Grant, Kay & Alex Ward

Fast Talk

Label: Emanem Country: UK

"Singer Kay Grant left the Downtown New York scene some twenty years ago and crossed the Atlantic. Around the same time, schoolboy clarinettist Alex Ward donned long trousers and played in public with Derek Bailey. Since then, they have both been vital members of the London improvising scene, as these duo improvisations - recorded at four recent gigs and one studio session - attest. (Three of the ten pieces also involve live electronic vocal processing.)"

"The English weather flickers across the garden, like a speeded up film. Inside, in high ceilinged rooms, in a big house coming alive, a clarinet and voice, two air columns flavoured with memories and lung, converse. The clarinet has just come back from New York. The voice has been distilling red petals for their essence. They have a lot to say to each other but the dangerous love they share for the liberation of animals breaks through. Out of the bag the creatures jabber excitedly, as they play across the bare wooden floor and Persian rugs."-Zolan Quobble (2011)