# London Contemporary Orchestra

The London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), founded in 2008 by Hugh Brunt and Robert Ames, is an ensemble of young musicians whose stated aim is "to explore and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience". LCO staged its inaugural season at LSO St. Luke's and has since performed at venues and festivals both in the UK and internationally, including the Roundhouse, Latitude Festival, The Old Vic Tunnels, Snape Maltings, Southbank Centre, Barbican, Spitalfield's Music, Royal Opera House, Yota Space, and Unsound Festival. LCO has since provided its work on films including Theeb, Moonlight, Macbeth, Slow West, The Master, The Two Popes and American Animals.
In 2010, the LCO was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards (Audience Development category), and in 2015, LCO was the winner of the Ensemble Category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.
In January 2022, LCO performed a continuous 24-hour long concert at the Barbican Centre.

## Overview

LCO's inaugural 2008 season featured music by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Kaija Saariaho, Thomas Adès, Iannis Xenakis, Simon Holt, Roberto Carnevale, Olivier Messiaen, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, and new works by young composers Emily Hall, Colin Alexander and Jonathan Cole. In May 2009 the LCO collaborated with experimental electronic duo Matmos and composer Anna Meredith for a series of performances at Shoreditch warehouse Village Underground.
In January 2010 LCO appeared at the Roundhouse as part of contemporary music festival 'Reverb', performing works by Steve Reich, John Cage, Biosphere and the world premiere of Shiva Feshareki's turntable concerto "TTKonzert". LCO made its debut at the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival in June 2010 and at Aldeburgh Music's 'Faster Than Sound' in May 2010. In October 2010, the Roundhouse staged three screenings of Metropolis (restored version), with Gottfried Huppertz's original score performed live by the LCO. Later that year, the LCO gave a performance of Frank Zappa's "The Yellow Shark" as part of the Roundhouse's 'Frank Zappa – 70th Birthday Celebration'.
In 2011 LCO returned to the Roundhouse to collaborate with Ron Arad on 'Curtain Call'. LCO staged its first 'LCO Soloists' project at The Old Vic Tunnels in May 2011. In March 2012, the LCO performed works by Xenakis, Gabriel Prokofiev, Jonny Greenwood and Vivier to a capacity audience of 1,200 as part of 'Reverb 2012' at the Roundhouse. LCO made its Southbank Centre debut in 2012 closing Meltdown Festival (curated by Antony Hegarty) with a performance of William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops".
In 2013 LCO performed in the abandoned Aldwych underground station, 350 ft underground, Claude Vivier's Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele ('Do You Believe in the Immortality of the Soul?'). LCO was the winner of the Ensemble category in 2015 at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.
In 2018 London Contemporary Orchestra featured in Thom Yorke's first feature film score, Suspiria. Suspiria was nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. In 2019 LCO collaborated with composer Jed Kurzel on a number of film projects including The Mustang, Seberg and in 2020 on True History of The Kelly Gang.
In January 2022 performed 24, a continuous 24-hour long concert at the Barbican Centre. This included performances from electronic musicians KMRU, Actress, and Powell, plus works by John Cage, Éliane Radigue, Mica Levi, Alvin Lucier, Michael Gordon and James Tenney. Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No 2 was also performed. Visuals were designed by projection mapping artist László Zsolt Bordos.

## Organisation

The artistic director role is shared between Robert Ames and Hugh Brunt. They also share the role of principal conductor.

## Collaborations

The LCO performed with headliners Belle & Sebastian at Latitude Festival in July 2010 and rejoined the band for their UK tour in December 2010. The concerts reprised many of the arrangements first performed by Belle & Sebastian and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006. In June 2010, members from the LCO joined Mercury Prize-nominated band Foals at Glastonbury Festival for a BBC Radio 6 Music live session. LCO appear on the band's single "Spanish Sahara" (radio edit).
LCO has worked with artists, composers and brands including Secret Cinema, Actress, Vivienne Westwood, Arcade Fire, Goldfrapp, Nike, William Basinski, Biosphere, Mira Calix, Mara Carlyle, Mike Figgis, Simon Fisher Turner, Foals, Jonny Greenwood, Laurel Halo, Loraine James, Matmos, Jimmy Page, Jed Kurzel, Frank Ocean, Coby Sey, Taylor Swift and United Visual Artists.
LCO strings and choir feature prominently on Radiohead's 2016 Mercury-nominated album A Moon Shaped Pool. On November 19, 2019, LCO's collaboration with Bastille for the 2019 John Lewis Christmas advert was released.

## LCO X Spitfire Audio

In 2017 LCO collaborated with Spitfire Audio to create London Contemporary Orchestra Strings, a string sample library made up of 42,094 samples. The sample set was recorded in a tight room with sections of six violins, four violas, three cellos and two double basses. In 2019 for a second time LCO collaborated with Spitfire Audio to create London Contemporary Orchestra Textures. The sample library recorded in an aircraft hangar features four grouped instrument ensembles, each comprising 12 individual textures.

## Awards

In 2010 the LCO was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards (Audience Development category), and in 2015 LCO was the winner of the Ensemble category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.

## Filmography

| Film | Director | Release Date | Awards |
| The Master | Paul Thomas Anderson | 21 September 2012 | Chicago Film Critics Association Awards – Best Original Score |
| Theeb | Naji Abu Nowar | 19 March 2015 | BAFTA – Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer; Academy Award nominated – Best Foreign Language Film of the Year |
| Slow West | John Maclean | 16 April 2015 | Sundance Film Festival – World Cinema (Dramatic); Screen Music Awards – Feature Film Score of the Year |
| Rattle the Cage | Majid Al Ansari | 10 December 2015 | |
| Macbeth | Justin Kurzel | 11 December 2015 | Cannes Film Festival nominated – Palme d'Or |
| Radiohead: "Daydreaming" (Video Short) | Paul Thomas Anderson | 6 May 2016 | MTV Video Music Awards Japan nominated – Best Rock Video |
| The White King | Alex Helfrecht, Jörg Tittel | 18 June 2016 | Michael Powell Award nominated – Best British Feature Film; Edinburgh International Film Festival nominated – Best Performance in a British Feature Film |
| "The Dead Sea" (Short) | Stuart Gatt | 3 December 2016 | |
| Assassin's Creed | Justin Kurzel | 14 December 2016 | Golden Trailer Awards – Golden Fleece TV Spot; Golden Trailer Awards nominated – Best Original Score TV Spot |
| Alien: Covenant | Ridley Scott | 4 May 2017 | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films nominated – Best Science Film Award; Fright Meter Awards nominated – Best Special Effects |
| You Were Never Really Here | Lynne Ramsay | 27 May 2017 | Cannes Film Festival – Best Actor; Best Screenplay |
| The Ritual | David Bruckner | 13 October 2017 | |
| Phantom Thread | Paul Thomas Anderson | 25 December 2017 | Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated |
| American Animals | Bart Layton | 19 January 2018 | British Independent Film Awards – Debut Screenwriter and Best Editing |
| What They Had | Elizabeth Chomko | 2 May 2018 | |
| Calibre | Matt Palmer | 22 June 2018 | Bafta Scotland Awards winner and British Independent Film Award Nominee |
| Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle | 29 June 2018 | Primetime Emmy and BAFTA award nominated – Best Documentary |
| Suspiria | Luca Guadagnino | 2 November 2018 | |
| Untouchable | Ursula Macfarlane | 25 January 2019 | |
| Captive State | Rupert Wyatt | 28 March 2019 | |
| Tell It To The Bees | Annabel Jankel | 2 May 2019 | |
| The Mustang | Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | 19 June 2019 | Sundance Film Festival – NHK award |
| Dirt Music | Gregor Jordan | 11 September 2019 | Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards nominated – Best Original Score |
| Our Friend | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | 7 October 2019 | |
| Overlord | Julius Avery | 3 November 2019 | Awards: Saturn Award nominee – Best Horror Film and Best Make-Up |
| The Cave | Feras Fayyad | 18 October 2019 | Academy Award nominee – Best Documentary Feature |
| Seberg | Benedict Andrews | 13 December 2019 | |
| The Two Popes | Fernando Meyrelles | 29 November 2019 | Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, British Academy Film Awards and Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominated |
| Dream Horse | Euros Lyn | 24 January 2020 | |
| Sulphur and White | Julian Jarrold | 27 February 2020 | |
| True History Of The Kelly Gang | Justin Kurzel | 28 February 2020 | Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards – Best Original Score |
| Lost Girls | Liz Garbus | 9 March 2020 | |
| The Forgotten Battle | Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. | 14 December 2020 | |
| Cyrano | Joe Wright | 25 February 2021 | |
| Encounter | Michael Pearce | 10 December 2021 | |
| Conclave | Edward Berger | 25 October 2024 | |

## Discography

Foals: "Spanish Sahara" with London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 12 September 2010 Label: Warner Music UK Limited
Jonny Greenwood: The Master (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Release Date: 10 September 2012 Label: Nonesuch Records Inc.
Foals: Holy Fire feat. London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 11 February 2013
Label: Transgressive
Jed Kurzel: Slow West (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Release Date: 12 May 2015 Label: Sony Classical Records
Jerry Lane: Theeb (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)] with London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 7 August 2015 Label: Al Dakheel, Inc.
Jed Kurzel: Macbeth (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)] Release Date: 1 October 2015 Label: Decca Records
Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
Release Date: 8 May 2016 Label: XL Recordings Most tracks on this album feature the orchestra and choir performing arrangements by Jonny Greenwood
Frank Ocean: Endless feat. London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 19 August 2016 Label: Def Jam Recordings
Frank Ocean: Blonde feat. London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 20 August 2016 Label: Boys Don't Cry
Justice: Woman feat. London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 18 November 2016 Label: Ed Banger Records
Alien: Covenant (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Jed Kurzel Release Date: 19 May 2017 Label: Milan Records
Actress X LCO: Audio Track 5 Release Date: 1 September 2017 Label: Ninja Tune
Phantom Thread (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Jonny Greenwood Release Date: 12 January 2018 Label: Nonesuch
Actress X LCO: Lageos Release Date: 25 May 2018 Label: Ninja Tune
American Animals (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Anne Nikitin Release Date: 22 June 2018 Label: The Orchard
Captive State (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Rob Simonsen Release Date: 15 March 2019 Label: Masterworks
Thom Yorke: Anima
Release Date: 19 July 2019 Label: XL Recordings
Thom Yorke: Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) Release Date: 26 October 2019 Label: XL Recordings
Dying Light 2: Stay Human Release Date: 4 February 2022 Composer: Olivier Deriviere
The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention feat. strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra Release Date: 13 May 2022 Label: XL Recordings
The Smile: Wall of Eyes Release Date: 26 січня 2024 Label: XL Recordings

## New works

* Emily Hall: "Put Flesh On!" (2008)
* Colin Alexander: "Potential Fracture Lines" (2008)
* Jonathan Cole: "Assassin Hair", revised version (2008)
* Howard Quin: "Combination Curves" (2009)
* Jonathan Cole: "burburbabbar za" (2009)
* Shiva Feshareki: "TTKonzert" (2010)
* Tristan Brookes: "Ur" (2010)
* Emily Hall and Toby Litt: "Songs" (2010)
* Mira Calix and Larry Goves: "pedotin"; "ipo" (2010)
* Simon Fisher Turner: "Attitude" (2010)
* Jonathan Cole / Colin Alexander: "Forum" (2011)
* Martin Suckling: "de sol y grana" (2011)
* Gabriel Prokofiev: "Concerto for Bass Drum and Orchestra" (2012)
* William Basinski (arr. Maxim Moston) "Disintegration Loop 2.1" (2012)
* Actress: Audio Track 5 (2017)