Demon Strings

Demon Strings are a British stringed instrument group. They are best known for being the in-house string section for musician Damon Albarn, having recorded and performed live for several of his projects including The Good, the Bad & the Queen,^[1] Gorillaz, Blur and Monkey: Journey to the West.^[2]

Demon Strings
Origin	England
Genres	Orchestral Classical
Years active	2005-Present
Members	Isabelle Dunn Kotono Sato Stella Page Antonia Pagulatos
Past members	Oli Langford Alice Pratley

Career

Formed in 2005 by cellist Isabelle Dunn (aka. Izzi Dunn) and manager Tee Bowry, Demon Strings is composed of some of the UK's finest string players specializing in live, television and recorded work.

As Damon Albarn's "in-house" string section, Demon Strings worked closely with him on several of his projects. These included the Gorillaz album Demon Days, a run of shows at The Manchester Opera House and the Apollo Theater and several TV performances. Continuing the relationship, 2007 saw Demon Strings tour Europe and the US with Albarn's The Good, the Bad & the Queen. They have also performed the orchestration for Blur's eight studio album The Magic Whip.

Another of Albarn's projects, Monkey: Journey to the West saw the Demon Strings as part of the orchestra for runs at the Royal Opera House, Palace Theatre Manchester, Théâtre du Châtelet and culminated in a three-month run at The O2.

In 2008, Demon Strings joined producer Mark Ronson on his world tour promoting his Version album, headlining many festivals including Glastonbury,^[3] Big Day Out (Australia) and Coachella (US).

In 2014, Demon Strings, were given an official credit for strings on Albarn's debut solo studio album Everyday Robots and have featured in several live performances from Albarn promoting the album, including The One Show.^[4]

As of the release of Everyday Robots, the group has consisted of Stella Page, Isabelle Dunn, Ollie "Oli" Langford, Alice Pratley, Kotono Sato and Antonia Pagulatos. Isabelle, Stella and Antonia all featured on the Demon Days album by Gorillaz prior to the formation of Demon Strings.

Discography

• 2005 - Gorillaz - Demon Days
• 2007 - The Good, the Bad & the Queen - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
• 2008 - Damon Albarn - Journey to the West
• 2010 - Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
• 2014 - Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
• 2015 - Blur - The Magic Whip
• 2018 - The Good, the Bad & the Queen - Merrie Land
• 2020 - Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
• 2021 - Gorillaz - Meanwhile

References

1. "The Good, The Bad And The Queen play SXSW". Retrieved 2 June 2009.
2. Hewett, Ivan (23 June 2007). "A whole new aria for Damon". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2 June 2009.
3. Clarke, Betty. . The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 8 July 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2009.
4. "Damon Albarn : Everyday Robots : Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 June 2020.