The Squid's Ear Magazine


Grutronic: Essex Foam Party (psi)

Live performances from this quartet of electroacoustic improvisers using intuitive and performance-oriented technologies to create surprisingly frothy and amazing sound.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Stephen Grew-keyboard, processing

Richard Scott-buchla lightning, analogue synthesizer, sampler, processing

Nick Grew-transduction, processing

David Ross-drosscillator



Special guests:



Orphy Robinson-vibraphone

Paul Obermayer-sampler


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UPC: 5030243090723

Label: psi
Catalog ID: 09.07
Squidco Product Code: 12209

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2009
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Cardstock Gatefold Sleeve 3 panels
Performed live July 14, 2006 in London, September 1, 2007 in London, and August 20, 2008 in Lancaster. Recording by Amir Shoat, David Ross, Antti Sakari Saario.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.
Essex Foam Stephen Grew (keyboard, processing), Richard Scott (buchla lightning, analogue synthesizer, sampler, processing), Nick Grew (transduction, processing) & David Ross (drosscillator) + special guests Orphy Robinson (vibraphone) & Paul Obermayer (sampler). (2006-8) "Grutronic are a collective of free improvisers -- all have a past/present as acoustic ensemble players. In Grutronic they are re-incarnated as electronic musicians, extending technique through the development of personalised systems of sound production and control. Current intuitive and performance-oriented technologies put tools and techniques, once the preserve of the electronic music studio, into the hands of the players. Grutronic take on these new challenges with glee, aiming to surprise and delight the listener and themselves with unheard forms and sound-relationships, fixed during the act of performance."

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Stephen Grew has been playing piano and electronic keyboards for 25 years. His music is completely improvised. He creates spontaneous compositions with other musicians in the heat of the moment. He also performs as a soloist. He is based in Lancaster, UK, and has toured extensively, touring and recording with many musicians from the free improvised scene here in Britain and abroad. Performing in Grutronic, a four piece electronic band, and Grew Trio, Grew Quartet and Grew & Grew. He has also performed with Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Graham Clark, Pat Thomas, Howard Riley and many others. Long standing collaborators are his brother, Nicholas Grew, Richard Scott, David Ross and Philip Marks.

"I have devote all of my energies to making music, completely made in the moment, improvised. I play with some great musicians, Gulliver Maxwell an alto saxophone player and other Lancastrian players. My first band was with Steve Lewis and George McKay (Charivari) in 1995. I have toured consistently since 1996, in Grew Trio with the great Mancunian players, drummer Phillip Marks and sax/electronics player Richard Scott who I met through Steve Lewis in 1995. We have mainly performed in Britain but also performed in prestigious Modern music festivals in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Latvia and Canada. In 2000 Richard Scott left Grew trio and after a duo collaboration with Sheffield based sax/bassoon player Mick Beck, Mick joined Grew trio to form Grew Quartet in 2006, with Oxford based bass player Dominic Lash. At times I have had to work as a shop keeper, assembler of golf trolleys, gardener and fisherman. My current work takes me to working in Grutronic, (Myspace.com/grutronicmusic) with guests Evan Parker, Orphy Robinson, Paul Obermayer and Grew quartet, a recent Orchestral project with Nicholas Grew and duos featuring violinist Graham Clark, drummer Tony Bianco, Phillip Marks, and drummer / electronics musician David Ross all of whom are based outside of Lancaster. Our music comes out of a need to play music and communicate with sound at the moments of creating it, this process becomes very refined over many years. The long periods of time devoting the workman like instrumentalists approach to making this kind of music, creates a greater clarity of playing and composing, until a bit of magic conversation appears!"-Stephen Grew"

-Stephen Grew Website (http://stepgrew.wixsite.com/stephengrewpianist/biography)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Dr. Richard Scott is a UK-born Berlin-based composer and free improvising musician working with analogue modular synthesizers and alternative controllers such as his own self-designed WiGi infra red controller developed at STEIM, the Buchla Thunder and Buchla Lightning. He has been composing and performing improvised music for over 25 years, recently performing and recording with artists such as Evan Parker, Shelley Hirsch, Sidsel Endreson, Twinkle³, Richard Barrett, Axel Doerner, Jon Rose, Clive Bell, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Emilio Gordoa, Thomas Lehn, Frank Gratkowski, Michael Vorfeld, Ute Wassermann, Phil Marks, David Birchall, David Ross, Bark! and Grutronic amongst many others.

He studied improvisation with John Stevens, saxophone with Elton Dean and Steve Lacy, Action Theater improvisation with Sten Rudstrom and electroacoustic composition with David Berezan and Ricardo Climent.

His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4, International Computer Music Conference (Athens and Huddersfield) London Jazz Festival, BEAM, Bratislava NEXT Festival of Advanced Music, Konfrontationen, Austria, SARC Sonorities Belfast, International Festival for Artistic Innovation, Leeds, Berlin Interaktion Improvised Music Festival and MANTIS Electroacoustic Music Festival, Manchester. He was a long term artistic resident at STEIM in Amsterdam, sometimes a Lecturer and visiting professor at various Universities and co-curator of two important long-running "underground" concert series in Berlin: AUXXX Berlin and Basic Electricity.

In 1993 he was awarded a PhD from London University for his thesis on free improvisation. In 2010 he completed a MusM (distinction) in Electroacoustic Music Composition at NOVARS, Manchester University. He wrote extensively for Wire magazine, was administrator at the LMC (London Musician's Collective) and has been an active member of the improvising and electroacoustic communities in London, Manchester and Berlin."

-Richard Scott Website (http://richard-scott.net/about/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"David Ross was born in 1967 in East London and lived and worked there until moving to rural Norfolk in 2016. He is a restless and eccentric artist who touches every instrument with his own unpredictable and disorientating sound. David is a maker of bizarre electronics such as The Davestation, The Drosscilator, and is reportedly the only musician to have composed an album entirely using an analogue synthesizer built into a kettle. Alongside these devises, he also plays more conventional instruments such as Jew's Harp, Drums, Kalimba and Kantele. He drummed in the 90s cult band Kenny Process Team and is currently a member of Twinkle3."

-Cafe OTO (https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/artists/david-ross/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Orphy Robinson (born 13 October 1960) is a British vibraphonist and multi-instrumentalist,of Jamaican descent who also plays the saxophone, trumpet, drums, piano, marimba and steel pans. He has written music for television, film, theatre, opera and contemporary classical music. Robinson is from London, UK, and works across a variety of eclectic musical forms (jazz, free jazz, free improvisation, jazz fusion, and funk music)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphy_Robinson)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Plonk 8:20

2. Essex Foam Party 5:43

3. Concussion Vibes 9:07

4. Nose-Up 4:33

5. Ball Pool Blues 6:46

6. Madness and Civilization 7:23

7. Foam Sweet Foam 1:50

Related Categories of Interest:

EMANEM & psi

Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Free Improvisation
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
psi.


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