgotten Futures

Prog Award winning cellist and composer Jo Quail has been announced as one of the headliners for this year's Forgotten Futures post classical festival which takes place on May 21 at Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester. The festival is a one day immersive event, the festival combines live music with visual art in the form of ambitious installations, collaborations and live art.

Musically Forgotten Futures presents a diverse programme of music carefully curated from across the worlds of classical music, electronica, post-rock, shoegaze and more, creating an engaging and unusual programme of music and visual art.

Joining Quail on the bill are fellow headliners Gallops and Douglas Dare, and the event will also feature performances from Allatson/Woodhead Duo, Chief Springs, Eyre Llew, Lion/s, Natalie Evans, Muted Fnord, People Need Goals, Reeder and Peter Wyeth, with more acts to be announced.

The festival has released a video of For The Benefit Of All, a 43-minute collaboration between Quail and Her Name Is Calla's Tom Morris, which you can watch below.

“Working with Tom on For The Benefit Of All was a unique collaborative experience for me," Quail tells Prog. "Tom had created a sound world, a detailed musical map if you like, inspired by the rich imagery of Kelly Richardson's work, resulting in a series of evocatively titled movements interlinked to create this powerful album. Receiving a canvas like this and being asked to add my colours was a humbling experience and a huge challenge too!

"I wanted to augment what was already there, without interfering in the space and shape of the music, and at times provide a 'commentary' too, working on top of the material rather than within. At all times it is a constant dialogue between Tom and I, whatever role we are occupying musically at that moment, interchanging and continuously developing the themes and sounds. It was a privilege to be able to collaborate on this, and then to be able to perform and film this work.”

The festival will also be streamed for ticket holders who are unable to attend in person, and to allow for future Covid-19 restrictions such as prevention of the event being held with an audience. Tickets cost £22 and £11 for streaming.

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Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.