The Squid's Ear Magazine


Beresford, Steve / Pierpaolo Martino / Mark Sanders: Be S-Mart (Confront)

Steve Beresford on prepared piano, electronics, & objects joins Pierpaolo Martino on double bass & electronics and Mark Sanders on drums for a fiercely interactive trio set of elastic rhythms and textured harmony, balancing grounded resonance with agile percussion and playful disruption, recorded at the 2024 Bari in Jazz Festival in sharply conversational, risk-embracing improvisation.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Steve Beresford-prepared piano, electronics, objects

Pierpaolo Martino-double bass, electronics

Mark Sanders-drums

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Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 63
Squidco Product Code: 37059

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard sleeve, sealed
Live recording at Bari in Jazz Festival Minareto di Fasano, Italy, on August 13th, 2024, by Francesco Napoletano.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"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)
2/11/2026

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

"Pierpaolo Martino is a Researcher in English Literature at the University of Bari. He deals with cultural studies, modernist and contemporary literature, and the relationship between literature and music. He has published more than forty literary, musical and cinematographic studies on authors such as Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Colin MacInnes, Alan Sillitoe, Philip Larkin, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Salman Rushdie, Kamau Brathwaite, Hanif Kureishi, Hari Kunzru , Derek Jarman, Morrissey, Nick Cave, Smiths and Radiohead. He is the author of three monographs: Virginia Woolf: the music of the lighthouse. Page and Improvisation (2003), Down in Albion. Studies on English pop culture (2007) and Mark the Music. The Language of Music in English Literature from Shakespeare to Salman Rushdie (2012) and curator of Exodus. Studies on Anglo-Caribbean Literature (2009) and Words and Music, Studies on the relationship between literature and music in the English-speaking world (2015).

As a musician he began to study bass guitar at the age of 15 to undertake the double bass at the N. Piccinni Conservatory in Bari in 1993. He attended several seminars on improvisation both in Italy and abroad and studied with the French bass player. Joelle Leandre and American bassist Mark Dresser. He has played with internationally renowned musicians such as Sabir Mateen, Marc Ducret, Steve Potts, Vinny Golia and Eugenio Colombo."

-Double Bass Tribute to David Bowie Facebook Event Page (https://www.facebook.com/events/391320774572338/)
2/11/2026

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)
2/11/2026

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


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

February 2026
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Trio Recordings
Instruments with Preparations
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

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Confront.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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