Icebreaker are a unique voice in British music. With their unusual instrumental combination of saxes, guitars, electric strings, keyboards, flutes, pan-pipes, accordion, drums and percussion, Icebreaker's unique amplified sound appeals to contemporary classical, rock and alternative music audiences alike.
In summer 2019 the project was revived for the 50th anniversary of the moon landings with a large scale performance in Matera for its celebrations as European City of Culture. For the performance Icebreaker and BJ Cole were joined on stage by one of the work's composers - Roger Eno - on piano.
Kraftwerk Uncovered & further projects In 2014 Icebreaker continued their collaboration with the Science Museum with a performance work based around the music of Kraftwerk. The work was created and arranged by German artist J Peter Schwalm with a new film by Sophie Clements and Toby Cornish. Kraftwerk Uncovered was premiered at the Science Museum in January 2014, before touring in the UK and Ireland.
In 2015-16 Icebreaker toured with a new project, Recycled, featuring new work by Ed Bennett, Linda Buckley, Roy Carroll, Paul Whitty and Craig Vear, with a new arrangement of a work by Julia Wolfe. The project explored more experimental techniques, improvisation, use of computer technology and electronics, and extended instrumental techniques, with music based around the idea of recycling/rewriting/found objects and so on.
System Restart was Icebreaker's next major project in 2017-18 - a programme of mostly newly commissioned work by a selection of all women composers, partly inspired by Icebreaker's wish to address a historical gender imbalance of composers, which had been enhanced by funding bias. The programme featured new works by Jobina Tinnemans, Kerry Andrew and Elizabeth Kelly with new arrangements of music by Anna Meredith, Kate Moore and Linda Buckley.
Icebreaker are currently planning a further collaboration with the Science Museum, with hopes that it might be realised in 2021, subject to restrictions on performance and plannig caused by the coronavirus crisis.
In 2007 their version of Music with Changing Partsby Philip Glass was released on Orange Mountain Music. The piece is a significant early Glass work, unplayed for many years, which they were given special permission to revive and arrange by the composer.
Their most recent release, with BJ Cole is the recording of Apollo, which was released on Cantaloupe Music in June 2012 and reissued in 2019 on Firebrand in 2019.
Icebreaker Collaborations & Other Work In 2003/4 Icebreaker initiated a major multi-media collaboration with the renowned Dutch ensemble Orkest de Volharding and singer Christina Zavalloni, entitled Big Noise. The project, consisting of four new commissions from leading composers from Britain and Holland, each working in conjunction with a video artist, toured major venues in the UK and the Netherlands, supported by the Arts Council Contemporary Music Network and the BBC, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
In 2016 Icebreaker premiered a live version of Scott Walker's Epizootics, from the album Bish Bosch, arranged by Icebreaker's musical director Audrey Riley, performed to Walker's recorded voice and video, with approval from the artist. The work was revived for performances in Italy, Lithuania, Ireland and the UK in 2019 in commemoration of the artist's death.
Other recent projects include a new arrangement of Glassworks (by special permission from Philip Glass), a new work commissioned by the European Space Agency by Kate Moore, although the performance at the ESA's ESTEC facility is currently postponed due to Covid-19, and further arrangements on the ongoing theme of live versions of electronica, including music by Anna Meredith and JLin.
Since 2006, Icebreaker has hosted an internet radio channel on totallyradio.com (which is fully accessible in archive), where their own music can be heard alongside an eclectic and heady mix of music from a wide spectrum of genres, and also features Icebreaker flautist Rowland Sutherland's shows on Brazilian music and jazz flute.