Category Archives: improv

Incoming Autumn 2021 gigs at Hundred Years Gallery

We’re back this autumn with a fresh crop of new gigs! Three evenings of improvised music at our regular haunt Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton…

Continuing our three-set format, each month LUME founders Dee Byrne and Cath Roberts will bring a project, and the third ‘guest’ set will feature some more of our favourite artists. There will be a solo set each month; from Cath Roberts in October, Will Glaser in November and Hannah Marshall in December. Multiple ‘first meeting’ duo sets will be played: Cath will play with Ruth Goller for the first time, while Dee will collaborate with Chris Williams (October) and Elliot Galvin (November).

New releases are also a theme. Our Swiss friends Oli Kuster and Cyrill Ferrari will play a set with Dee in November as part of the trio’s UK mini-tour to celebrate the release of their new album ‘Motherboard Pinball’ (Efpi Records). And in December, LUME will host the album release concert for ‘Hold Music’ by cr-ow-tr-io (Cath Roberts, Otto Willberg and Tullis Rennie), which will be out that month on Luminous.

Join us!

LUME @ Hundred Years Gallery in July & August 2021

WE’RE BACK! We’re excited to announce a new LUME mini-series at Hundred Years Gallery on 15th July and 12th August. Looking back at our gig archive, our last gig there was on 1st December 2017…

Places are limited, so email info@hundredyearsgallery.com to reserve a seat. Doors 7.30pm, music starts at 8pm. Tickets are £5.

Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, London, E2 8JD. Nearest station: Hoxton (Overground).

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15th July 2021

Cath Roberts
Cath Roberts’ work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. Her band Sloth Racket has toured widely and released several albums, and she collaborates with many other artists as an improviser, primarily on baritone saxophone. cathrobots.co.uk

Sam Andreae
Sam Andreae is an artist working in the area of free improvisation. “Andreae delves into an impressive vocabulary of skilfully controlled overtones, rapid keypad flutters and fragile harmonics, glistening like filaments held up to the light.” Daniel Spicer, The Wire (2015) samandreae.com

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Graham Dunning
Graham Dunning’s work explores sound as texture, timbre and something tactile, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects. He also makes visual work, video and installations relating to these themes. grahamdunning.com

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Deemer + 1
Dee Byrne is a London-based saxophonist, composer and improviser with an interest in pushing the boundaries of jazz. Dee collaborates with artists from the UK and Europe who occupy the area of contemporary jazz, avant-garde and free improvisation. deebyrnemusic.com

Merijn Royaards is a sound artist guided by convoluted movements through music, art and architecture. The interaction between space and sound in cities with a history/present of conflict has been a recurring theme in his multi-media work. merijnroyaards.com

Johnny Hunter is a northern UK-based drummer and composer who comes from a background of both the avant-garde and more mainstream jazz. Johnny leads a number of his own projects from quartet to large ensemble, all of which showcase his fast-developing compositional practice. johnnyhuntermusic.com

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12th August 2021

Cath Roberts
Cath Roberts’ work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. Her band Sloth Racket has toured widely and released several albums, and she collaborates with many other artists as an improviser, primarily on baritone saxophone. cathrobots.co.uk

Benedict Taylor
Benedict Taylor is a British avant-garde violist, violinist and composer. He is a leading figure within the area of contemporary string performance, at the forefront of the British & European classical and new music world. benedicttaylor.bandcamp.com

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Tom Ward
Tom Ward is a musician, composer and computer programmer from Yorkshire, currently based in London. His primary instrument remains the saxophone, but in recent years he has increasingly focused on bass clarinet and flutes. madwort.co.uk

Charlotte Keeffe
Charlotte Keeffe’s unique approach and passion for jazz, experimental and freely improvised music sees her performing regularly as a soloist and as part of a variety of different ensembles, including her own quartet. charlottekeeffe.com

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Dee Byrne
Dee Byrne is a London-based saxophonist, composer and improviser with an interest in pushing the boundaries of jazz. Dee collaborates with artists from the UK and Europe who occupy the area of contemporary jazz, avant-garde and free improvisation. deebyrnemusic.com

Olie Brice
Olie Brice is an improvising double bassist from London. He leads two bands – a quintet that plays his original compositions and a freely improvising trio featuring Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders. He has also worked with musicians including Paul Dunmall, Tony Malaby, Steve Swell, Achim Kaufmann, Alex Ward and Ingrid Laubrock. oliebrice.com

Andrew Lisle
Andrew Lisle is a drummer working in the field of jazz and improvised music. He strives to create music within the avant-garde, pushing the limits of what is possible on the drums (technically and musically) while drawing influence from the jazz tradition. andrewlisle.com

New Luminous website and mailing list

In recent months we’ve found ourselves posting on this blog about new releases on the LUME offshoot label, Luminous. No longer! The label now has a shiny new website all of its own. On there you can read about all the releases on the label so far (including the new Deemer + 1 album coming next month), and information about the artists.

There is also a new mailing list for the label, so do sign up if you’d like to be kept updated on future releases and label-related activities….

New on Luminous! Exabout: Live In Ramsgate by Sloth Racket

Out today on Luminous is a new Sloth Racket live album! Recorded by Anton Hunter last September when the band were on tour, and mixed by Alex Bonney, it’s the whole set from their date at Arco Barco in Ramsgate. Check it out over on Bandcamp:


Like a million other bands, Sloth Racket had to cancel their tour this year, and this release falls where they would have been out and about playing live. It’s a digital only release, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t any merch: there was always a plan for new t-shirts in 2020 and we’ve decided to still go ahead…

The shirts are available in a bundle with the digital album. Head over to the merch page on Bandcamp to read more about the shirts and check the size guide.

Hope you enjoy the music! We have more Luminous plans up our sleeves, so you never know there just *might* be another release before the year is out.

New Luminous release: Dee Byrne & Cath Roberts – Disembark!

Announcing a very special new album! LUME founders Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne release their first duo recording Disembark! today on Luminous. Recorded by Cath at Gun Factory Studios in April 2019, it was mixed by Alex Bonney and has original album artwork by Dee. Disembark! is a series of short, spontaneous improvisations that explore a dramatic range of textures, whilst maintaining the sense of an ongoing, inquisitive conversation. The recording came about after a series of live duo performances; going into the studio seemed like the next logical step. The release was originally planned for earlier in the summer, with a five date duo tour booked and ready to go, but that plan was derailed by the pandemic. Now, we’ve decided to get the music out there!

Dee and Cath have played together in many different ensembles since they started working together, most recently in February this year with MoonMot (see previous blog post), touring the UK and Europe to mark the sextet’s debut album just before COVID-19 shut all the venues down. Playing together as musicians has been part of a larger context, combined with running LUME projects together and releasing music through Luminous. It feels like a long time since the first release, Live At Lume Vol.1 in July 2015 – a collection of bootleg recordings from performances at LUME’s then regular night at The Long White Cloud in Hoxton. The label grew out of those Live At LUME fundraiser albums, and now five years on, Disembark! will be the thirteenth release on Luminous. With more scheduled this Autumn, we recommend you keep your ear to the ground!

Disembark! is available as a digital album via Bandcamp. No physical copies for now, but ask us again when touring is back on…

LUME on The Hello Goodbye Show: Winter Solstice 2019 Takeover!

On Saturday 21st December, LUME has been invited to take over Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye Show on Resonance FM! To round off 2019 we’re looking forward to filling an entire radio show with LUME stuff. We’ll be playing some tasty tracks and talking about LUME projects past and present, plus there will be two live sets: one from Ti/om (Tom Ward and Tim Fairhall) and a duo set from Dee and Cath.

Tune in from 12 noon until 1.30pm to hear what we’ve got up our sleeves…

23 November 2019: LUME Barbican Free Stage slots at EFG London Jazz Festival

At this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, LUME will showcase two new projects that reflect the adventurous spirit of our music-making. Come down to the Barbican foyer (free entry!) on the afternoon of Saturday 23rd November to hear sets from:

5pm: Rachel Musson / Cath Roberts / Andrew Lisle

All active as collaborator, bandleaders and composers in their own right, Musson, Lisle and Roberts have joined forces in this new trio. Rachel Musson is a distinctive voice on the European scene, regularly collaborating with artists including Julie Kjær, Hannah Marshall, Olie Brice, Pat Thomas, Louis Moholo-Moholo and many more. Andrew Lisle is in demand as an improvising drummer in London and further afield, with ongoing projects including Kodian Trio, Alex Ward’s Item ensembles and his own trio with Charlotte Keeffe and Otto Willberg. LUME’s own Cath Roberts primarily plays baritone saxophone and can be found leading her ensembles Sloth Racket and Favourite Animals, in established duos with Anton Hunter and Benedict Taylor, and as bandmate in groups including Article XI, Vole and Madwort Saxophone Quartet.

Rachel Musson – tenor saxophone
Cath Roberts – alto saxophone
Andrew Lisle – drums

6pm: Deemer + 1

The brain-child of sound artist Merijn Royaards and saxophonist/composer/LUME co-conspirator Dee Byrne, Deemer started life in 2006 as a weekly improvisation/electronics session in a warehouse in Hackney Wick. Over the years the project has evolved into a continuing conversation that is always inquisitive, searching and fresh. The duo released their debut album ‘Interference Patterns’ on Luminous Label in 2015. Their second release ‘Live At The Vortex’ was released on cassette in 2016. They are currently working on their next release on Luminous, which will feature guest artists involved in their new Deemer + 1 project. For this special London Jazz Festival performance Deemer invites Manchester-based drummer, composer and bandleader Johnny Hunter as special guest for a heavy dose of sonic cookery.

Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Merijn Royaards – electronics
Johnny Hunter – drums

13th March 2019: Entropi/Sloth Racket at Kings Place

LUME is thrilled to announce an Entropi/Sloth Racket double bill at Kings Place on 13th March. It’s part of the Venus Unwrapped series, which throws a spotlight on female composers and is a great opportunity for LUME co-founders Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne to showcase their projects in such an amazing venue. This performance at Kings Place marks the start of exciting LUME plans in the pipeline for later on this year. Cath and Dee have spent 2018 concentrating on their own musical projects and are pleased to share the stage with their bands for this special occasion! Cath’s band Sloth Racket will be coming fresh from a recording of their next album, to be released on Luminous in September. Dee’s band Entropi will perform a few recently penned compositions as well as material from their previous albums.

Grab your tickets to this one-off event!

Here’s a bit about the bands:

Sloth Racket

Sloth Racket is a band of UK improvisers led by baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts, with Sam Andreae on alto saxophone, Anton Hunter on guitar,  Seth Bennett on bass and Johnny Hunter on drums. They play Cath’s compositions, combining written fragments with graphic notation to explore the balance between freedom and structure. The results are always different, and so far have ranged across musical territories taking in fiery free jazz, minimal improv textures and heavy riffs.

The band formed in 2015 when Jazz North East invited Cath to present a new project at Gateshead International Jazz Festival. Everyone agreed this had to be more than just a one-off, and they went on to appear at London Jazz Festival, Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival and LUME Festival, as well as doing four UK tours so far. Sloth Racket’s third studio album A Glorious Monster is out on the Luminous label.

‘Lurching between riff and abstraction…maintains an elegant balance between emergent melody and the wilder activity at its fringes’ The Wire

‘Consider this an important contribution to the debate about spontaneity versus form.’ ★★★★ Jazzwise

Photo credit: Agata Urbaniak

Entropi

Entropi has been steadily developing its own dynamic band sound since its beginnings in 2010. Placing a high importance on improvisation, Dee Byrne’s compositions allow breathing space for depth of communication and interaction between the band members. Juggling order and chaos, composition and improvisation, the group takes listeners on a journey with compelling group interplay, strong themes, open-ended improvisation, dark grooves and interweaving melodic textures.

The ensemble comprises bandleader and alto saxophonist Dee Byrne, trumpeter Andre Canniere, keyboardist Rebecca Nash, drummer Matt Fisher and bassist Olie Brice. Having performed live together for some time, the band has achieved a striking empathy and freedom to take risks. Entropi’s second album Moment Frozen was released on Whirlwind Recordings in September 2017. Their performance at Marsden Jazz Festival in October 2018 was broadcast on Radio 3’s Jazz Now programme on Christmas Eve.

‘Intense, muscular jazz voyage.’ ★★★★ The Guardian

‘Byrne’s second album possesses both maturity and complexity but crucially it’s imbued with its own cohesive energy.’ ★★★★ All About Jazz

Photo credit: Carl Hyde

Thanks for a great festival!

Thanks to all who came out to spend their weekend with us at LUME Festival 2017 in June. We had a blast! Also massive thanks to Eduard for hosting us at IKLECTIK, to all the musicians who played, and to everyone who helped us out on the day (special mention to our awesome merch assistant Liz).

LUME is taking a break now, but watch this space for news of further activities in the coming months…


Dee Byrne leads the LUMEkestra at LUME Festival 2017 (photo by Bill Clifford)