The Alehouse Sessions

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If it has to be put in a historical context, the project draws its inspiration from the Shakespearian theatre where there was a direct communication between stage and hall- going in-between the story that was being told and occurring events happening in the hall. A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley. Along with a variety of classical stringed instruments, their own arrangements delight us in a joyful mix of vocals, percussion, harmonium, guitar, charango and storytelling. Attendees can book a double-bill of tickets, with The Purcell Playhouse kicking off proceedings at 9pm in the Purcell Room, recreating the raucousness of a night at the theatre after the 18 year theatre closures under Cromwell came to an end.

Although Charles II would lift the ban, by then tavern music had grown into something of a genre, in which the vagaries of quotidian life rubbed elbows with mythologies in the making. I must admit that the prospect of a musical recreation of a long boozy session in a seventeenth-century tavern had me on high cringe-alert, but I'm so very glad I gave this a spin - the result somehow manages to feel authentic and contemporary at the same time (and had one of my most curmudgeonly colleagues dancing in his seat when he thought I wasn't looking). Eike and Barokksolistene bring the camaraderie of the period, the artistry and the connection between musicians and the audience to life in this production, filmed on location at Battersea Arts Centre and The George Inn, Southwark. This spring (most likely 23 April), BBC4 brings The Alehouse Sessions to screens in a new film directed by Dominic Best, capturing the sound world of rebellious London under Oliver Cromwell’s draconian laws. I want this band to resemble the mentality of a pop group; from my little black book, an extensive collection of songs and dance music – four hours of music – I only announce to the musicians half an hour before we go on stage which ones we are about to perform.Backed by his Alehouse Boys, a merry band culled from the Barokksolistene ensemble Eike leads, the project's latest CD is a sonic re-creation of 17th-century English taverns. The Alehouse Sessions aims to capture the atmosphere and sounds of London at a time where the theatres were closed (thanks to Oliver Cromwell).

There was the percussive backbone of Fredrik Bock on charango and the dancing of Steven Player, the equally rhythmic core of Buhre and Guthrie on their backing strings, the lively bassing of Johannes Lundberg, the rustic vivacity of viol(in)ist Milos Valent, and the harmonium of Hans Knut Sveen. Supporting and nurturing young talent is at the heart of the London Handel Festival’s mission and this performance brings together some of the finest young baroque musicians from leading UK conservatoires to form a brand new ensemble. Commissioned by the BBC and directed by award-winning director Dominic Best (AdLib Productions), the film will be premiered on BBC TV in late April 2023. A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley of riotous improvisatory give and take…The result is more gastropub than spit-and-sawdust hostelry, but ‘cheers’ all the same! Forty years on, Eike has taken that restless energy and curiosity and channelled it into one of music’s most exhilarating, anarchic projects: the Alehouse Sessions.It gives audiences a window into this tumultuous period through Purcell overtures, English sea shanties, and Scandinavian folk songs thrown in for good measure.

These sessions have already been hailed as "irresistible" [The Times], "superb" [The Scotsman] and "fabulously unrestrained" by The Guardian, "creating the effect of a late night jamming session", said BBC Music Magazine. The film will be available online shortly after broadcast on Sunday 23rd April, 9pm and can be found here. You won’t be able to bring any bags over 40 x 25 x 25cm into the Queen Elizabeth Hall, so please leave large bags at home.The Alehouse Sessions – curated and devised by Bjarte Eike – is an ever changing and evolving insight into the music of the English 17th Century tavern.

Above all I just knew that if we were going to play this kind of English music, we had to take it back to where it was performed. In this interview, Bjarte Eike, artistic director of the Barokksolistene, talks about genesis of The Alehouse Sessions.I know it feels very unlikely that we, the Barokksolistene, a Scandi group of baroque specialists, have made a programme for British TV singing sea shanties and folk ballads alongside Purcell. Beauty meets melancholy as rich hybrids of folk and classical bang heads with drinking songs, elegies, sea-shanties and bawdy ballads. On September 23, visitors to the Southbank Centre will have the chance to live through the elevated status of the tavern, and get a feel for the 17th Century Alehouses through the means of music. Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene is an alchemical miracle of an ensemble, a collective of virtuosos whose instinctive, playful communication and delight in one another’s skill amplifies their individual performances, transforming them into pure musical gold … here’s a wonderfully egalitarian quality to music-making that weaves its way from court to dockyard to tavern without pause.