There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience.

In the wake of the acclaimed Arkhon, Zola Jesus released Alive in Cappadocia - a stunning live performance video celebrating the dominance and dynamism of her powerful voice.

All ages

Bird On The Wire

Grand Junction

Zola Jesus

Zola Jesus - Lost

Gigs

London

**This Autumn, Making Tracks returns to Grand Junction with another incredible line-up of eight musicians, performing solo and collaboratively!**

Following on from their two-week artist residency at Cove Park on the west coast of Scotland, eight talented artists showcase new collaborative works and solo performances, drawing upon their diverse musical backgrounds – and touching on genres from folk and electronica to classical music – to create transcendent pieces, including several new works inspired by the theme of Oceans.

**About Making Tracks**

Since 2019, Making Tracks has brought world-class music from all corners of the globe to a network of leading venues throughout the UK. The project is based around the idea that intercultural and interspecies approaches to music-making have the power to bring people together and foster a greater appreciation of both cultural diversity and biodiversity.

All ages.

Making Tracks

The Leaving Song (feat. Abi Plowman)

Bring your friends and show off your spookiest dances at this Halloween celebration with the Ceilidh Liberation Front!

Open to dancers of all abilities (no experience necessary!)

Something wicked this way comes…

The Nest Collective have reached beyond the veil and summoned a new ceilidh event for you this October. Marvel at the stunning halls of Grand Junction as you bewitch your friends with your scariest two-step! Dosie-do and strip-the-willow as we raise our spirits with ghosts and ghouls.

Your host will guide you throughout the evening, and offer insights and reflections on this special time of year celebrated for millennia across different cultures.

This event is a celebration of life, and an honouring of the ancestors. We ask you to raise up your voices and knees in the exalted spirit of the ceilidh!

Dress code: Grand Junction has a no-heels policy for this event. Other than that, there is no strict dress code. Come as splendid as you like!

The Ceilidh Liberation Front is London’s most radical & colourful live band, subverting the lore of Ceilidh with their energetic folk dance regime. They breathe vigour and vitality into the traditional ceilidh, whilst honouring its roots and traditions.

All are welcome at this event – groups, pairs or solo bookings.

There will be a prize of a bottle of whisky for the best outfit!

Join us this October for a ceilidh like no other!

Our audiences say:

“My face hurt from smiling all evening!!!”

“Lovely people, great calling and choice of dances, friendly (and good value) bar, excellent band”

“Fantastic atmospheric venue, great fun, really nice bunch of people. All in all a great night out."

Halloween Ceilidh 

French artist Cécile Schott aka Colleen is fearless in her willingness to explore new sounds and new ways of creating music as a solo performer. Over the course of eight critically acclaimed albums released between 2003 and 2023, Cécile Schott has consistently reinvented herself, first by taking acoustic instruments out of their usual context and pushing the boundaries of their playability, then through avant-pop electronic explorations, and now dedicates herself to her own unique brand of warm analog synthesis.

The Thrill Jockey recording artist has now played more than 250 concerts across Europe, the US, Japan, Brazil and Singapore, in prestigious venues (Public Records, Kings Place, Silent Green, La Casa Encendida, L’Auditori…) and festivals (Big Ears, Moogfest, Mutek, Le Guess Who, Transmediale, Rewire…).

Colleen’s growing passion for synthesis, bolstered by her collaborations with synth manufacturer Moog, led to her 8th album Le jour et la nuit du réel, released on Thrill Jockey in 2023. Built as a suite of songs, the artist’s first double album is also her first purely instrumental work since 2007, and aims to translate through a myriad of sound transformations the complexity of our relation to reality, and its psychological mutations through the cycles of day and night.

"A singular musician; no one else makes music like Colleen’s. Her songs offer a completely unique window on the world." - The New Yorker

"Instrumental landscapes that exalt simple abstract wonders" - NPR

Colleen + Marçal Xirau

Baba Yaga's Hut

Join the renowned West country songwriter, Steve Knightley, former Show of Hands frontman, for his groundbreaking nationwide solo tour—the first since the iconic band disbanded. Focused on promoting his latest album, ‘The Winter Yards,’ this tour signifies a profound shift in Knightley’s musical journey.

This is an 18+ event

Steve Knightley - Winter Yards Tour 24

Steve Knightley

**Don't miss pianist Joep Beving and cellist Maarten Vos as they join forces to perform their first collaborative album "Vision of Contentment" on our stage - the album is set to be released 19 July**

The new album follows their works on 2019’s Henosis, Beving’s third album, after the two musicians shared a bill in Amsterdam in 2018. It’s preceded by a single, ’02:07’, released on 31 May 2024. Vos considers the haunting sounds of vision of contentment “a sonic landscape that encourages imaginative exploration”. Beving, meanwhile, says he intends to leave listeners with a simple sense of love, adding that he hopes it will also enable “a search for harmony and understanding”.

Joep Beving & Maarten Vos

Joep Beving - Midwayer

Joep Beving

Maarten Vos

**Egyptian singer-songwriter Amena is bringing her Arabic-infused Jazz music to Grand Junction as part of the London Jazz Festival 2024!**

Amena, a talented singer and songwriter from Cairo, Egypt, draws inspiration from early Egyptian and Lebanese legends like Sheikh Imam, the Rahbani Brothers, and Sayed Darwish, adding her unique twist to their timeless compositions. Growing up in Cairo, she fell in love with both Arabic and Jazz music.

Now studying Jazz singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Amena brings together the best of two worlds and blends her cultural roots with the harmony and rhythms of Jazz.

Musicians:

**Amena** \- vocals

**Ziad Hisham** - Guitar

**Abdelghany Sayed** - Oud

**Josh Stidwill** - Keyboard

**Julian Woods** - Double Bass

**Anmol Mohara** - Drums

\*\*\*\*\*\*

**We recommend pre-booking tickets to guarantee entry. Booking on the door will result in an additional fee of £1.**

This is an all ages event.

Amena - London Jazz Festival 2024

**Renowned trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed performs in the Grand Junction as part of EFG London Jazz Festival 2024.**

Yazz has garnered global acclaim with her own distinct brand of psychedelic-Arabic-jazz. Her career has included collaborations with Radiohead and Transglobal Underground, and commissions for Adult Swim and Blue Note.

She has received rave reviews for her albums La Saboteuse (2017) and Polyhymnia (2019), with Downbeat Magazine naming her an artist set to shape the future of jazz over the next decade. In 2020, Yazz won two Jazz FM awards—Jazz Act of the Year and Jazz Album of the Year—as well as the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation in Composition.

**We recommend pre-booking tickets to guarantee entry. Booking on the door will result in an additional fee of £1.**

Yazz Ahmed - London Jazz Festival 2024

Bloom

Yazz Ahmed

**Immerse yourself in an enchanting world as the mesmerising quartet CALAN grace our stage with their unique brand of power-folk.**

This musical odyssey combines original tunes and songs with ancient melodies unearthed from the National Library of Wales. Join us for an extraordinary evening featuring tracks from their highly anticipated album, ‘Nefydd’.

Internationally acclaimed CALAN emerge with a new, captivating narrative; ancient tales of Welsh mythology are meticulously brought to life, transcending the pages of folklore to resonate through the enchanting melodies of harp, guitar, fiddle, accordion, and song. ‘Nefydd’ tells stories of murderous princes, thieving highwaymen and the triumphant resurgence of the heart of Welsh folklore.

CALAN's versatility is legendary in itself. From intimate house concerts to the grandiose Royal Albert Hall, Calan have become modern day folk heroes themselves. They also notably graced operatic superstar Sir Bryn Terfel's most recent album, marking their triumphant return to the musical forefront.

Support act: The Marcellas

The Marcellas are an electro acoustic three piece band from Merthyr Tydfil. The band comprises of two sisters Bethan and Delyth McLean, singing blood harmonies and playing a mix of guitar, bass and percussion and their uncle Karl Pulman playing lead guitar and drums. Their influences range from little feat and led zeppelin to Florence and the machine and First Aid Kit. Their current set is original music written by themselves with some different takes on a few favourite covers.

https://www.facebook.com/theMARCELLASthe/

A Mythical Musical Odyssey with CALAN

Calan

Project Smok is the neo-trad trio of Ali Levack, Ewan Baird and Pablo Lafuente, whose nonconformist and progressive Scottish traditional music has set them apart since their formation in 2017. Known for their ability to effortlessly blend trad music with contemporary new-age pop influences, Project Smok are at their most comfortable pushing boundaries, making listeners stop and re-evaluate their musical expectations. They do away with any perceived limits of genre from the first note.

With tunes built around the distinctive piping of BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2020 Ali Levack, paired with Ewan Baird’s skilled bodhran playing and Pablo Lafuente’s nuanced guitar, electric guitar and production, the trio manage to naturally bring together an array of musical aspects.

They boast nominations for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist’ at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2018 and the ‘Belhaven Bursary for Innovation’ at the same awards in 2019, not to mention an unforgettable collaboration with 2019 Scottish Album of the Year nominee Edwyn Collins on their 2020 debut album, ‘Bayview’.

"*I don't think I can find words suitable for how good they are.*” – Bruce MacGregor, BBC Travelling Folk

“*You will simply not hear a better group for sheer, unadulterated*

*virtuosity...*” – MNPR Magazine

Project Smok

A Palestinian Nay Master and Percussionist, redefines the parameters of the Nay, an ancient Middle Eastern flute dating back to 5000 b.c.

With an evocative and improvisational approach, he plays the Nay while simultaneously accompanying himself on leg-percussion, seamlessly embodying a fresh and unique fusion of Middle Eastern, Jazz, and contemporary Folk sounds.

As part of the 2024 EFG London Jazz Festival, the talented Palestinian Composer brings his Kham Project to the English capital for traditional music explorations. Faris is renowned for revitalising traditional Palestinian shepherd playing while pioneering contemporary jazz.

His latest project is "Kham," which in Arabic means "Raw," is inspired by the Nay’s raw material (Sugarcane), guiding Faris’s artistic exploration to honour its roots while exploring the ultimate and innate performance potential of this minimal instrument. The project members are distinguished by masterful and diverse musical artistry in world music cultures, especially jazz, Middle Eastern, and African music, inspiring an innovative dialogue between four ancient instruments. For Faris, "Raw” represents the faith in the inherent potential of any idea, substance, or even person, and the whole-hearted investment in perceiving and working with it.

This is an 16+

Faris Ishaq - EFG London Jazz Festival 2024

Faris

**Peregrine Voices return to Grand Junction to present a festive programme, full of beautiful choral music and Christmas favourites, in the stunning candlelit surroundings of St. Mary Magdalene’s.**

The concert will tell the story of Christmas, mixing well-known carols, jazz standards, and rich choral textures to leave you full of festive joy.

Peregrine Voices: The Story of Christmas

**After a sold out evening, we are delighted to see the return of Arab Christmas at Grand Junction!**

Join us for a rare opportunity to experience the atmosphere of Christmas in the Arab world as the Grand Junction gently lit by candles. You will hear Arabic, Syriac, Coptic and Byzantine chants, harking back to the time of Queen Zanubia’s Palmyra in the second century CE. The sound world of these chants is rich with quarter tones and virtuosic ornamentation.

***Line-up to be announced.***

The evening is presented by Arts Canteen in collaboration with Grand Junction.

**We recommend pre-booking tickets to guarantee entry. Booking on the door will result in an additional fee of £1.**

Arab Christmas by Candlelight

Upcoming events

Grand Junction is a venue for arts, culture, and community, based at the spectacular grade 1 listed St Mary Magdalene Church. We create and present an eclectic programme of music, arts, and heritage for young people, families, and adults.

We also have a café serving delicious food overlooking the canal, as well as meeting and event spaces available for hire.

Grand Junction

Venue in London

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