The Relentless Approach of Better Times

An urgent and compelling solo performance using improvised live double bass, electronic music and experimental film to reflect on the overwhelm of news headlines, government manipulation and the increasingly chaotic times we’re living through. More importantly, it’s about how art can help us cope.

The Relentless Approach of Better Times invites you on a journey from anxiety to hope. This is not escapism. It is a defiant leap into the darkness.

Emma uses echoes of early 20th Century classical music to create knife-edge atmospheres, folk music to tell stories, filtered electronics to express altered states, and free improvising to address the audience directly.

Emma Smith is a composer, improviser and classically trained double bassist. She has worked as a regular workshop leader with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since 2014 and a Lead Trainer for Musicians Without Borders in Palestine and El Salvador to provide creative spaces for displaced people. As an advocate for gender balance in the arts, Emma founded the multi-genre series Bitches Brew with support from Serious/Cryptic, which showcases the raw energy of the best female instrumental improvising talent.

The Relentless Approach of Better Times was developed during residencies with Oxford Contemporary Music and Cryptic, and was selected for the Made In Scotland international showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe.