Ellen Arkbro + Raheel Khan
Assembly 2026 opens with two new works – deep listening encounters shaped by sustained harmony, tone and instrumental resonance.
Doors: 6.30pm
| Dates | Thu 26 Mar 2026 |
| Times | 7pm |
| Space | Lancaster Rooms, New Wing |
| Price | £20 (General) £15 (Concessions) |
Ellen Arkbro: For Crumhorns and Regal
Composer and musician Ellen Arkbro premieres a new piece for crumhorns and reed organ commissioned as part of the Goethe-Institut London x Somerset House Studios Residency in partnership with CTM Festival Berlin.
Developed during her three-month London residency in early 2025, For Crumhorns and Regal continues Arkbro’s inquiry into finely tuned harmonic architectures. The music draws on the unique texture and resonance of the crumhorn – a Renaissance period double-reed woodwind instrument – that through precise intervallic playing, blends with Arkbro’s sustained reed organ. Performed by players from the London Crumhorn Consort, the quartet’s held tones attempt to create stable compositional chordal blocks, a compound sound almost resembling a synthesizer; a challenge due to the crumhorn’s breath-bound nature, buzzy timbre and resistance to perfect steadiness in pitch.
Intimately involved with the tuning of each chord, the players strive for harmonic clarity, sounding and listening as one. It’s in this heightened attentiveness and tension that the soul of Arkbro’s piece emerges - the unreachable ideal of a pure tone and the effort required to approach it.
For Crumhorns and Regal is commissioned by Somerset House Studios and Goethe-Institut London in partnership with CTM Festival Berlin.
Artists In Residence
Communities
Raheel Khan: Oh Forewarn
For Assembly 2026, artist and composer Raheel Khan has developed Oh Forewarn.
The work draws on horns as signalling devices of the past, mechanical systems as material conditions of the present, and the Islamic angel Isrāfīl, whose trumpet remains a call from the hereafter. The compositional form explores sustained tones, slippage and melodic contour through lower registers of brass and analogue synthesis.
Khan is a recipient of the Assembly Residency opportunity, a 12-month programme for emerging artists shaped by Somerset House Studios in collaboration with artist mentors Beatrice Dillon and Elaine Mitchener. During his residency, Raheel’s research has been interested in exploring themes such as infrastructural residue, acoustic dissonance and devotional loops, most recently through cross disciplinary works presented at Nottingham Contemporary, Goldsmiths CCA and Camden Art Centre.
Biographies
Ellen Arkbro
Ellen Arkbro (b. 1990, Stockholm) is a composer and musician working with precision-tuned intervallic harmony and minimalist drawn-out form. Arkbro composes slow music for acoustic instruments, mainly for solo organ and smaller chamber ensembles. Arkbro has studied with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the Dream House in New York, as well as with Marc Sabat in Berlin. She has worked with Catherine Christer Hennix and is a trumpet player in the Kamigaku ensemble, performing Hennix’s music. Arkbro has released four solo albums: for organ and brass (2017) and CHORDS (2019) on Subtext Recordings, listed in The Wire magazine’s Best Albums of 2017 and in Pitchfork’s Best Experimental Albums of 2019. Sounds While Waiting (2023) on Superior Viaduct, listed in Pitchfork’s Best Jazz and Experimental Albums of 2023 and most recently Nightclouds (2025) on Blank Forms/La Becque Editions. She has received commissions from the Swedish Radio, Ina GRM, EMPAC, CTM festival, Edition festival, Blank Forms and Bourse de Commerce and is currently the recipient of a 10-year working grant from the Swedish Arts Council. She has presented her work at Barbican in London, Haus Der Kunst in Munich, MUNCH in Oslo, La Fayette Anticipation in Paris, Other Minds in San Fransisco, Kölner Philharmonie, Serralves in Porto, Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Gedächtniskirche in Berlin and Tempelaukkio Kirke in Helsinki.
Raheel Khan
Raheel Khan (b. 1992, Nottingham) is a London-based artist & composer working across installation, performance, drawing & text. Originally a student of Economics, he’s moved toward a practice that considers human routine, belief systems and design infrastructures as containers of communal experience. He approaches physical sites as collaborators, allowing architectural, material and social conditions to actively inform and decide.
Guided by a compositional and research-led framework, Khan works with the concept of machine, devotion, and acoustics to explore various themes. Sound is treated as a resonant and material form, working across electroacoustic, amplified and vibrational sensibilities. Sculptural installations and assemblages are often produced through reclaimed materials, sourced through localised contexts and circulation, and are staged to question our relationship to products, belonging and object histories.
Khan is the current 2026 Magnetic Laureate at Bétonsalon and Fluxus Art Projects, and the East Gallery Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts. He will be performing at the upcoming Somerset House Assembly series.
Recent works have been presented at Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2025); Goldsmiths CCA, London, (2025); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2025); Bold Tendencies, London, UK (2025); Auto Italia, London, UK (2025) South London Gallery, London, UK (2024); Lisson Gallery and Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London, UK (2024); Palmer Gallery, London, UK (2024); University of Bergen, Norway, NO (2024); Longsight Community Art Space, Manchester, UK (2024); Deptford X, London, UK (2023); Ovada Gallery, Oxford, UK (2023); Audiograft Festival, Oxford, UK (2023) Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (2022); Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Edinburgh, UK (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2022) and FACT, Liverpool, UK (2021).
The London Crumhorn Consort
The London Crumhorn Consort was founded by William Summers in 2021 and aims to raise the profile of this visually and sonically unusual instrument. The ensemble performs not only the Renaissance music typically associated with the crumhorn but also new works from composers looking to explore its distinctive textures and tones. In addition to performing in special and historical venues, the group has established International Crumhorn Day, celebrated annually on October 3rd.