Category Archives: improv

17th December @ Hundred Years Gallery: The Hat Speaks!

For our last gig of 2015 we return to Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton, for the second edition of our dice-and-hat improvised music night. We held the first one in July to celebrate our second birthday, and it was so much fun we decided to do it again. As before, a nebulous ensemble of UK improvisers will gather to make spontaneous music together. This time the list looks like this:

Alison Blunt
Alex Bonney
Dee Byrne
Tim Fairhall
Tom Greenhalgh
Anton Hunter
Andrew Lisle
Percy Pursglove
Martin Pyne
Tullis Rennie
Ed Riches
Cath Roberts
Tom Ward
Colin Webster

….plus new additions Seth Bennett and Tori Handsley!

Taking inspiration from long-running Manchester night The Noise Upstairs (founded by Anton Hunter and Tullis Rennie no less), we will put all the players’ names into a hat, throw the dice to determine how many musicians will play, and then draw out the names. The result is lots of mini- sets from often completely new combinations of people! Some groups from last time have decided to carry on playing together too: Tom Ward and Adam Fairhall are now collaborating on a new quartet for 2016 after their hat encounter in the Summer!

Do join us for this last gig of the year – it’s been a blast, so let’s see it off in style! Entry, as usual, is one Bank of England note of your choice. Doors 7.30pm, first roll of the dice 8pm.

Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, London E2 8JD.

6th December @ The Vortex: Deemer (Interference Patterns album launch) & Survival Skills

This month at the Vortex, a special evening of improvised music with electronics for the launch of the first release on our new Luminous label! Tonight LUME welcomes Deemer, who are releasing their debut album ‘Interference Patterns’ on Monday 7th December. They are joined on the other side of the bill by multi-instrumentalist Chris Sharkey, playing a Survival Skills solo set.

Deemer
The brain-child of Merijn Royaards and Dee Byrne, Deemer started life in 2006 as a weekly improvisation/electronics session in a warehouse in Hackney Wick. The project has since evolved into an installation/performance based electro-acoustic two-piece orchestra, whose aural narratives are created within fluid frameworks that map a trajectory in time, but leave the sonic textures and compositions entirely free and undetermined. Deemer employ, among other things, alto saxophone, analogue electronics, tape, transducer microphones/speakers to instantly compose, activate space, and blur the boundaries between free jazz and sound installation.

Survival Skills
Survival Skills is the solo project of Chris Sharkey (trioVD, Acoustic Ladyland, Shiver). It has no fixed instrumentation but the music is often comprised of various processed layers created in real time by hardware including synths, sequencers, cassette recordings, vocals and guitar…

‘ a lo-fi vision of mangled techno, where beats cluster and stumble in their fight for dominance; a highly intriguing piece of noise art.’ – data transmission

As usual, doors are at 7.30pm and the music will start at 8pm. See you there!

Poster by Cath Roberts.

LUME at EFG London Jazz Festival 2015

For this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, LUME is curating an afternoon of music on the Barbican freestage on Saturday 14th November. Join us on a voyage of contemporary sounds! As the stage name suggests, it’s free entry, so just come down to the Barbican foyer and settle in for the ride…

12 noon: Corey Mwamba & Rachel Musson

Spontaneous, living music in-the-moment from two of the UK’s finest improvisers.

Corey Mwamba vibraphone
Rachel Musson tenor saxophone

12.30pm: Colin Webster & Andrew Lisle

Fiery, free-wheeling sax and drums duo from DIY improv/noise label Raw Tonk Records.
Colin Webster saxophones
Andrew Lisle drums

2pm: Entropi

Space jazz quintet led by Dee Byrne, currently making waves with their debut album ‘New Era’. Juggling order and chaos, composition and improvisation, they take listeners on an exploration of the musical cosmos.

Dee Byrne alto saxophone
Andre Canniere trumpet
Rebecca Nash keyboards
Olie Brice bass
Matt Fisher drums

3pm: Sloth Racket

Brand new group formed for Gateshead Jazz Festival 2015 by Cath Roberts. Improvisers from Manchester, Leeds, Macclesfield and London navigate a set of experimental graphic scores, using them as a jumping-off point for freely improvised group explorations.

Sam Andreae tenor saxophone
Anton Hunter guitar
Cath Roberts baritone saxophone
Seth Bennett bass
Johnny Hunter drums

6pm: Madwort’s Menagerie

Intricate compositions and delicate textures from Tom Ward’s chamber jazz sextet, with a diverse collection of instruments played by high-calibre improvisers from across the London creative music scene.

Tom Ward bass clarinet, composition
Julie Kjaer flute, alto flute
Alex Bonney trumpet
Magnus Dearness trombone
Adam Spiers cello
Tim Fairhall double bass

1st November: Tom Taylor/Rob Luft and Cath Roberts/Seth Bennett/Andrew Lisle at The Vortex

For our November Vortex gig, we welcome a duo and a trio to the stage, for a night of improvised music.

Cath Roberts/Seth Bennett/Andrew Lisle

The first meeting of a new improvising trio. Andrew Lisle is known for being one of the drummers in heavyweight Leeds anarcho-sextet Shatner’s Bassoon, and as a prolific improviser working with a multitude of musicians on the free scene: Colin Webster, Alex Ward, Daniel Thompson, Tom Wheatley and more. Seth Bennett leads his own ensembles Nut Club and En Bas Quartet, as well as being involved in many other projects across musical styles including Fragments Trio, Metamorphic and The Horse Loom. Seth and Cath play together as a duo, as well as in Word of Moth and Cath’s quintet Sloth Racket. Cath also leads Quadraceratops, a septet, and has a duo with guitarist Anton Hunter, Ripsaw Catfish.

Cath Roberts baritone saxophone

Seth Bennett bass

Andrew Lisle drums

Tom Taylor/Rob Luft

This duo featuring Tom Taylor and Rob Luft is a recent collaboration borne out of a mutual love of improvised music. The music draws attention to the many common features of the two instruments, and mixes high-intensity improvisation with more tender and reflective textures.

Tom Taylor piano

Rob Luft guitar

As usual it’s doors 7.30pm, with the music starting at 8pm. Tickets are £10. See you there!

Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London, N16 8JH.

Poster by Cath Roberts.

9th July: LUME is 2! Birthday gig at Hundred Years Gallery

This week we’re decamping to Hundred Years Gallery once more, for a special gig to celebrate our second birthday! We have assembled a nebulous ensemble of musicians – from the London jazz/improvised music scene and beyond – to take part in a series of improvised performances. Who plays in each set will be determined using our dice and hat method, inspired by the long-running Manchester night The Noise Upstairs.

Musicians confirmed so far…

Seth Bennett
Adam Fairhall
Colin Webster
Hannah Marshall
Corey Mwamba
Joe Wright
Johnny Hunter
Martin Pyne
Olie Brice
Tom Ward
James Opstad
Andrew Lisle
Ed Riches
Tom Taylor
Dee Byrne
Cath Roberts

…with others possibly to be announced! (Although we might leave it there because we want everyone to play…)

Live At LUME

The evening will also function as the launch of our ‘Live At LUME’ fundraiser compilation; an album of live performances recorded at LUME gigs, donated by a bunch of our favourite musicians. This is available as a download, plus we’ve also produced special CD editions with hand-printed sleeves. All proceeds go towards our running costs for the next year of LUME gigs. Grab your copy on here or at the gig!

Entry is, as usual, one Bank of England note of your choice. Doors 7.30pm, music 8pm. We’d love to see you there as we mark two years of LUME activity. Bring your friends!

Hundred Years Gallery is just around the corner from Hoxton station at 13 Pearson Street, E2 8JD.

2nd July: Noel Taylor/Lawrence Casserley/Guillaume Viltard & Daniel Thompson

Our July gigs open with this double bill of improvised music: a fantastic trio put together by Noel Taylor, and a solo set from Daniel Thompson. As usual it’s doors at 8pm, with the music starting around 8.30pm. Entry is one Bank of England note of your choice.

Noel Taylor/Lawrence Casserley/Guillaume Viltard

Noel Taylor sent us this scene-setting paragraph on the trio…

“Electronics wizard Lawrence Casserley is something of a phantom, a ghost musician, a mute who can only speak through the voices of others. He has no sound of his own, but, like a parasite feeding on its host, uses the analogue input from the clarinet of Noel Taylor and the contrabass of Guillaume Viltard to function as triggers for his electronic re-shaping. Their sounds become bounced back to them mangled, distorted, re-imagined: producing weirdly spectral reflections of their playing. It is a musical circuit diagram, a feedback loop of potentially infinite regression. It presents to them conflicting impulses, in which the immediate past struggles with the immediacy of the present. The process creates a music of shifting hierarchies in which puppet and puppet master constantly swap places, but which can nevertheless discover a formal and crystalline coherence. ”

Noel Taylor clarinets

Lawrence Casserley electronics

Guillaume Viltard bass

Daniel Thompson

Daniel is a prolific improviser, extremely active on the London free scene, and organises the monthly Foley Street improvised music concert series at the King and Queen pub in the West End. Originally from Norfolk and largely self-taught on the guitar, Daniel moved to London in 2006 and studied with the guitarist and Mopomoso co-founder John Russell. He has performed/collaborated with numerous improvisers including Neil Metcalfe, Adam Bohman, Terry Day, Simon Rose, Ricardo Tejero, Steve Noble, Alex Ward, Phil Durrant, Kay Grant, Benedict Taylor, Roland Ramanan, Mark Sanders, Anton Mobin, Tom Jackson, Javier Carmona and Julie Kjaer amongst many others. We’re very much looking forward to hearing him play a solo guitar set for us this week.

This promises to be a fantastic evening: see you at Long White Cloud!

25th June: Kordik Lucas & Dee Byrne/Ed Riches

A double bill of improvised music at Long White Cloud this week, exploring the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronics/synths. Doors 8pm, music starting 8.30pm/8.45pm. Entry is one Bank of England note.

Kordik Lucas

Kordik Lucas is an improvising duo combining trombone and analogue synthesisers. They have been active on the London scene and beyond for a few years, both as a duo and in other contexts: you might have caught Ed Lucas’ duo set with guitarist Daniel Thompson at LUME last year. The duo also run Earshots Recordings, a label releasing improvised music, most recently including a bass duo album from John Edwards and Tom Wheatley. Kordik Lucas released their own album ‘MMXII’ on Earshots in 2012.

‘The juicy sounds of the Vostok synth wiggle with squelchy non-classical balls of trombone fluff’ – Next Festival, Bratislava, 2012.

Daniel Kordik analogue synthesisers
Edward Lucas trombone

Dee Byrne/Ed Riches

Dee Byrne and Ed Riches first met playing in keyboardist/vocalist Xantone Blacq’s band in 2008. Since then they have collaborated as part of improvising sextet Zonica (as seen at ‘LUME Presents…’ last month), but tonight is their first performance as a duo. Following on from their work with Zonica, they will play an improvised set using guitar, alto sax and electronics. Expect sonic cookery of the first order…

Dee Byrne alto saxophone/electronics

Ed Riches guitar/electronics

11th June: Shatner’s Bassoon

They’re back! Leeds’ finest iconoclastic sextet return to Long White Cloud on their UK tour. When they told us they were coming through London promoting their new album, we couldn’t resist inviting them back. Come with us on a joyous journey into musical chaos, as the band unleash their violent cocktail of Zornish style collisions and freewheeling improv, negotiating a path from the beautiful to the sinister, humorous and surreal. An essential gig…make sure you get here early!

Michael Bardon bass/electronics
Ollie Dover sax/clarinet
Joost Hendrickx drums/electronics
Andrew Lisle drums
Johnny Richards keys/electronics
Craig Scott guitar/electronics

Double LUME week: Rowland Sutherland Double Trio & LUME On Tour Entropi album launch!

This week is the last double LUME week of the season and it’s going to be a good one! We’ve got a fantastic improvising ensemble at Long White Cloud, and the London leg of LUME On Tour at the Vortex. The Vortex gig is also Dee’s Entropi album launch!

4th June @ Long White Cloud: Rowland Sutherland Double Trio

This week at Long White Cloud we welcome back internationally-acclaimed flautist Rowland Sutherland, with a different take on his double trio format. The ensemble features six top improvising flute players from the London scene and explores the combination of Western and non-Western flutes. After the Saxoctopus gig last year, this is the largest one-instrument group we’ve had at LUME, and it should make for an evening of fascinating textures and soundworlds. Join us for this celebration of the flute in its many forms!

Rowland Sutherland concert flute, alto flute
Julie Kjaer concert flute
Neil Metcalfe wooden concert flute

Jan Hendrickse non-Western flutes
Hyelim Kim taegum/Korean flute
Clive Bell shakuhachi/Japanese flute

7th June @ ‘LUME Presents…’, Vortex Jazz Club: Entropi ‘New Era’ album launch & Quadraceratops

The ‘LUME Presents’ season finale, with performances from ensembles led by LUME organisers Cath Roberts and Dee Byrne. Tonight is not only the London date of ‘LUME On Tour’, but also the launch gig for Entropi’s debut album ‘New Era’.

Entropi

Dee Byrne formed Entropi while studying at Trinity College of Music in 2011, and since then they have fast become a name to watch on the UK contemporary jazz scene, regularly performing in London and beyond. Playing Dee’s original material with plenty of space for improvisation, the quintet take their listeners on an exploration of the musical cosmos. Their debut album ‘New Era’ was released on 1st June on the F- IRE Presents label.

‘Hard hitting…searing solos…other-worldly…Entropi’s debut album should be well worth hearing’ (The Jazz Mann, 2014 live review)

Dee Byrne alto saxophone/compositions
Andre Canniere trumpet
Rebecca Nash keyboards
Olie Brice bass
Matt Fisher drums

Quadraceratops

Led by Cath Roberts as a vehicle for her compositions, Quadraceratops released their eponymous debut album in October 2014 on Efpi Records. The release attracted an enthusiastic reception from the jazz blogosphere and national press alike, with John Fordham in the Guardian describing them as ‘an exciting genre-juggling outfit…one to watch’. The band have been playing together since 2011, appearing regularly in London and occasionally Manchester (home of Efpi), with a live recording broadcast on the BBC’s ‘Jazz On 3’ programme in December 2014.

Cath Roberts alto saxophone/compositions
Nick Walters trumpet
Tom Ward tenor saxophone
Magnus Dearness trombone
Dave O’Brien keyboards
Jason Simpson bass
Olly Blackman drums

We’d love to see you at this last gig of the season – come down and celebrate Dee’s album release!

28th May: Raw Tonk Records Night

This week we’re away with ‘LUME On Tour’, but we’re leaving the Long White Cloud gig in extremely capable hands…

Raw Tonk Records Night

We invited our good friend Colin Webster to take the reins at LUME for a week, so this Thursday will be a Raw Tonk special! Colin’s label puts out all sorts of cool music and is well worth checking out if you haven’t already. For this gig, guitarist David Birchall (who you might have caught playing with Sam Andreae and Andrew Cheetham at ‘LUME Presents…’ earlier this year) will collaborate with Colin. They’ll be playing solo improvised sets, then joining together for a duo. Come down and hear some of the UK’s finest improvisers!