Funki Porcini Laserium Sunday

"Scrambled brains," "unexpected connections of characters with the sounds," and "took the brain to many different places and calming" are just a few of the comments from attendees of the full Laserium at the Fourth Portal.

The hundred-plus comments from the hundreds who viewed the 10-minute Laserium tasters during the Gravesham Light Festival had already piqued audience anticipation. What was encountered took the full-show audience well beyond typical live performance expectations.

With over 800 lasers pulsating to a specially written composition, the Laserium is a masterpiece by Ninja Tune veteran Funki Porcini (James Braddell). Sitting in a blacked-out Fourth Portal, a former seafarers' chapel, the Laserium took the audience on a unique and surprising journey that "fully immersed" yet "allowed space within the mind to make your own narrative" (audience comments).

Full Laserium show audience reviews, Sunday, 29 January 2024

Who is Funki Porcini?

James Braddell, aka Funki Porcini, is a British music provocateur and humorist of the early Ninja Tune period. He mixes surreal jazz, found noise, synthetic strangeness, and dream logic. The name "Funki Porcini" is a twist on "Funghi Porcini," the Italian name for the mushroom Boletus edulis, commonly known as "penny bun."

He spent ten years in Italy making music for film and television. Thereafter, he returned to England. In 1994, he signed to independent record label Ninja Tune and set up his own studio, The Uterus Goldmine.

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