This Is Not Random… | Double Bill: Shift Octatonic & BeachFront

Name: This Is Not Random… | Double Bill: Shift Octatonic & BeachFront
Start: 2026-05-24T19:45:00+01:00
Location: Southbank Centre

Schedule

Sun, 24 May, 2026 at 07:45 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Southbank Centre | London, EN

Shifting, transformative, unbound. South Asian classical raag meets the octatonic scale in Shift Octatonic and BeachFront.
Be led on a transformative listening journey by Jonathan Mayer in Shift Octatonic, as he deftly weaves together raag, taal, electronics and radical transpositions.
Composers like Debussy and Stravinsky gave the octatonic scale fame in the early 20th century. But the eight-note musical scale’s roots reach back to seventh century Persian music. Shift Octatonic retraces these migration patterns from Persia to the West and onward into South Asia with urgency and imagination.
Multi-instrumentation expands the layered, tonal world of the sarod in the second work, BeachFront. At its heart is a probing look at the agency and forces behind migration, what we perceive as ‘foreign’ and what becomes home.
This Is Not Random… is a zerOclassikal series where the inner structure, intention and divergence of South Asian classical music are placed at the centre, rather than the cult of the artist.
Featuring Jonathan Mayer (sitar), William Rees Hofmann (sarod), Jawand Jheeta (dilruba), Robin Christian (bansuri), Chandra Chakraborty (vocals), Janan Sathiendran (tabla), and Camilo Tirado (electronics)
When: Sun, May 24 | 7:30 PM
Where: Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Tickets: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/zeroclassikal-this-is-not-random/