Skin Deep Sonic Transmissions

Skin Deep is a femme-led, anti-racist arts collective that creates space for Black creatives and creatives of colour to work towards justice.

Join us in the Horniman Museum’s breath-taking Conservatory for a sonic exploration of the immense creative influence of Black music artists in the UK.

Past Sonic Transmissions events have platformed artists such as Moses Boyd, Cassie Kinoshi, Nérija, Ahnansé, House of Absolute and Brother Portrait, supported by artists Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, Mansur Brown, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Shirley Tetteh, Theon Cross and Max Halle. 

Enjoy Skin Deep Sonic Transmissions in the beautiful setting of our Grade II listed Victorian conservatory, set amongst the Gardens.

By purchasing a ticket for this event you agree to being filmed or recorded for the purposes of the event. The footage can be used for promotional, marketing or records.

We realise these are still difficult times for many people therefore we are offering tiered ticket pricing based on what you can afford, with limited capacity. Please pay what you can afford so that someone else less fortunate might be able to attend.

Shabaka Hutchings – Sold Out

Wednesday 29 September

Shabaka Hutchings is a saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. A significant part of the 21st century jazz and improvised music scenes, he has led his own groups, worked with Courtney Pine’s Jazz Warriors, been a member of the Heliocentrics, and played on albums by everyone from Mulatu Astatke to Melt Yourself Down.

Hutchings is a founder and member of the band Sons of Kemet, whose debut album, Burn, won the 2013 MOBO Award for Jazz Act of the Year. He is also part of an electronic trio project, the Comet is Coming, with members Leavers and Max Hallett, whose full-length album Channel the Spirits (2016) was released to critical acclaim and received a Mercury Prize nomination. He has been a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists (2010) a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composer Award and an Associate Artist for the Spitalfields Summer Festival. In 2015, Hutchings travelled to South Africa to record a project with native jazz musicians, which resulted in an album Wisdom of Elders (2016), released by Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label.

Previous events:

Lex Amor

Wednesday 30 June

Lex Amor is a Rapper, Producer, Sound Designer, Engineer and DJ from North London.

Amor first surfaced in 2016 with her characterful slant on descriptive hip hop, the calm yet powerful cadence of her delivery has since cultivated a cult following all over the world. Over the span of 4 years Lex has worked in and around UK music as an Artist, youth mentor and community organiser.

In September 2020, Lex released her debut mixtape Government Tropicana (GT) – GT has since garnered close to 1 million streams across all platforms, with vinyl runs selling out twice to date. Independently, Amor has been featured and playlisted on radio stations across the UK including: Radio 1, Radio 6 Music, 1xtra and Kiss.

Lex has been featured on esteemed platforms such as COLORS and Boiler Room and has had editorial support from platforms such as PAM, Afropunk, OkayPlayer, Clash, Pitchfork, Line Of Best Fit, Lyrical Lemonade and Complex with the aforementioned listing her as the Rapper to look out for in 2021.

Lex’s collaborators, peers and creative colleagues include; Giles Peterson, Ghostpoet, Alfa Mist, Barney Artist, Kojey Radical, Caleb Femi, 808INK, Jesse James Solomon, Knucks, Joe Armon Jones, Maxwell Owin, Ego Ella May, Nubya Garcia, Jay Prince and Andhim – amongst many others.

Amor has played all over the UK, playing to a sold out Southbank Centre in October 2019 and doing a mini UK tour in the first quarter of 2020.

Ashley Henry

Wednesday 28 July

South London born Ashley Henry is one of a new generation of musicians, raised with a wide range and depth of influences. His album debut ‘Beautiful Vinyl Hunter’ (Sony) saw him nominated by Cerys Matthews for BBC 6 Music’s Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to do so. The album won Jazz Japan’s Album of the Year and Henry is France’s Jazz Magazine New Jazz Artist of the Year. Henry graduated from Royal Academy of Music in 2016, going on to perform with Jason Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Jean Toussaint, with the latter featuring on Henry’s record, Easter EP. At the age of 25, Henry was commissioned as resident Musical Director for both Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott’s in London, and won the Jazz FM Live Experience Award. In 2018/19, he toured with Christine and the Queens, and supported Loyle Carner’s 2019 featured tour.

His live performances have gained outstanding reviews, including a sold-out standing-room only show as part of the 2019 EFG London Jazz Festival, and the much talked about BBC Music Introducing live showcase at the NYC Winter Jazzfest 2020 (New York), curated by Gilles Peterson. 

Missed out on in person tickets? Watch a live stream of the event for free. 

Tawiah + Myrrh – Sold Out

Wednesday 25 August

Tawiah has a well-earned reputation as a trailblazer in the world of alternative soul and as one of the UK’s finest singer/songwriters and live performers.

Over the last decade, Tawiah self-released her award-winning EP In Jodi’s Bedroom (Bush Girl Records) and Recreate (Lima Limo Records). In 2019 she released her debut album Starts Again (First Word Records), touring Recreate with Moses Sumney and Starts Again with Michael Kiwanuka. Tawiah has also worked in collaboration with artists including; Blood Orange, Kindness, Mark Ronson, Cee-Lo and Kano to name a few, most recently co-writing and performing the Cinematic Orchestra’s latest single Wait for Now.

Tawiah is currently working collaboratively with conceptual artist Myrrh – ‘We began working together two years ago to create an immersive live experience for the Starts Again album launch show. This time we decided to collaborate from concept, we created a theoretic space using images and stories, the music was composed within that space, in the end the music becomes the physical space, a world you can enter.’

The forthcoming album is the story of Ertha – she is the personification of the infinite universe and everything within it. It is a cyclical journey back to where we started; hope born of despair, strength born of adversity, lessons born of tests, peace born of conflict, light born of darkness. Completed at home during the Covid19 lockdown by Tawiah and Myrrh and co-produced by Jodi Milliner (Kano), the album will be released in 2021.

Missed out on tickets? Watch the live stream for free