For the best part of the 21st century, Devonté Hynes has built bridges between alt-rock and R&B. After terrorising mid-00s indie with dance-punk trio Test Icicles, he pivoted from hip oddball to pop bellwether, writing hits with Sky Ferreira and Carly Rae Jepsen. Hynes, 37, is now best known as Blood Orange (previously Lightspeed Champion); his music melds guitar-grounded bedroom pop with forlorn R&B and interludes that interrogate Black heritage, in step with pop trailblazers like his sometime collaborator Solange Knowles.
His first of two nights at London’s Barbican heralds another reinvention: his formal debut as a classical composer (barring the occasional film score and some collaborations with Philip Glass). The 90-minute set comprises five UK premieres, including two half-hour symphonies performed by London Symphony Orchestra – a still-rare staging of a Black composer in one of the city’s major concert halls.
