The
London musician is releasing her debut album after years of odd jobs and collaborations, pitting the highbrow against the homespun in masterfully light yet complex music
‘The computer always wins, that was my phrase.” Beatrice Dillon is explaining the sound of her debut album, Workaround, in which her computers spar with acoustic instruments played by a dozen guests ranging from cellist Lucy Railton to tabla player Kuljit Bhamra (who has an MBE for services to bhangra, Dillon points out proudly).
Out in February, the album confirms Dillon as the most thrilling new voice in
British electronic
music today. Workaround moves with the airborne grace of capoeira fighters, every track rattling along at 150bpm – the tempo between techno and jungle. It somehow connects the pointillist precision of electronic producers such as Mark Fell and Errorsmith with the disorienting bass-scapes of dub masters Scientist and Lee Perry, reflecting Dillon’s wide interests. These extend beyond music into fine art, which she studied at
Chelsea College of Arts. “They don’t really teach you anything at art school, it’s a complete waste of time,” she breezes in her bright and airy studio beside the Thames in Somerset House, central London. “But if they do teach you anything it’s criticality: ‘What are you actually doing?’”