Press

Henry Grimes, Bobby Few, Mark Sanders, Elaine Mitchener at Café Oto, 26 April 2013

Geoff Winston

“…Mitchener’s presence had the touch of Abbey Lincoln’s vocalisations with Max Roach and this concert indicated a musical coming of age for her, having briefly guested with Grimes on Café Oto’s stage in 2011. Working both with texts and with improvised freedom in the spirit of Phil Minton’s exotic vocal flights, she kept Grimes and Few on their toes with tremulous, animalesque jitterings and a charged, expressive undercurrent – there was no chance of this being a heritage act!”

 

Press, Review

Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Cheltenham, UK — review

Mike Hobart

“Their performance was as stunning as it was fresh and further collaborations are, let’s hope, in the pipeline.”

Press, Review

Artist’s Statement: Classically-trained vocal artist Elaine Mitchener on privacy and intimacy

Ben Miller

“My work is constantly evolving as I develop ideas and work with different artists, being challenged along the way. I approach each project with the excitement of something new and rewarding and, even if it doesn’t work, that’s okay because that’s an object lesson in itself.”

Interview, Press

Industrial Intimacy: An Interview with Elaine Mitchener

John Wadsworth

“Industrialising Intimacy is a new way of working for me as it combines structured notational form, vocal improvisation, and movement that has been developed in R&D. I’m very excited to experience the outcome.”

Interview, Press

Freedom of movement

Philip Clark

“Conceived and performed by London based vocalist Elaine Mitchener, Industrialising Intimacy flickers into life at the point where any attempts at categorisation are doomed to fail. Mitchener herself calls the piece “An original work of contemporary music theatre, performed […] in collaboration with Dam Van Huynh, George Lewis and David Toop.” But its mash-up of composed music, free improvisation and input from a choreographer meets inside a hybrid form that has little to do with how modern composition, improvisation or dance are usually perceived.”

Interview, Press

In Search of Julius Eastman

Ivan Hewett

“The steely self-possession of the words, the remorseless repetitions of both text and music, and the spell-binding intensity of the performers, above all reciter Elaine Mitchener, made for something both enthralling and moving.”

Press, Review

Apartment House

Anna Picard

“(…) Rzewski’s Coming Together (1971) opened the concert, ignited by the flame of Elaine Mitchener’s voice as she hissed and crooned and preached the words of Sam Melville, who died in the 1971 Attica prison riot. Ferociously expressive in voice and body, alert to the irony and beauty and misery of the text, Mitchener drove a thrilling performance by Apartment House, the pounding piano ostinato unflagging.”

Press, Review

Constantly surprising and superbly executed jazz

John Fordham

“A soft groove from drummer Steve Davis introduced a steadily striding vocal theme, from Mitchener a torrent of bird-sounds and pugnacious exclamations, a graceful drift through the seductive poetry of 13th-century Persian mystic Rumi, and a scintillating flat-out vocal inventory of life’s detritus (…) over a catchy bassline. It was constantly surprising and superbly executed cutting-edge music built on winningly familiar foundations.”

Press, Review

Internationales Jazz Festival Münster, Hawkins-Mitchener Quartet review

Henning Bolte

“The brilliance and urgency, the openness and the irresistible inner swing of the movement captivated the audience (…) the group took the audience as its fifth member on a stunning many-sided sonic tour. (…) The musical action went beyond known limits.“

Press, Review

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