Bess Atwell

Bess Atwell plays The Barbican Hall on Saturday 6 February 2027, starting at 20:00. The set draws from across her catalogue alongside new material, which gives an early glimpse of her fourth album, Cut a Figure, due later in the year.

Atwell is the Brighton-born stage name of Bess Hildick-Smith, one of the UK's most compelling emerging singer-songwriters. Her indie-folk writing pushes beyond the singer-songwriter tradition with spacious, slow-building arrangements, textured instrumentation and subtle electronics. Her breakthrough third album, Light Sleeper, produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, led to sold-out headline shows worldwide, a debut appearance at Glastonbury Festival and critical recognition: The Observer described it as full of 'emotive situations, worked into poignant, dreamlike miniatures', while The Independent had called her 2021 second album, Already, Always, crystalline in vocal quality and later described her as 'a promising folk poet of suppression and inner anxiety'.

Cut a Figure was shaped by a spontaneous nine-month move to Canada and produced by Chris Coady, whose credits include Foals, Slowdive, Beach House, Future Islands and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Barbican produces the show in association with DHP, and the performance may contain haze and strobe.

Standard tickets start from £31.50, which is £27.50 plus a £4 transaction fee. There's a Young Barbican price of £12 for those aged 16-25, and members get 20% off. The show starts at 20:00 at The Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.