Name: Submotion Orchestra
Start: 2026-05-27T18:00:00.000Z
Location: Saint Luke's

Since their inception in 2009, the genre-defying Submotion Orchestra have moved&nbsp; seamlessly between deep electronica, jazz, soul and ambient downtempo,&nbsp; mesmerising audiences from Iceland to India. Their unique music is at once&nbsp; delicate and heavy, spacious and dense, highly atmospheric but firmly rooted.&nbsp; Earth-shaking bass and drums combine with lush keyboard and trumpet textures&nbsp; to create the perfect backdrop for the fragile beauty of Ruby Wood’s vocals.&nbsp;&nbsp;	Formed in Leeds in 2009, the band quickly made a splash on the wider scene.&nbsp; Their live gigs left audiences open-mouthed, and their debut EP on Ranking&nbsp; Records drew a rave reaction from Gilles Peterson who quickly gave the band their&nbsp; first Radio 1 session. Their now-legendary weekly residency at the tiny Hukaz Bar&nbsp; in Leeds gave fans the unique opportunity to see the band create new material up&nbsp; close and personal.&nbsp;&nbsp;The band’s first full-length album Finest Hour became an instant cult classic on its&nbsp; 2010 release, receiving strong support from DJs such as 6 Music's Mista Jam and&nbsp; Trevor Nelson. In 2012, Follow-up album Fragments received heated enthusiasm&nbsp; from fans and critics alike for the variety of its sound. Radio support came from&nbsp; such diverse presenters as Pete Tong, Huey, Lauren Laverne and Don Letts,&nbsp; demonstrating Submotion’s unique cross-genre appeal. Fragments spent a week&nbsp; at number 1 in the iTunes charts, and the supporting tour climaxed with a sold-out&nbsp; show at London’s legendary Koko, while appearances followed at some of&nbsp; Europe’s biggest festivals, including Glastonbury, Bestival, The Big Chill, Pohoda&nbsp; and Outlook.&nbsp;&nbsp;	Demand for the band had never been greater, as their reputation for staging one of&nbsp; the most exciting shows around grew with each appearance they made. 2013 saw&nbsp; them release the 1968 EP on Circus Records, which saw their champions grow to&nbsp; include i-D, Noisey, and Clash, and this was followed by their third album, Alium, a&nbsp; dazzlingly eclectic record that showcased every aspect of the band’s myriad&nbsp; talents. Ninja Tune/Counter Records leapt at the chance to release it, signing the&nbsp; band in summer 2014. Released that autumn, it garnered fantastic support at radio&nbsp; and superb reviews, with Mixmag proclaiming it “drenched in sunshine,” and Clash&nbsp; pointing to a band who seem able “stop time, their uniquely chilled grooves&nbsp; retaining a zen-like peace.”&nbsp;The group’s reputation for stunning live performances grew with further UK and&nbsp; European tours, headlining the 6000-capacity Pula ampitheatre at the Outlook&nbsp; festival and sold-out shows at the Barbican Theatre (for the London Jazz Festival)&nbsp; and The Forum. Their song ‘Perfection’ was sampled for Young Jeezy’s Seen it All&nbsp; album, which went to number 2 in the US album charts, whilst Bryson Tiller’s&nbsp; monster hit ‘Right My Wrongs’ made memorable use of Submotion’s signature&nbsp; tune ‘All Yours’. Instrumental EP III moved their sound to more electronic realms,&nbsp; whilst critically-acclaimed fourth album Colour Theory found the band&nbsp; collaborating with artists such as Royce Wood Jr., Andrew Ashong and Catching&nbsp; Flies, with their momentum reaching a notable peak with a headline show at the&nbsp; legendary Royal Albert Hall. Fifth album Kites marked a return to their early sound,&nbsp; written and arranged by the band playing together, and recorded live in the studio,&nbsp; featuring their most personal and honest songs yet.&nbsp;&nbsp; The COVID lockdown saw the band return to basics by recording and releasing&nbsp; their Unplugged collections, featuring fan and band favourites performed in a&nbsp; stripped-back setting, which they brought to rapturous concert audiences in 2023&nbsp; in collaboration with the Prism String Ensemble. This period of looking back&nbsp; enabled the band to find their next direction forward, which saw its first&nbsp; demonstration with 2024’s Five Points EP, and has culminated in their newest LP&nbsp; Passed Me By, which shows the band continuing to explore new roads for their&nbsp; music, ploughing a path through electronic, jazz, ambient and soul in the singular&nbsp; way that Submotion Orchestra can do.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Submotion Orchestra

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