14/05/2026
Status Inferno is an improvising duo featuring vocalist Milana Sarukhanyan and saxophonist James Mainwaring. Born from a shared fascination with the collision of operatic and extreme vocal techniques alongside the deep, resonant voice of the bass saxophone, their music inhabits a space where narration meets the avant-garde.
Drawing inspiration from Dante Alighieri’s epic Divine Comedy, Status Inferno reimagines this literary masterpiece through a sonic landscape of free improvisation and semi-composed structures. The result is a powerful performance that traverses intensity, texture, and raw emotional expression.
Tickets for the 22nd May at the Fenton are available online and on the door, they are pay as you feel and the money goes to (more info on a previous post)
More about James and Milana:
James Mainwaring is an improvising saxophonist and composer. Mainwaring’s previous projects include the Mercury Prize-nominated Roller Trio, The Exu, and Sveið (557 Records) an has performed internationally and collaborated with artists as diverse as Django Django, Nduduzo Makhathini, and John Law.
Milana Sarukhanyan is a Bradford-based Ukrainian opera artist, session vocalist, improviser, and vocal coach whose practice bridges opera, theatre, and experimental music. Her work is distinguished by a bel canto quality of sound, multi-linguistic storytelling, and an extensive palette of extended vocal techniques developed through years of improvisational performance.
