A unique series of concerts is letting its audience explore the more unusual spaces of the Royal Festival Hall. The Harmonic Series is curated by Southbank Centre’s artist in residence, Oliver Coates, who chose a mix of classical and alternative styles to be played in intimate spaces that he felt were appropriate to the music.

“When you arrive, you won’t yet know which part of the building you’ll end up in,” Coates says. “A singer songwriter might be in a really beautiful space overlooking all of London, or something that’s a little more introspective or darker may happen in a more enclosed environment down deeper in the bowels of the institution.”

This weekend’s performance took place in the 6th floor Weston Roof Pavilion, affording audiences a glittering view of the London Eye, Big Ben and the Thames. Singer and harpist Serafina Steer performed a set of her intimate, confessional songs, while vocalist Alice Grant (Fulborn Teversham) collaborated with bassist Tom Herbert (The Invisible, Polar Bear) and Oliver Coates played Bach on the cello.

The next performances in the Harmonic Series will take place on the 20 March and 10 April.

On Thursday night I went to The Women’s Library in East London to see an incredible performance of The Brilliant and the Dark, a vocal composition originally performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969.

The piece, which tells stories from women’s history through the eyes of war workers, crusaders’ wives and witch hunters, was re-interpreted by female choir, Gaggle. It was preceded by a hushed and intimate arrangement lead by vocalist Ellen Southern.

I spoke to Ben White, who had initiated the project together with fellow artist Eileen Simpson.

“It started when we were invited to take part in an exhibition at the Library called Out of the Archives,” he said. “We found the piece in the library’s collection and we united with Gaggle to re-enact it. The costumes were created based on photographs of the original performance.”

Ben and Eileen are the founders of Open Music Archive, a project which aims to source and distribute out-of-copyright music.

In order to use and remix elements from The Brilliant and the Dark however, the duo had to negotiate with the copyright owners. They created a video of the remixed piece with the choir, which they exhibited in the exhibition. But for the live event they wanted to re-interpret the piece again.

“The idea is that it is different each time,” said Ben. “It is never fixed or finished.”

Out of the Archives runs until the 2nd October 2010 at The Women’s Library

Tate Britain’s new exhibition of 19th Century photographs by Eadweard Muybridge left me thinking not just about the power of his images (which laid the foundations for cinema) but also about Muybridge’s strange personality.

Among prints of the American wilderness, stunning panoramas of early San Francisco, and pioneering stop-frame photos of animals and people in motion, there are portraits of Muybridge staring out with a severe expression from behind his wiry facial hair, and slumped moodily against a giant redwood tree.

It must have taken an obsessive personality to venture out into the wilderness and set up darkrooms in caves and mountain tops (he had to process the photos immediately after taking them in those days). Muybridge was also a canny self-promoter, changing his name various times. The spelling “Eadweard” was inspired by a Saxon King.

But halfway through the exhibition a shocking fact about his identity comes to light: he was a murderer. In 1874, on discovering that his son was not in fact his own, he killed his wife’s lover, Harry Larkyns. The following year he was tried but acquitted on the basis that the killing was “justifiable”.

If he had been jailed for the crime, none of his most amazing, groundbreaking works would be sitting in the Tate today, but you can’t help but get a sinister feeling when you look into his eyes.

Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain until 16th January 2011. Entry £10, concessions £8.50

Last weekend the Mayor’s Thames Festival whipped up a blissful, celebratory spirit along central London’s riverside, helped along by good weather (I even managed to get a touch of sunburn), rhythms originating from the Balkans to Cuba, and plenty of cold beer.

The two-day long party surrounding London’s waterway featured an al fresco dance floor enjoyed by jive and swing dancers and a feast taking place all the way across Southwark Bridge in which diners where serenaded by mariachi singers.

To top off the weekend, samba dancers, drumming troupes and even a group of zombie walkers paraded down the streets from Victoria Embankment to the South Bank, celebrating the last of the summer.

Did you go to the Mayor’s Thames Festival? Tell us about it in the comments below.