The Squid's Ear Magazine


London Improvisers Orchestra: Improvisations for George Riste (psi)

Four improvisations from the London Improvisers Orchestra's monthly appearances at the Red Rose with Harry Beckett, Evan Parker, Steve Beresford, Lol Coxhill, &c. &c.
 

Price: $16.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 5.00 units

Sample The Album:




product information:

Personnel:



London Improvisers Orchestra:

Adam Bohman-amplified objects

Adrian Northover-alto & soprano saxophone

Amy Denio-accordion & voice

Annie Lewandowski-accordion & musical saw

B.J. Cole-pedal steel guitar

Barbara Meyer-cello

Caroline Kraabel-alto saxophone

Catherine Pluygers-oboe

Charlotte Hug-viola

Chefa Alonso-soprano saxophone

Dave Tucker-electric guitar

David Leahy-doublebass

Evan Parker-soprano saxophone

Filomena Campus-voice

Guillermo Torres-flugelhorn

Harrison Smith-bass clarinet

Harry Beckett-trumpet

Ian Smith-trumpet

Ivor Kallin-violin & viola

Jackie Walduck-vibraphone

Jacques Foschia-bass clarinet

Javier Carmona-percussion

John Bisset-electric guitar

John Butcher-tenor saxophone

John Rangecroft-clarinet

Knut Aufermann-electronics

Lol Coxhill-soprano saxophone

Marcio Mattos-cello

Mark Sanders-percussion

Neil Metcalfe-flute

Orphy Robinson-percussion & electronics

Pat Thomas-electronics

Philipp Wachsmann-violin

Robert Jarvis-trombone

Roland Ramanan-trumpet

Roland Ramanan-trumpet & wooden flute

Simon H Fell-doublebass

Simon Rose-alto saxophone

Steve Beresford-piano

Susanna Ferrar-violin

Sylvia Hallett-violin

Tony Marsh-percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5030243080625

Label: psi
Catalog ID: 08.06
Squidco Product Code: 10238

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2008
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded at the London Improvisers Orchestra monthly appearance at the Red Rose: February 2, 2003; July 6, 2003; August 3, 2003; June 3, 2007.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Founded in 1998, the LIO has been a focal point for the community of improvising musicians in London. This CD features four total improvisations (from 2003 & 2007) selected from the archive of concert recordings made at their monthly appearances at the Red Rose."-psi


Artist Biographies

"Adam Bohman has been operating on the outer fringes of underground music for decades. Working with home-built instruments, found objects, tape cut-ups, collages, ink drawings and graphic scores. Favouring acoustic sounds over electronics, he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments and objects. He is a member of British experimental groups, Morphogenesis, The Bohman Brothers, Secluded Bronte, and The London Improvisers Orchestra. Adam's music is unique and experimental, incorporating Fluxus japery, musique concrete, sound poetry and free improvisation."

-Cafe OTO (https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/artists/adam-bohman/)
3/13/2024

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

"ADRIAN NORTHOVER - saxophones, Played and recordings with B Shops for the Poor, The Remote Viewers, Sonicphonics (with Billy Bang), The London Improvisers Orchestra, Ensemble Trip-Tik, Anna Homler, Ricardo Tejero, The Custodians, Sabu Toyozumi, Terry Day, Tristan Honsinger and JJ Duerinckx ,duo CDÕs with Adam Bohman, Tasos Stamou, Daniel Thompson and others. Current projects include ÔHard EvidenceÕ with John Edwards and Steve Noble, playing the music of Thelonious Monk, Vladimir MillerÕs Notes from Underground, ÔHogcallinÕ - a septet playing the music of Charles Mingus, and a trio with Marcio Mattos and Marilza Gouvea. This year (2016) has also seen collaborations with Neil Metcalfe(flute), Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (voice), Vladimir Tarasov (drums), and Marcello Magliocchi (drums) and Daniel Thompson(guitar). Adrian is also involved with Indian music (Jazz Thali ) and works with live music for film (Ensemble Kino)."

-Adrian Norhover Website (http://www.adriannorthover.co.uk/Marchtrio.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
"Denio (rhymes with 'Ohio' or 'gennaio') is an internationally recognized record producer, composer, improviser, singer and multi-instrumentalist.
Her main instruments are voice, alto saxophone, clarinet, accordion, acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass, and theremin.

Awards
Denio created and produced the soundtrack for choreographer Pat Graney's piece 'Girl Gods', which was awarded two NYC Bessie Awards at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in October 2016, including one for Best Overall Production.
In 2015 she was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame by Earshot Jazz.
In 1997 Denio received her first NYC Bessie Award for her soundtrack to choreographer David Dorfman's piece 'Sky Down'.
She received the Mayor's Award for Artistic Achievement from the City of Seattle in 1990.

Collaborator
Denio co-founded The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Drums (1988-present).
She has recorded many CDs and videos with Bosnian metal/punk/folk group Kultur Shock since 1999. They've toured internationally since 2002.
From 2006-2009 she composed for, recorded and toured with Austrian trio Die Resonanz Stanonczi.
She co-founded Ama Trio with Correo Aereo in 2004.
You can hear Denio's limpid voice as featured vocalist on A Beautiful Western Saddle (1993) and with The Science Group in 1999.

Denio has toured solo and has collaborated and recorded with various groups and musicians such as Matt Cameron, Bill Frisell, Chris Cutler, Guy Klucevsek, Pauline Oliveros, Tarik Abouzied, Francisco Lopez, Danny Barnes, the Relache Ensemble, Faust, Fred Frith, Hoppy Kamiyama, KMFDM, Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti, and Ronin. She played alto sax in the horn section of Chuck D's Fine Arts Militia at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

Fellowships and Residencies
Denio has been awarded Fellowships from Artist Trust (Seattle, Westport Ireland) Seattle Arts Commission (Seattle) and Civitella Ranieri (Umbertide Italy). She was Rosencranz Artist In Residence at Mills College in Oakland, CA. In 2006-2007 the Dream Community in Taipei Taiwan commissioned Denio to arrange and produce a recording of Taiwanese indigenous and pop music with Samba rhythms, performed by 25 teenagers from the Amis Tribe who played samba drums particularly well. She entitled it Naruwan: Brazil meets Taiwan.

Film Composer
Kino Lorber commissioned Denio to compose a soundtrack for 'Daughter of the Law' written, produced and starring Grace Cunard in 1921 for their Women Film Makers / Women Composers series.
Denio scored 2 animated films by Thomas Edward ~ 'Pangaea's Brood' which won 'Best Animated Film' at the 1999 NY Underground Film Festival, and 'Synchrony in Estrus' which won 'Strangest Film' at the 2003 Motion Arts Festival in California.
She scored Jamie Hook's feature film 'The Naked Proof,' which received honourable mention at its premiere in the 2003 Seattle International Film Festival, and was voted 'Best Undistributed Film' by the Village Voice (NYC).

Film Maker
Denio loves making documentary films about her voyages.
Check out the Deniaural Youtube Channel

Founding Member
She's a founding member of The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Drums
(formerly Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet)
Ama Trio
Tone Dogs
Danubians
Pale Nudes
Lao Tse and The Entropics
and her Italian chamber/kitchen quintet Quintetto alla Busara.

Onboard
President of The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Drums, LLC
Vice President of Seattle Composers Alliance
Board member Kultur Shock, LLC

Selected Denio Commissions and Projects:
2017 Truth Is Up For Grabs
Denio composed music for 20 piece chamber orchestra for a multi-media event inspired by current events, poetry by Pablo Neruda and the political economy of war, which included projected images created by James Drage. Funded in part by 4Culture
2016 Pat Graney Dance Company: GIRL GODS
~ Denio composed and produced the soundtrack. Girl Gods received 2 NYC Bessie Awards in October, 2016, one for overall production.
2013-2015 Tiptons Sax Quartet: Mythunderstandings
~ Produced by Denio, a collaboration between her Tiptons Sax Quartet, Salish master musician Paul 'Che oke ten' Wagner, film maker Adam Sekuler, and directed by Lisa Halpern.
2010 Dan Hurlin and Dan Froot: Who's Hungry? Santa Monica
(funded by Meet the Composer)
2009 Sonic Bench
~ Denio's interactive public art on permanent exhibit at the Vashon Island Parks Department (Funded by Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture)
2006 The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Drums: House of Wild Dreams
~ a collaboration between artist Danijel Zezelj, film maker Aric Mayer and the Tiptons (Funded by Seattle Arts Commission)
1999 The Danubians
~ a collaboration with Csaba Hajnoczy, Gabi Kenderesi, Pavel Fajt and AD, produced in Budapest, Hungary (funded by Arts Link/CEC International Partners)
1997 False Prophets or Dang Good Guessers
~ A collaboration with the Shaking Ray Levi Society, Jessica Lurie and AD (funded by King County Arts Commission)
1996 Pollo d'Oro
~ A collaboration with Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet and Ne Zhdali. Produced in Tallinn, Estonia (funded by Arts Link/CEC International Partners)
1992 Pat Graney Dance Company: Saxhouse
~ Performed by her all-women group The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet (funded by National Endowment For the Arts)
Denio has received additional support from Washington State Arts Commission, Pew Charitable Trust, Arts International, as well as composition commissions from various philanthropists.

Other commissions include creating and producing compositions and recordings for Italian National Radio, the Berkeley Symphony, The New York Festival of Song, Relache Ensemble, the Austrian chamber octet Die Knodel, choreographers Victoria Marks, Aiko Kinoshita, Li Chiao-Ping, Cheronne Wong and Carla Barragan; multi-media performance group Run/Remain Ensemble, UMO Ensemble, The Cabiri, and choreographer/actor/clown Lorenzo Pickle.

Spoot Music
Home-taper since the Dark Ages of Analog, she started her label and publishing company Spoot Music in 1986, with the release of her first cassette, No Bones. Since then, she has recorded & released over 50 cassettes, LPs, CDs and short videos, created solo and with an array of international musicians.
Listen to her newest release, The Big Embrace, released in the Fall of 2017.

Teacher
Denio teaches at the Kultur Shock was the featured group at the Nilüfer Festival in Bursa Turkey, performing for more than 25,000 people."-Amy Denio Website (http://www.amydenio.com/body/Biography.htm)
3/13/2024

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

"Annie Lewandowski is a composer/performer who works in song and improvisation. As an improviser on piano, accordion, and electronics, she has performed/recorded with musicians including Fred Frith, the London Improvisers Orchestra, Caroline Kraabel, Theresa Wong, Tim Feeney, CAGE, Sarah Hennies, Spinneret.s, and Doublends Vert. As a singer, guitarist, and keyboardist, she has recorded with bands and ensembles including Emma Zunz, Xiu Xiu, The Curtains, Former Ghosts, and Yarn/Wire. Her band Powerdove has released nine recordings, most recently "War Shapes" (Murailles Music, 2017) and "Bitter Banquet" (fo'c'sle records, 2018). She premiered her Euripidean multimedia song cycle "Bitter Banquet" with baroque keyboardist David Yearsley at the Sustaining the Antique Festival of Classics at Cornell University in October 2016.

Annie has performed at festivals and venues across the United States and Europe, including the Casa da Música (Porto, Portugal), the Hippodrome (London), Musica Nelle Valli (San Martino Spino, Italy), the Great American Music Hall (San Francisco), the Frieze Arts Fair (London), Avalon (Los Angeles), and REDCAT (Los Angeles). She is a 2014 Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow, and has been awarded grants from the Cornell Council for the Arts and the Atkinson Center for Sustainability for her work on humpback whale song with bioacoustics researcher Katy Payne and the Hawai'i Marine Mammal Consortium. In 2019, she contributed to the creation of Pattern Radio, Google Creative Lab's webtool for teaching AI to recognize patterns in humpback whale song.

Annie received her Master of Fine Arts in Music Performance and Literature with a Specialization in Improvisation from Mills College. At Mills, she was awarded the Flora Boyd Piano Performance prize for her work on extended techniques for the piano. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Music at Cornell University."

-Annie Lewandowski Website (http://annielewandowski.com/index.php/bio/)
3/13/2024

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

"Caroline Kraabel (born 1961 in Torrance, California) is a London-based American composer, improviser and saxophonist. She is known for her research into the implications of electricity related to recording, synthesis and amplification.

After living in Seattle, Kraabel moved to London while in her teenage years, at the end of the punk era.[1] There she took up the saxophone and became active in London's improvised music scene, eventually developing a style based on the physicality of the instrument, extended techniques and acoustics. She has performed solo and collaborated with John Edwards, Veryan Weston,[2] Charlotte Hug, Maggie Nicols,[3] Phil Hargreaves, and the London Improvisors Orchestra[4] among others. She has also organized and conducted pieces for Mass Producers-a 20-piece, all-female saxophone/voice orchestra[5] and for Saxophone Experimentals in Space-a 55-piece group of young saxophonists, as well as with her two children during walks through the streets of London.

Recordings include Transitions with Maggie Nichols and Charlotte Hug,[6] Five Shadows with Veryan Weston, Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 1 and 2 and Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 3 and 4 with Mass Producers and a solo work Now We Are One Two.

Caroline Kraabel has been hosting a weekly radio show on London's Resonance FM[7] and is the editor for the London Musicians Collective's magazine Resonance."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Kraabel)
3/13/2024

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

"Charlotte Hug: musician (viola & voice), composer, teacher, media artist, visual artist,

Hug´s innovative musical-visual solo performances in distinctive locations and her interdisciplinary work have created an international furore. She has played in locations such as the tunnels of the Rhône glacier, the House of Detention, an underground former prison in London, a half-demolished bunker in Humboldthain Berlin, the hot healing springs in the spa town of Baden and the dockyard in Coph on the Irish Atlantic coast.

This musician of the extreme is constantly pushing the boundaries of her instrument and has reinvented the viola - and this with an instrument built by the Viennese violin maker J.G Thir in 1763 . She has developed a number of techniques, including the "soft bow technique", which enables her to play up to eight voices. Hug´s speciality is also a blend of viola and vocals, which has given rise to her distinctive tonal language.

In the visual arena, as well as in a musical context, Hug´s sound-drawings "Son-Icons" have found international recognition. These she has used to develop her own compositional method. Hence her spatial and video-scores ranging from solo pieces to orchestra works, such as the orchestral work "Nachtplasmen" for Son-Icons and video-score, which was premiered with the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2011. She has had solo exhibitions at venues such as Swissnex San Francisco, the Sirius Arts Centre Cobh, Cork in Ireland and the Museum of Art Lucerne.

Hug is also fully active as a concert performer, soloist, composer and conductor of her own works at major festivals inEurope, North America, Latin America and Canada, such as Tage für Neue Musik Zurich, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Berliner Festspiele MaerzMusik, San Francisco International Arts Festival. Her extensive discography, including three solo CDs, as well as improvised music from international collaborations is distributed worldwide by important labels.

There are collaborations with international greats, such as the photographer and film maker Alberto Venzago, the theatre and opera director Jossie Wieler, concerts with artists such as Joan Jeanrenaud from the Kronos Quartet, Maggie Nicols, Barry Guy, Phil Minton, Larry Ochs, Evan Parker, Elliott Sharp, etc.

Hug gives master classes in improvisation and "instant composing". She also gives lectures and performance lectures in the field of "Transdisciplinarity in the Arts". She is a visiting professor at several universities and art academies including McGill University Montreal, CNMAT of the University of California Berkeley and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2008 she has held the post of lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts in interdisciplinary studies.

Hug lives in Zurich and on the road. Having completed her studies in fine arts and music, she received various awards and composition commissions, from organisations such as Pro Helvetia, Lucerne Festival, etc. She has been "artist in residence" in London, Paris, Cork 2005 Capital of Culture, and in Berlin. In 2006 she was awarded the city of Zurich prize for composition. In 2011 she was "artiste étoile" at the Lucerne Festival."

-Charlotte Hug Website (http://www.charlottehug.ch/e-charlottehug.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Dave Tucker started performing in the Punk movement of the late 70's in Manchester. His first recorded release was 1978 with Mellatron. In the early 80's he was a member of "The Fall" touring as well as recording "Slates" and aJohn Peel sessions with the group. After this time he experimented with other music's and recorded film music. After moving to London in the mid - 80's he studied & performed with Phillip Wachsmann as well as playing with members of the London scene including Dudu Pukwana, Andy Sheppard, Nick Evans, Johnny Dyani & John Stevens as well as others. Was and still is a member of the Alan Tomlinson Trio from 1992 which toured Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia. The trio also performed at many leading festivals at this time. Around this time he also performed with many leading International musicians including Keith Tippett, Otomo Yoshide, Charles Hayward, Barre Phillips, Dietmar Diesner & Lol Coxhill. Recently he toured California from which the PAX release is from. As well as a duo performance with Bill Roper at SIMF festivail in Seattle Febuary 2004 and performances in New York City with Lukas Ligeti He is a member of Pat Thomas' group Scatter (Phil Minton, Roger Turner) with whom he has performed at the Uncool 99 festival in Switzerland as well as recorded radio sessions for the BBC. He currently Performs in a Trio with Louis Moholo & Francine Luce., a duo with John Butcher , leads his own Quartet "School of Velocity" featuring, Evan Parker, John Edwards & Steve Noble and plays Guitar and conducts with the London Improvisers Orchestra & Winkhaus with LA performance artist Anna Homler & Adrian Northover and also has performed tours in the Czech Rebublic with the "Earthieves" He also produces dance music & soundtracks. Most recently comissioned to produce music or Channel four news He has had his first piece of written music performed at the 8th London New Wind festival."

-All About Jazz (https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/davetucker)
3/13/2024

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

"David Leahy is a Kent (UK) based musician and dancer specialising in things improvised, from Free Improvisation in music to Contact Improvisation in dance.

In my past, I journeyed through Classical music, through celtic and world music to arrive at Jazz, before focusing my energy on music with less recognisable stylistic constraints. My relationship with dance began as a composer for choreographies, before becoming an accompanist and finally a dancer myself.

I now maintain a duel practice working in the UK and internationally as a soloist and performer (music, dance and combined) / accompanist / composer / conductor and facilitator.

I produce my own work as well as in collaboration with others. Notable ongoing relationships with individuals and institutions include ; London Improvisers Orchestra, Wuppertal Improvisers Orchestra, MbUSkers (Kent-based MbUS group), and Improvisers on the European free improvised music scene. Fevered Sleep (Theatre Company), London Contact Improvisers, Trinity Laban, Greenwich Dance Agency, Underscores in London, Slap, Tina Krasevec, Hagit Yakari, Daun Ensemble, Deirdre Starr, Geraldo Si, Benedict Taylor, Angeline Conaghan and Groundswell Arts.

I recently completed a Masters in Creative Practice at Trinity Laban, which focused on my movement practice. However, my final project centred around the translation of the Contact Improvisation framework, the Underscore developed by Nancy Stark Smith, so as to be suitable for improvising musicians (Music-based Underscore). This is now an ongoing practice with regular sessions in both Kent and London, which is also fuelling plans for further study into music as a somatic practice.

-DAFMusic (http://www.dafmusic.com/Aboutme.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Evan Parker was born in Bristol in 1944 and began to play the saxophone at the age of 14. Initially he played alto and was an admirer of Paul Desmond; by 1960 he had switched to tenor and soprano, following the example of John Coltrane, a major influence who, he would later say, determined "my choice of everything". In 1962 he went to Birmingham University to study botany but a trip to New York, where he heard the Cecil Taylor trio (with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray), prompted a change of mind. What he heard was "music of a strength and intensity to mark me for life ... l came back with my academic ambitions in tatters and a desperate dream of a life playing that kind of music - 'free jazz' they called it then."

Parker stayed in Birmingham for a time, often playing with pianist Howard Riley. In 1966 he moved to London, became a frequent visitor to the Little Theatre Club, centre of the city's emerging free jazz scene, and was soon invited by drummer John Stevens to join the innovative Spontaneous Music Ensemble which was experimenting with new kinds of group improvisation. Parker's first issued recording was SME's 1968 Karyobin, with a line-up of Parker, Stevens, Derek Bailey, Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler. Parker remained in SME through various fluctuating line-ups - at one point it comprised a duo of Stevens and himself - but the late 1960s also saw him involved in a number of other fruitful associations.

He began a long-standing partnership with guitarist Bailey, with whom he formed the Music Improvisation Company and, in 1970, co-founded Incus Records. (Tony Oxley, in whose sextet Parker was then playing, was a third co-founder; Parker left Incus in the mid-1980s.) Another important connection was with the bassist Peter Kowald who introduced Parker to the German free jazz scene. This led to him playing on Peter Brötzmann's 1968 Machine Gun, Manfred Schoof's 1969 European Echoes and, in 1970, joining pianist Alex von Schlippenbach and percussionist Paul Lovens in the former's trio, of which he is still a member: their recordings include Pakistani Pomade, Three Nails Left, Detto Fra Di Noi, Elf Bagatellen and Physics.

Parker pursued other European links, too, playing in the Pierre Favre Quartet (with Kowald and Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer) and in the Dutch Instant Composers Pool of Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink. The different approaches to free jazz he encountered proved both a challenging and a rewarding experience. He later recalled that the German musicians favoured a "robust, energy-based thing, not to do with delicacy or detailed listening but to do with a kind of spirit-raising, a shamanistic intensity. And l had to find a way of surviving in the heat of that atmosphere ... But after a while those contexts became more interchangeable and more people were involved in the interactions, so all kinds of hybrid musics came out, all kinds of combinations of styles."

A vital catalyst for these interactions were the large ensembles in which Parker participated in the 1970s: Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) and occasional big bands led by Kenny Wheeler. In the late 70s Parker also worked for a time in Wheeler's small group, recording Around Six and, in 1980, he formed his own trio with Guy and LJCO percussionist Paul Lytton (with whom he had already been working in a duo for nearly a decade). This group, together with the Schlippenbach trio, remains one of Parker's top musical priorities: their recordings include Tracks, Atlanta, Imaginary Values, Breaths and Heartbeats, The Redwood Sessions and At the Vortex. In 1980, Parker directed an Improvisers Symposium in Pisa and, in 1981, he organised a special project at London's Actual Festival. By the end of the 1980s he had played in most European countries and had made various tours to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. ln 1990, following the death of Chris McGregor, he was instrumental in organising various tributes to the pianist and his fellow Blue Notes; these included two discs by the Dedication Orchestra, Spirits Rejoice and lxesa.

Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as "the illusion of polyphony". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time. Parker's first solo recordings, made in 1974, were reissued on the Saxophone Solos CD in 1995; more recent examples are Conic Sections and Process and Reality, on the latter of which he does, for the first time, experiment with multi-tracking. Heard alone on stage, few would disagree with writer Steve Lake that "There is, still, nothing else in music - jazz or otherwise - that remotely resembles an Evan Parker solo concert."

While free improvisation has been Parker's main area of activity over the last three decades, he has also found time for other musical pursuits: he has played in 'popular' contexts with Annette Peacock, Scott Walker and the Charlie Watts big band; he has performed notated pieces by Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and Frederic Rzewski; he has written knowledgeably about various ethnic musics in Resonance magazine. A relatively new field of interest for Parker is improvising with live electronics, a dialogue he first documented on the 1990 Hall of Mirrors CD with Walter Prati. Later experiments with electronics in the context of larger ensembles have included the Synergetics - Phonomanie III project at Ullrichsberg in 1993 and concerts by the new EP2 (Evan Parker Electronic Project) in Berlin, Nancy and at the 1995 Stockholm Electronic Music Festival where Parker's regular trio improvised with real-time electronics processed by Prati, Marco Vecchi and Phillip Wachsmann. "Each of the acoustic instrumentalists has an electronic 'shadow' who tracks him and feeds a modified version of his output back to the real-time flow of the music."

The late 80s and 90s brought Parker the chance to play with some of his early heroes. He worked with Cecil Taylor in small and large groups, played with Coltrane percussionist Rashied Ali, recorded with Paul Bley: he also played a solo set as support to Ornette Coleman when Skies of America received its UK premiere in 1988. The same period found Parker renewing his acquaintance with American colleagues such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy and George Lewis, with all of whom he had played in the 1970s (often in the context of London's Company festivals). His 1993 duo concert with Braxton moved John Fordham in The Guardian to raptures over "saxophone improvisation of an intensity, virtuosity, drama and balance to tax the memory for comparison".

Parker's 50th birthday in 1994 brought celebratory concerts in several cities, including London, New York and Chicago. The London performance, featuring the Parker and Schlippenbach trios, was issued on a highly-acclaimed two-CD set, while participants at the American concerts included various old friends as well as more recent collaborators in Borah Bergman and Joe Lovano. The NYC radio station WKCR marked the occasion by playing five days of Parker recordings. 1994 also saw the publication of the Evan Parker Discography, compiled by ltalian writer Francesco Martinelli, plus chapters on Parker in books on contemporary musics by John Corbett and Graham Lock.

Parker's future plans involve exploring further possibilities in electronics and the development of his solo music. They also depend to a large degree on continuity of the trios, of the large ensembles, of his more occasional yet still long-standing associations with that pool of musicians to whose work he remains attracted. This attraction, he explained to Coda's Laurence Svirchev, is attributable to "the personal quality of an individual voice". The players to whom he is drawn "have a language which is coherent, that is, you know who the participants are. At the same time, their language is flexible enough that they can make sense of playing with each other ... l like people who can do that, who have an intensity of purpose." "

-Evan Parker Website (http://evanparker.com/biography.php)
3/13/2024

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

Guillermo Torres plays trumpet, flugelhorn and flute, he is a member of Colectivo maDam, Nanimo, and Variable Geometry Orchestra.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2347703-Guillermo-Torres)
3/13/2024

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

"Harrison Smith had saxophone lessons from the age of 13, and clarinet lessons from the age of 14. His first playing experience was with Herrington Colliery Band and later with various dance bands and rock/soul groups in the North East of England. Smith became interested in jazz and started to play with local groups lead by Alex Hand and Alan Glen. In 1973 he attended a jazz course at Barry Summer School (Wales) and some months later he was asked by one of the tutors, Barry Guy, to do a national tour with the "London Jazz Composers Orchestra". The same year he moved to London.

In London he joined John Walters` `Landscape` and also gained valuable musical experience by playing with likes of Mike Osborne, Harry Beckett, Louis Moholo, Harry Miller, Evan Parker, Elton Dean etc. Over the next few years he worked with various groups lead by Dave Defries, Jim Dvorak's `Sun Sum` and `Dhyana` (album to be released in the near future), Rodger Dean's `Lysis` with Kenny Wheeler, the `Michael Garrick Sextet`, Keith Bailey's `Prana` with Chris McGregor and Kent Carter, a duo with Keith Bailey and `Jazz Africa`.

In 1983 he joined the very popular South African inspired group `District Six`, recording four albums, playing festivals and touring in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic etc, as well as Britain. Harrison played with District Six for some 8 years.

In 1988 the `Free Jazz Quartet` was formed with Eddie Prevost, Paul Rutherford and Tony Moore, recording the much acclaimed "Premonitions" album and toured in both Spain and the U.K.

In the nineties Smith worked in a varied mix of projects including Danny Thompson/ Richard Thompson's `What Ever Next` , Joe Gallivan Trio, Louis Moholo Group, a duo with Eddie Prevost, co-led `Ala-Ka-Zam` with Jim Dvorak, `Continuum` a classical orientated ensemble and performed solo.

Harrison put his own group together in 1998... the `Harrison Smith Quartet` with Liam Noble, piano, Jeremy Brown, bass and Winston Clifford on drums.

They recorded their first album the same year `Outside Inside` for the Slam label which received critical acclaim internationally. Since then he has worked with `London Improvisers Orchestra`, the `Dill Katz Quartet` and has performed across a wide spectrum of the music, from jazz standards to the cutting edge and more experimental."

-JazzCDs (https://www.jazzcds.co.uk/artist_id_1137/biography_id_1137)
3/13/2024

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

"Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 - 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin.

Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army band. A resident in the UK since 1954, he had an international reputation. In 1961, he played with Charles Mingus in the film All Night Long. In the 1960s he worked and recorded within the band of bass player and composer Graham Collier. Beginning in 1970, he led groups of his own, recording for Philips, RCA and Ogun Records among other labels.

He was a key figure of important groups in the British free jazz/improvised music scene, including Ian Carr's Nucleus, the Brotherhood of Breath and The Dedication Orchestra, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra, John Surman's Octet, Django Bates, Ronnie Scott's Quintet, Kathy Stobart, Charlie Watts, Stan Tracey's Big Band and Octet; Elton Dean's Ninesense. He has also recorded with Keef Hartley, Jah Wobble, David Sylvian and worked with David Murray. He toured abroad with Johnny Dyani, Chris McGregor, Keith Tippett, John Tchicai, Joachim Kühn, Dudu Pukwana's Zila, George Gruntz's Bands, Belgian quintet The Wrong Object, Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Band and Annie Whitehead's Robert Wyatt project, Soupsongs, which also featured Phil Manzanera and Julie Tippetts, among other jazz and rock luminaries.

His dub-oriented album, The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett, was produced by famed British producer Adrian Sherwood and released on On-U Sound in late 2008.

In 1972, Beckett won the Melody Maker jazz Poll as "Top Trumpeter in Britain". He was a member of the Orchestre National de Jazz between 1997 and 2000.

Beckett died on 22 July 2010 after suffering a stroke."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Beckett)
3/13/2024

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

"Jackie Walduck is a composer and vibraphone player, whose work explores the exchanges between written and improvised music and the musicians that create it. ​She works with classical, contemporary and jazz musicians from beginner to professional, and collaborates with dancers, artistis and film-makers in a range of contexts to create new work. In 1998, City University awarded her a PhD in collaborative composition. She was invited by the British Council to work in Oman in 2001-3, where she developed a creative strand for the Omani music curriculum, as well as composing the first ever collaborative piece with children and Omani musicians. Her film score for The Dress was premiered at Cannes in 2007. Recent collaborations have been with Kala Ramnath, Amjad Ali Khan and musicians from Shivanova.

In 2008 she formed Ignite with Wigmore Hall Learning a new type of chamber ensemble, working through improvisation. As Wigmore Hall's Learnign Ensemble in Residence, Ignite engages people of all ages from the Westminster community with the creative and interactive aspects of chamber music making. The band has become an energetic and adventurous ensemble, commissioning over 20 new improvised works from leading composers, and breaking new ground at Wigmore Hall with the first late-night concerts, Open House days, and large-scale community projects. Beyond Wigmore Hall, Ignite is making its mark as a fiery new music ensemble, performing at Kings Place, NAtional Portrait Gallery and Whittington Chamber Music Festival.

2015 sees the launch of Tactile, an ensemble of sighted, partially sighted and blind musicians, all working blindfold. We will create music without visual cues, exploring the gift of darkness, as well as creating tactile scores for improvisation with artist Viyki Turnbull. All performances will take place in darkened spaces, immersing the audience in a world in which the visual is extraneous to sound."

-Jackie Walduck Website (https://www.jackiewalduck.com/biography)
3/13/2024

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

"Javier Carmona is a drummer and percussionist from Madrid (now settled in Barcelona after seven years in London), Javier is very active in the European free improvisation scene and has performed with musicians such as John Tchicai, Evan Parker, Carlos Zingaro and John Russell, among many others.

Member of several formations, Javier also collaborates with dancers Rosa Aledo and Saija Lehtola in Kicking Louise & Co., a dance company that has presented work in France, Cyprus, Spain and England.

Organizer of FIL Malaga, a festival of free improvised music including performances and workshops, Javier has also led student workshops about free improvisation in Newport University (with Kamil Korolczuk), Westminster University (with Sakoto Fukuda) and Huddersfield University (with Ingrid Laubrock and Olie Brice).

Co-founder alongside graphic designer and electronics player Kamil Korolczuk of Oso Records, a netlabel of free downloadable music focused on releasing various types of experimental music."

-Javier Carmona Website (https://carmonajavier.wordpress.com/about/)
3/13/2024

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

"John Butcher's work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.Originally a physicist, he left academia in '82, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians - Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Akio Suzuki, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor - to name a few.

He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.

HCMF has twice commissioned him to compose for his own large ensembles. Other commissions include for Elision (Australia), the Rova (USA) & Quasar (Canada) Saxophone Quartets, reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori (USA), "Tarab Cuts" (based on pre-WWII Arabic recordings, and shortlisted for the 2014 British Composer's Award) and "Good Liquor .." for the London Sinfonietta. In 2011 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

Recent groupings include The Apophonics with Robair and Edwards, Anemone with Peter Evans, Plume with Tony Buck & Magda Mayas and a trio with Okkyung Lee & Mark Sanders.Butcher values playing in occasional encounters - ranging from large groups such as Butch Morris' London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra, to duo concerts with David Toop, Kevin Drumm, Claudia Binder, Paal Nilssen-Love, Thomas Lehn, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, Ute Kangeisser, Matthew Shipp and Yuji Takahashi."

-John Butcher Website (http://www.johnbutcher.org.uk/Biog.html)
3/13/2024

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

"George Lowen Coxhill (19 September 1932 - 10 July 2012), generally known as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist and raconteur. He played the soprano or sopranino saxophone. Coxhill was born to George Compton Coxhill and Mabel Margaret Coxhill (née Motton) at Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK. He grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and bought his first saxophone in 1947. After national service he became a busy semi-professional musician, touring US airbases with Denzil Bailey's Afro-Cubists and the Graham Fleming Combo. In the 1960s he played with visiting American blues, soul and jazz musicians including Rufus Thomas, Mose Allison, Otis Spann, and Champion Jack Dupree. He also developed his practice of playing unaccompanied solo saxophone, often busking in informal performance situations. Other than his solo playing, he performed mostly as a sideman or as an equal collaborator, rather than a conventional leader - there was no regular Lol Coxhill Trio or Quartet as would normally be expected of a saxophonist. Instead he had many intermittent but long-lasting collaborations with like-minded musicians.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a member of Canterbury scene bands Carol Grimes and Delivery and then Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. He became known for his solo playing and for work in duets with pianist Steve Miller and guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald. He was thought to have largely inspired Joni Mitchell's song "For Free", while busking solo on the old footbridge which formed part of the Hungerford Bridge between Waterloo and Charing Cross. Coxhill collaborated with other musicians including Mike Oldfield, Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath and its musical descendant The Dedication Orchestra, Django Bates, the Damned, Hugh Metcalfe, Derek Bailey and performance art group Welfare State.

He often worked in small collaborative groups with semi-humorous names such as the Johnny Rondo Duo or Trio (with pianist Dave Holland - not the bassist of the same name), the Melody Four (characteristically a trio, with Tony Coe and Steve Beresford), and The Recedents (with guitarist Mike Cooper and percussionist Roger Turner), known as such because the members were (in Coxhill's words) "all bald", though the name may additionally be a play on the American band the Residents. Typically these bands performed a mix of free improvisation interspersed with ballroom dance tunes and popular songs. There was humour throughout his music but he sometimes felt it necessary to tell audiences that the free playing was not intended as a joke. Coxhill was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, and a raconteur as well as a musician; he often would introduce his music by saying the words, "what I am about to play you may not understand". It was following a performance at Bracknell that he recorded the melodramatic monologue Murder in the Air."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lol_Coxhill)
3/13/2024

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

"Marcio Mattos was born Rio de Janeiro, 20th March 1946; double bass, 'cello.

Studied acoustic guitar in early teens, switching to double bass and cello, mainly self-taught, after becoming interested in Jazz. Later entered the Villa-Lobos institute where he became involved in improvisation and electronic music. Since coming to Europe in 1970 has performed, recorded and broadcast both in Britain and abroad in groups including John Surman, Evan Parker, John Stevens, Keith Tippett, Derek Bailey's Company, Dewey Redman and Marylin Crispell amongst others. Has also worked with dance companies such as Ballet Rambert and The Extemporary Dance Theatre Company, and in electro-acoustic music groups such as the West Square Electronic Music Ensemble.

A long- standing member of the Eddie Prevost Quartet and various Elton Dean groups. Other current British projects include the "Bardo State Orchestra", Chris Burn's Ensemble, "Wooden Taps" with Maggie Nicols, "Embers" with John Butcher and others, "Lines" with Phil Wachsmann/Jim Denley and others, and "Full Monte" with Chris Biscoe, Brian Godding and Tony Marsh . International projects working in Europe have included Georg Graewe's Grubenklang Orchestra, Stefano Maltese's "Open Music Ensemble", Tony Oxley's Celebration Orchestra, "AXON"- trio with Phil Minton and Martin Blume , bass/cello and shakuhachi duo with Shiku Yano, and in Japan various groupings with Sabu Toyozumi and Keiko Midorikawa.

Also trained as a Ceramic artist at Goldsmiths college and continues to make and exhibit work in clay."

-EFI (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mmattos.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Mark Sanders has played with many renowned musicians including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Henry Grimes, Roswell Rudd, Peter Brotzmann, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Jah Wobble, Sidsel Endresen , Charles Gayle, Peter Evans and William Parker. He works with John Edwards in a duo and with groups including Evan Parker, `Foils` with Frank Paul Schubert and Matthius Muller and groups with Veryan Weston, John Tilbury, Agusti Fernandez and Mathew Shipp. Mark works in a regular improvising duo with John Butcher and also performing John`s composition `Tarab Cuts` which has played festivals in Rio de Janiero, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Glasgow, Bristol and London. In a trio with cellist Okkyung Lee, John and Mark have played in Belgium, France, England and Scotland. He also has a longstanding duo with Sarah Gail Brand which has featured on the BBC`s `The Stuart Lee Show`and in the film `Taking the dog for a Walk`.

He has performed solo for a Christian Marclay exhibition at The White Cube Gallery in London, Evan Parker`s festival`Unwhitstable` in Wroclaw, Poland for `Solos Festival` The 100 Years Gallery London, an improvised music series in Derby and Cafe Oto in London. Working with Christian Marclay in his `Everyday` piece for film and live music, he has performed in Aldeburgh, Ruhr Trienalle, Vienna Bienalle, Holland festival and London`s QEH and has also collaborated with him playing for the film `Screenplay`in London and Lisbon. In situations using composition in one form or another Mark works in various projects including `13 Vices` with Brian Irvine/Jennifer Walshe, Alex Hawkins Ensemble featuring Peter Evans, Simon Fell Ensembe, groups with Hasse Poulsen and Luc Ex , Sarah Sarhandi`s `Both Universe`, Elaine Mitchener`s `Sweet Tooth` and has played in the groups of Shabaka Hutchings including`Sons of Kemet` Conceptual Artist Sam Belinfante collaborated with Mark in his piece `On the One Hand, and the Other` in two exhibitions at Camden Arts Centre, London For Conceptual artist Henrik Hakensen`s film `The End` he has performed as an improvising soloist with orchestras conductedd by Jessica Cottis, playing the music of John Coxon in Glasgow, Sydney and Monte Carlo As a guest with New York`s ICE Ensemble he has performed John Zorn`s `The Tempest` in London and at Huddersfield New Music Festival.

Mark also works in the groups of Paul Dunmall including Deep Whole Trio with Paul Rogers, in duo and `Frisque Concordance` with Georg Graewe , and the ensembles of Mikolaj Trzaska, Uwe Oberg and Peter Jaquemyn. He has performed in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Morrocco, South Africa, Australia, Mozambique and Turkey, playing at many major festivals including Nickelsdorf, Riga, Ulrichsburg, Glastonbury, Womad, Vancouver, Isle of Wight, Roskilde, Berlin Jazz days, FMP, Mulhouse, Luz, Minniapolis, Banlieue Bleues, Son D`hiver and Hurta Cordel."

-Mark Sanders Website (http://www.marksanders.me.uk/biography.html)
3/13/2024

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

Neil Metcalfe is a UK flutist who has been a member of groups Evan Parker Octet, Garage, London Improvisers Orchestra, Paul Rogers Freedom Orchestra, The Dedication Orchestra, The Intuitive Art Ensemble, The Runcible Quintet, Transatlantic Art Ensemble, Trio F O, and Unlaunched Orchestra.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/316930-Neil-Metcalfe)
3/13/2024

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)
3/13/2024

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

"Born 27 July 1960; Piano, electronics. Pat Thomas started playing at the age of 8 and studied classical music and played reggae. He began playing jazz at sixteen after seeing Oscar Peterson on television then listened to snatches of jazz on the radio before, in 1979, playing his first serious improvised gigs. From 1986 he played with Ghosts which was Pete McPhail and Matt Lewis.

In addition to programming his keyboards, Pat Thomas also utilises prerecorded tapes. He told Chris Blackford (1991), 'As far as the tapes are concerned I'll probably just sit in front of the TV and tape whatever's going on and so some editing afterward to decide what might be useful. ...But I don't actually put a label on each tape saying what's on there, so when I come to use them I don't know what I'm going to be playing. That obviously prevents me from setting things up. I pick them at random and see what happens. So I'm just as surprised as anybody else at what comes out'.

In 1988 he was awarded an Arts Council Jazz Bursary to write three new electroacoustic compositions for his ten-piece ensemble, Monads: Roger Turner and Matt Lewis, percussion; Pete McPhail, WX7 wind synthesizer; Neil Palmer, turntables; Phil Minton, voice; Phil Durrant, violin; Marcio Mattos, bass; Jon Corbett, trumpet; Geoff Searle, drum machines. The intention was to feature different aspects of electronics using improvisation so, for example, one piece - Dialogue - featured Pete McPhail and Neil Palmer, another concentrated on the interaction of percussionists and drum machines, and a third piece had Phil Minton and Jon Corbett improvising with a computer. The pieces were performed at the Crawley Outside-In Festival of new music in 1989.

Pat Thomas was invited by Derek Bailey to play in Company Week in 1990 and 1991 and he also took part in the Ist International Symposium for Free Improvisation in Bremen with the guitarist. He has been a member of the Tony Oxley Quartet (documented on Incus CD 15) and played in Oxley's Angular Apron along with Larry Stabbins, Manfred Schoof and Sirone at the 8th Ruhr Jazz Meeting and in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. He plays with Lol Coxhill in a range of combinations from duo to being a member of 'Before my time', is a member of Mike Cooper's Continental Drift, and he has a well established duo with percussionist Mark Sanders and a trio with Steve Beresford and Francine Luce. In 1992 Pat Thomas formed the quartet Scatter with Phil Minton, Roger Turner and Dave Tucker; funded by the Arts Council they toured the UK in 1993 and again at the beginning of 1997.

On the 'Festival circuit', Pat Thomas has appeared at: the Young Improvisors Festival at the Korzo Theatre, Den Haag (with Jim O'Rourke, Mats Gustafsson and Alexander Frangenheim); Angelica 95 in Bologna, Italy; the Stuttgart 5th Festival of Improvised Music 96 (with Fred Frith, Shelly Hirsch, Carlos Zingaro and others); and the 3rd International Festival 96 in Budapest (with Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell and Roger Turner).

-EFI (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mthomas.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Philipp Wachsmann. Born Uganda, 1944; violin, viola and electronics.

In the CD booklet to Gushwachs, John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of "indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading 'Die Reihe' and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: 'Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards 'performance' and therefore 'improvisation'.'"

Wachsmann moved from Yggdrasil to Chamberpot - recorded on Bead 2 - and shortly thereafter appeared on Tony Oxley's influential February papers, forward looking in the virtual 'industrial' orientation of some of the tracks, years before this became an accepted genre; the two musicians have continued to work together, in various groupings but notably in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. Philipp Wachsmann has also performed and/or recorded with: Derek Bailey's Company, e.g. on the recording Epiphanies; Georg Graewe; Barry Guy; Iskra 1903; King Übü Orchestrü; London Jazz Composers' Orchestra; Evan Parker, particularly as part of the Evan Parker Electronic Project; Quintet Moderne; Fred Van Hove's ML DD 4; Rüdiger Carl's COWWS (now CPWWS) Quintet; and Lines, with Martin Blume, Jim Denley, Axel Dörner and Marcio Mattos. He also plays as a solo musician.

Phillip Wachsmann also administers Bead Records."

-EFI: European Free Improv (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Trombonist, composer, and sound installation artist, Robert Jarvis is based in the South East of England and enjoys being involved in a wide range of music making, both as creator and performer.

For the first seven years of his career he worked alongside fellow Kent-based musician Peter Cook on a series of music-based community projects before concentrating on his own education projects, collaborating along the way with many different artists, and eventually receiving The Performing Right Society's Composer-In-Education Award.

From the mid-nineties he began to concentrate more on composition, often making use of found-sounds and integrating these into his score; however, it was not until 2003 that he had the idea of a more installation-type approach to his music making. These pieces were quite successful and led to two separate British Composer Awards as well as an invitation by The British Council to create a new work for the then new Chongqing Planning Exhibition Gallery, in China.

In 2007 he was awarded a residency at The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, in Surrey, and this in turn led to a series of other pieces designed for site-specific outdoor spaces, as well as a new body of work drawing from scientific data collected from natural processes, leading to recognition through The PRS New Music Award.

Today, Robert continues to explore new methods for musical creation, attempting to build on his reputation for compositions that entice new appreciations of the sonic landscape and encourage a rethinking of our relationship with our surroundings. His most recent accomplishment is his astronomically inspired aroundNorth sound installation, which is now permanently installed in the grounds of Armagh Observatory.

When not creating or installing, Robert can be regularly heard playing with many different musicians, across different genres, including folk, improv, contemporary, and popular music, as well performing occasionally as a soloist."

-Robert Jarvis Website (https://robertjarvis.co.uk/about.htm)
3/13/2024

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

"Roland Ramanan is a UK improvising trumpeter, known for London Improvisers Orchestra, Roland Ramanan Tentet, Vole."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1108390-Roland-Ramanan)
3/13/2024

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

"Roland Ramanan is a UK improvising trumpeter, known for London Improvisers Orchestra, Roland Ramanan Tentet, Vole."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1108390-Roland-Ramanan)
3/13/2024

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

"Simon Rose is a musician, author and researcher from London, England based in Berlin, Germany. He performs on baritone and alto saxophones in numerous collaborations and as soloist. He also collaborates beyond music with dancers, visual artists, mixed media, built instruments, site specific performance and more. His research interest is in creative processes."

-Simon Rose Website (https://www.simonrose.org/)
3/13/2024

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

"Steve Beresford (born 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.

Beresford played in Derek Bailey's Company events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the Three Pullovers with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, and Han Bennink. He has collaborated extensively with Swiss-American artist/musician Christian Marclay and is an active member of the long-standing London Improvisers Orchestra.

From 2010 he performed various pieces by John Cage, including Indeterminacy with Tania Chen and comedian Stewart Lee, and a performance with Ilan Volkov at The BBC Proms 2012 at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

He has also worked with a number of popular musicians, including Ray Davis, The Slits, Frank Chickens, Ted Milton and The Flying Lizards. In 2015 he performed a duoproject with the upcoming Norwegian singer Natalie Sandtorv at the Blow Out! festival in Oslo, Norway.

He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2012. He is a senior lecturer on the Commercial Music course at University of Westminster.

Beresford's music and his teachings have inspired the musical community in the UK for over a decade. British songwriter and performer Katy Carr cites Steve Beresford's lectures on musical themes associated with Free improvisation, Experimental music, John Cage, musique concrète, Diamanda Galás and The Slits as a source of initial inspiration with regards to the creation of her debut album, Screwing Lies released in 2001."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Beresford)
3/13/2024

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

"Sylvia Hallett studied music at Dartington, and then spent two years studying composition with Max Deutsch in Paris. She now works as both composer and improviser.

She has played in many international festivals since the late 1970s, having worked with several well-known and respected musicians, including David Toop, Alasdair Roberts, Evan Parker, Anna Homler, the late Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton. Groups include Accordions Go Crazy, LaXula, British Summer Time Ends, Arc,The London Improvisers Orchestra, The London Hardingfelelag and The Heliocentrics. She also performs solo, (eg. in Vigne Museum, Rosazzo, Italy 2015), and in duo with Clive Bell, with Mike Adcock, with Anna Homler and with Chris Dowding.

Projects with various theatre and dance companies include collaborations with the dancer/choreographers h2dance (Hanna Gillgren and Heidi Rustgaard), Miranda Tufnell, Emilyn Claid, Jacky Lansley, Lost Dog, and Eva Karczag, the live art puppeteer Nenagh Watson, and Suffolk-based Wonderful Beast. She has performed and musically directed the music of Adrian Lee in world tours with the Young Vic's highly acclaimed "Grimm Tales", and The Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of "Comedy of Errors" , "Tales from Ovid" and "Canterbury Tales".

Sylvia has released three solo CDs, two on the MASH label, which contain songs, improvisations, and tape collage pieces derived from her compositions for theatre and dance. Her 3rd solo release, White Fog on the EMANEM label features the bowed bicycle wheel. She has also recorded numerous albums with groups and duos.

Commissions for 22 BBC Radio Drama include Tess of the D'Urbevilles, Kings, and Virginia Woolf's Kew Gardens."

-Sylvia Hallett Website (http://www.sylviahallett.co.uk/biography.htm?LMCL=vZSJds)
3/13/2024

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

Tony Marsh, real name Anthony Vincent Stewart Marsh, was a British free jazz/improv drummer and percussionist (born 19 August 1939, Lancaster, died of cancer aged 72, 9 April 2012 in London, England).



"The percussionist Tony Marsh, who has died of cancer aged 72, was an inspired collaborator, combining intensity with restraint and stroking the drums more than he struck them. He worked with some of the most creative artists in European jazz of the past four decades, from the composer Mike Westbrook to the saxophonists John Tchicai and Evan Parker.

Marsh devoted his life to an art form short on cash and kudos, but long on creative satisfaction. In his last months he sought inspiration in the complex scores of the composer Iannis Xenakis; formed a new trio with two of London's most creative jazz 20-somethings; and, in March, played an impromptu London performance with the Chicago saxophone master Roscoe Mitchell that astonished those who witnessed it.

Marsh was born in Lancaster, the eldest of three brothers. The family moved to London after the second world war in search of better medical care for his tuberculosis, and he spent a long period of recuperation in St Thomas' hospital. That period of illness seriously hampered his formal education, but he became a good enough teenage footballer to enter trials for professional clubs.

He took up the drums as a military bandsman during national service in the 50s and would play them at Butlins' holiday camps and on cruise ships. In the 60s, he made a living in the West End of London as a jobbing drummer - also learning from records by the great American jazz bands of Clifford Brown (with the bebop drums pioneer Max Roach), Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

In the early 70s, Marsh joined the saxophonist Don Weller, the bass guitarist Bruce Colcutt and the guitarist Jimmy Roche in Major Surgery. The band only released one album, First Cut (1977), but it acquired lasting cult status. He also began productive relationships with the saxophonist Chris Biscoe, the Barbadian trumpeter Harry Beckett and the saxophonist Mike Osborne (in the last period of that cutting-edge artist's playing life, before mental illness incapacitated him in 1982).

Marsh then discovered Westbrook's brass band and big-band music, improv, cabaret and more. Marsh's relaxed dynamism powered an unusual Westbrook big band on an Ellington tribute at Amiens, France, in 1984. It became the landmark album On Duke's Birthday. Four years later, Marsh joined Biscoe's quartet, Full Monte.

Through his European tours with Westbrook, Marsh forged a link with the French jazz scene, regularly commuting between Paris and London until the early 2000s. In 1985, he joined Biscoe and a French brass section to record the bassist Didier Levallet's album Quiet Days, followed by a series of sessions led by Beckett - including one that Levallet considered among his best recordings, Images of Clarity (1992). He also played with the adventurous UK pianist Howard Riley, reeds player Paul Dunmall, and with the saxophonist Simon Picard and the bass virtuoso Paul Rogers on their recording News from the North (1991) for the Swiss experimental label Intakt.

Marsh then committed himself increasingly to life in London. He hugely enjoyed his monthly involvement in the experimental London Improvisers Orchestra (involving the composer/pianist Steve Beresford, Parker and a loose repertory company of others). He was also a permanent member of one of the most thrilling European free-improv trios of recent times, with Parker and the double bassist John Edwards. Marsh was also the driving force behind a genre-crossing quartet with the flautist Neil Metcalfe, the violinist Alison Blunt and the cellist Hannah Marshall.

Since 2011, he had begun a productive relationship with two hotly tipped newcomers, the reeds player Shabaka Hutchings and the bassist Guillaume Viltard. They played freely without prolixity, combined fine detail with spontaneity, and eschewed amplification.

"Listen closely, take a chance, keep going even if money's tight, and you'll find the real reward - that's why Tony was hip in the most meaningful sense," Parker says. "And he didn't need to play loud, or be loud, to get that intensity. It's like splitting diamonds or something. If you know exactly the right place to make the impact, you don't need to hit anything hard." [...]"-John Fordham, The Guardian

-Discogs, The Guardian UK (https://www.discogs.com/artist/321589-Tony-Marsh)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Improvisations for George Riste 1 21:25

2. Improvisations for George Riste 2 18:34

3. Improvisations for George Riste 3 11:48

4. Improvisations for George Riste 4 22:04

Related Categories of Interest:

EMANEM & psi

Improvised Music
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
Denio, Amy
Parker, Evan
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Free Improvisation
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
psi.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (feat. Marilyn Crispell / Evan Parker)
Parallel Moments Unbroken [2CDS]
(FMR)
Scottland's large improvising ensemble of around 20 musicians, merging backgrounds in free improvisation, jazz, classical, folk, pop, experimental musics and performance art, in a 2-CD release of a piece commissioned by the BBC and featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell and saxophist Evan Parker, written using graphic scores, through composition, photographs and artwork.
Rose, Simon / Philippe Lemoine
Seance
(Tour de Bras)
Tenor and baritone saxophones in an exchange of spectral interactions that emphasize harmonic overtones and intersections, unusual emanations from both instruments in a perfectly paced improvisations, each of the 12 dialogs named aptly for locations and crossing in Englad and France, adding a sense of journey to these mysterious and wonderful expeditions.
Rose, Simon / Nicola L. Hein
Shug Monkey
(Creative Sources)
A "shug monkey" is a cryptid, a creature that may or may not exist, supposed to have features of a dog and a monkey, an odd but apt reference for the unusual improvisations by Berlin-based saxophonist Simon Rose and guitarist Nicola L. Hein, one of 8 tracks named for unusual creatures and mythological beings, each described in sound through extended techniques and powerful playing.
Tomlinson, Alan Trio ( w/ Dave Tucker / Phillip Marks)
Out And Out
(FMR)
London Jazz Composers Orchestra trombonist Alan Tomlinson, performing on tenor and alto trombone, with his trio of Dave Tucker on guitar and Phillip Marks on percussion, are caught live in Birmingham, Lancaster, London, and during the Harwich Festival, from 2009-16, demonstrating the strong rapport and exciting dialog these players have developed over years performing together.
Ramanan / Torres / Rodrigues / Alvares
New Dynamics
(Creative Sources)
With members of IKB, Variable Geometry Orchestra, and LIO, the free improvising/chamber quartet of Ernesto Rodriguge (viola), Bernardo Alvares (bass), Roland Ramana (trumpet), and Nuno Torres (sax), were captured live at Estrela for an intense and introspective concert.
Rodrigues / Area / Torres / Gris
Aleph
(Creative Sources)
Two freely improvised works performed on cello, sine waves, cracklebox, bottle, synth, cornet and objects from the quartet of frequent collaborators Guilherme Rodrigue, David Area Guillermo Torres, and Tomas Gris, a mix of subtle improvisation and subsuming sound.
Dunmall, Paul / John Edwards / Tony Marsh
To Be Real
(FMR)
Hard working free improv session from the UK trio of Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, John Edwards on double bass and the late Tony Marsh on drums, performing live at the Vortex in 2010, and at UWE in Bristol, 2007, never released material reminding of Marsh's stature and skill.
Dunmall, Paul / Phillip Gibbs / Alison Blunt / Neil Metcalfe / Hanna Marshall
I Look At You
(FMR)
Blending free and compositional players, saxophonist Paul Dunmall leads the quintet of Neil Metcalfe on flute, Hanna Marshall on cello, Alison Blunt on violin and Phillip Gibbs on guitar for a refined and sprightly set of extended improvisations recorded at Birmingham Conservatory.
Remote Viewers, The
November Sky
(Remote Viewers)
UK's Remote Viewers with 4 saxophone players--David Petts, Caroline Kraabel, Andrian Northover & Sue Lynch--plus John Edwards on double bass and David Stockard on drums & percussion, blending jazz and modern chamber in lyrical, novel, and mysterious ways.
Rose, Simon / Stefan Schultze
The Ten Thousand Things
(Red Toucan)
Free improvising saxophonist Simon Rose, on baritone and alto sax, meets composer/arranger Stefan Schultze on prepared piano for 11 exploratory works based around Schultze's "modules"--bits and pieces attached inside the piano--creating unusual platforms for free improvisation.
Dunmall, Paul / Philip Gibbs / Neil Metcalfe
The Ravens Look
(FMR)
Paul Dunmall performs on soprano sax along with clarinets and contra bassoon, in a give and take album with flutist Neil Metcalf and guitarist Philip Gibbs, a trio that allows space and a free melodic approach to guide their intelligent discourse.
Hug, Charlotte
Neuland
(Emanem)
For her second solo album, Charlotte Hug concentrates on solo viola without any electronics in a series of pieces inspired by a then-recent visit to London, showing her strong musical personality and original extended techniques in a solo recital unlike any other.
Fauna (Simon Rose / Paul Stapleton)
Fauna
(pfmentum)
British saxophonist Simon Rose uses extended and evocative techniques in this exceptional set of duos with Paul Stapleton, who plays a Bonsai Sound Sculpture, an assemblage of unusual electronic and acoustic components allowing a wide range of expression.
Watt: Smith / Marshall / Flinn
Alter Egos
(Creative Sources)
Active and interactive percussion using extended techniques from the London trio of trumpeter Ian Smith, percussionist Stephen Flinn, and cellist Hannah Marshall.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Frith, Fred
All Is Always Now (Live at the Stone) [3 CDs]
(Intakt)
Guitarist Fred Frith performed 80 concerts at NY's The Stone between 2006-2016, in diverse configurations of duos, trios, quartets and large ensembles with some of the planet's finest improvisers, of which 23 recordings, titled from NY Times headlines of each concert's day, are presented in this essential 3-CD package, which includes a 24 page booklet detailing the collection.
Toyozumi, Sabu / Rick Countryman / Simon Tan
Preludes And Prepositions
(ChapChap Records)
Three extended free improvisations recorded in 2017 in Cubao Quezon City from the trio of Rick Countryman on alto saxophone, Simon Tan on acoustic bass, and Japense first generation free improviser Sabu Toyozumi on drums & Erhu (a 2-stringed Chinese instrument), as the trio take their listeners on a marathon session of inspired and playing.
Kuhn, Peter (w/ Toshinori Kondo / Arthur Williams / William Parker / Denis Charles)
No Coming, No Going. The Music of Peter Kuhn, 1978-1979 [2 CDs]
(NoBusiness)
Two recordings from multi-reedist Peter Kuhn from 1978-79; a reissue of an LP of a '78 radio broadcast with Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Arthur Williams (trumpet), William Parker (bass), and Denis Charles (drums); and a live concert with Denis Charles in Massachusetts in '79.
Bisio, Michael / Kirk Knuffke Duo
Row for William O.
(Relative Pitch)
New York bassist Michael Bisio pays tribute to his teacher William O. Smith in this tremendous duo with cornetist Kirk Knuffke, in a beautiful mix of lyrical playing and heavy technical skills made to sound remarkably simply; a joyful and profound jazz album.
Evans, Peter / Tim Dahl / Mike Pride
Pulverize The Sound
(Relative Pitch)
The trio of trumpeter Peter Evans, electric bassist Tim Dahl, and drummer/percussionist Mike Pride have played together since 2010, crossing the boundaries of improvisation, composition and rock in dynamic genre-defying music intended to be played loud.
Roberts, Matana
Always
(Relative Pitch)
Two passionate studio improvisations from saxophonist Matana Roberts, who lovingly dedicates the album to "those bard(s) of summer...the ideas herein of which I gleaned/interrogated/investigated/celebrated with you..."; subtle, rich, and inspiring.
Fujiwara, Tomas Trio
Variable Bets
(Relative Pitch)
Merging different sub-genre of NYC's rich jazz and creative music scene, drummer Tomas Fujiwara's trio with Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Ralph Alessi on trumpet furtively builds into a free jazz album of contrasting dynamics and superb playing.
Parker, Evan & Sylvie Courvoisier
Either Or And
(Relative Pitch)
A powerful duo recorded in the studio after their 2013 performance at The Stone in NYC from NY pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and UK saxophonist Evan Parker, with extraordinary playing over eight pieces presenting an inspired range of technical and impressionistic styles.
Gauci, Stephen / Kirk Knuffke / Ken Filiano
Chasing Tales
(Relative Pitch)
The NY trio of saxophonist Stephen Gauci, cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Ken Filiano in a set of group improvisations plus compositions from each player, great melodic and interactive playing from three exceptional players.
Lean Left
Live At Area Sismica
(Unsounds)
The amazing combination of Ex guitarists Terrie Ex and Andy Moor with drummer Paal Nilssen-love and Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark in their 5th release, a live album from Italy showing the aggressive and exuberantly determined band in excellent form.
Leandre, Joelle / Phillip Greenlief
That Overt Desire of Object
(Relative Pitch)
Relative Pitch Records debuts with the excellent duo of bassist Joelle Leandre and Bay Area woodwind improviser Phil Greenlief in 11 variations for contrabass and woodwinds.
Convergence Quartet, The
Live In Oxford
(FMR)
The Convergence Quartet (Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt, Alexander Hawkins and Dominic Lash) in their first FMR CD performing inspired modern jazz live in Oxford.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC