BEN "BABY" COPPERHEAD

WNYC calls him “the banjo visionary”, while the BBC calls him “the banjo-wielding electronic experimentalist.”

Kramer of the Shimmy-Disc label said “Ben is the real thing. Like Elvis. Like Björk. Like Glenn Gould or Nina Simone, he's a truly original talent, burning bright as the sun. There's just no one else like him."

Ben “Baby” Copperhead is a New York City-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist whose compositions, performances, and arrangements offer a unique, contemporary vision informed by an unlikely range of influences, traditions, and collaborations.

Rooted in folk music with an “otherworldly” banjo style, Copperhead uses modal and tonal explorations, while sometimes using samplers, processed drum machines, tape loops, and handmade electronic instruments inspired by the experimentalism of Musique Concrète.

His latest recording Wailing Viridescence, was released on the legendary and formative Shimmy-Disc label run by Kramer who is responsible for producing and putting out Ween, Galaxy 500, Daniel Johnston, Allen Ginsberg, John Zorn, BOREDOMS, RUINS and countless classics. In 2017, Copperhead released The Serpent and the Sparrow on UK's Tin Angel Records, followed by tours with Trembling Bells and Devon Sproule.

Ben Copperhead has worked with Mavis Staples, Darryl McDaniels (Run-DMC), Nona Hendryx, Michael Bearden, Hozier, Zea (The Ex), Eugene Chadbourne, Devon Sproule, Jace Clayton (DJ/rupture), and many more. He was a member of Ed Askew’s band and a founding member of the instrumental surf band The Zolephants.

LUCE MAWDSELY

Luce Mawdsely's latest album 'Northwest & Nebulous' is a lush and accomplished instrumental album suffused with radiant and fluid possibilities, where expansively cinematic instrumentals conjure queer cowboy landscapes via the Northern English coastline. The album is a world-building piece of work, pulling from folk, Americana and soundtrack influences, fusing Luce’s romantic and exploratory energies to signal the beginning of a new journey for composer, with an open invitation for listeners to come along for the ride.

“Inventive and affecting baroque-jazz-folk from the Merseyside Morricone” - Uncut

“Eight fluid, folk-tinged instrumentals sound quietly lovely while still shaking the emotional foundations” - 4* MOJO

CHRIS CUNDY

Chris Cundy is an award winning composer performer playing bass clarinet and rarified woodwind instruments. In 2024 he released his fourth solo album Of All The Common Flowers which explores a self-developed music of circular breathing, cross-rhythms, and archaic dance motifs. He has also worked with singer songwriters including Fyfe Dangerfield, Little Annie, and The Bookshop Band, and has appeared on motion picture soundtracks for Aardman Animations.

“Swirling around the songs was bass clarinet player Chris Cundy, like a birdsong interrupting an argument” LOS ANGELES TIMES

L.T. LEIF

A wild dog chasing the sun! Hailing from the Canadian Prairies by way of Finland and Glasgow, L.T.Leif crafts captivating, glitchy psych-folk that "can stop a day in its tracks, pull it apart...and transport the listener somewhere else entirely" (Gold Flake Paint).

Leif has been involved in many projects–from heartwarming experimental collaborations with the infamous Bill Wells, to psych-rock performances with Scottish dreamboats Pictish Trail and Susan Bear (Lost Map Presents Weird Wave), to recreating the music of Ivor Cutlor with Emma Pollock (The Delgados). Their admirers include K Records maestro Calvin Johnson (they toured together with The Believer Magazine). Leif’s spirit is eternally collaborative, generous, experimental, and kind–a stance that comes through in their performance and sound. "Whether it’s minimalist writers, painters, thinkers, a striking landscape or their own body, L.T. Leif has a knack for taking the world around them and funnelling it into sound" (For the Rabbits). Leif is supported by Lost Map Records.

“beautifully contemplative”

– Steve Lamaq, BBC radio 6

"diverse, accomplished, beguiling"

– Fiona Shepard, The List

6:30pm doors, 7pm start (10:15-10:30pm finish approx) Tickets £14/£10 concession*

*concession is for anyone who needs, no questions asked

Access Guide and Tickets for Personal Assistants

You can view/download The Glad Cafe's Access Guide here. If you require a ticket for a Personal Assistant/Gig Buddy (at no extra cost), please contact kim@thegladcafe.co.uk.