The Gavin Bryars Ensemble

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet and The Sinking of the Titanic

The seminal British composer Gavin Bryars brings his Ensemble back to the Howard Assembly Room for a programme built around two of his greatest works.

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet  began with a discarded recording of an unknown homeless man singing unaccompanied. Discovering that this fragment – a few lines from a misremembered gospel song – was accurate in pitch, Bryars set about building an exquisite, swelling arrangement of brass and strings around it, a process that he has likened to setting a jewel.

First performed in 1972, it was subsequently recorded for Brian Eno’s Obscure label. A later version was made with Tom Waits’ vocals, and more recently Bryars directed a 12-hour overnight performance in London’s Tate Modern.

Inspired by the story that the ship’s band continued to perform as it slid beneath the waves, The Sinking of the Titanic  imagines how the sound would reverberate through the medium of water: “The music goes through a number of different states, reflecting an implied slow descent to the ocean bed”, says Bryars.