Quick post just to say a massive THANKS to everyone who has supported LUME this year – all the amazing musicians and lovely audience members! We’ve had a blast and we’re looking forward to all the exciting LUME activities we’re planning for 2015.
Have a great festive season – we’ll be back in February.
Cheers!
Cath and Dee
This week we’re closing 2014 with an exciting evening of music from some big names on the London improv scene – and definitely the most flutes we’ve ever had at a LUME gig so far. Rowland Sutherland brings this fantastic group comprised of players whose reputations precede them. Come and join us at Long White Cloud as we toast a great year of live music at LUME with three sets: trio, trio and double trio!
Trio:
Rowland Sutherland flutes (Henry Threadgill, Carla Bley)
Emi Watanabe Japanese flutes (Jah Wobble, David Toop)
David Leahy bass (Evan Parker, Louis Moholo)
Trio:
Tom Jackson clarinet (Squib Box, CRAM Collective)
Neil Metcalfe flute (Roscoe Mitchell, Lol Coxhill)
Daniel Thompson guitar (Javier Carmona, Benedict Taylor)
This week, two sets from a new band featuring the compositions of new (ish) Londoner the pianist Andrew Oliver! We’ve checked out some of the music he made in the US, so we know we’re in store for a night of exciting original music. Come down and hear for yourself on Thursday…here’s the blurb:
American pianist and composer Andrew Oliver relocated to London from Portland, Oregon in 2013. Continuing his compositional explorations into groovy chamber-jazz for the 21st century, he presents a new London based quintet performing original music influenced by minimalism, Zimbabwean and west African traditions, trains, and the omnipresent shuffle of genres in the world today.
Andrew Oliver – piano
Dave Shulman – clarinet and bass clarinet
Ralph Wyld – vibes
Huw V Williams – bass
Pete Ibbetson – drums
Sticking with last month’s theme of improv trio plus large ensemble, this month at the Vortex we’re very excited to be hosting Alphabets – Hannah Marshall, Nick Malcolm and Lauren Kinsella – and the first full-length outing of new saxophone octet Saxoctopus!
Alphabets is a new trio comprising three exciting voices in UK and Irish improvised
music, creating music inspired by language, vocalisation & landscapes. The group
aims to reach states of stillness and repose as well as fast instinctive rhythmic
interaction, and to tease out all possible sonorities from their instruments. They
embarked upon their debut UK tour in March 2014, and recorded in July. The three
musicians have distinctive and respected voices in jazz, free music and improvisation
and play together to share a passion for spontaneous music.
Hannah Marshall – cello
Lauren Kinsella – vocals
Nick Malcolm – trumpet
The Saxoctopus was inadvertantly formed when eight saxophonists found themselves
in a room together at a gig in Autumn 2013. A cautionary lesson on the dangers of
social networking banter, they underwent the transformation from Twitter joke to
Real Band when vibraphonist Corey Mwamba offered them a gig at his jazz night in
Derby. A cameo performance with Trio Riot at the Vortex in March 2014 sealed the
deal, and they are performing their first full set tonight. The group showcases original
compositions by its members, as well as being a vehicle for exploring graphic scores
and guided group improvisation. Featuring top improvisers from around the UK and
Scandinavia, this will be an exploration into the outer limits of the saxophone…
Julie Kjaer – alto
Oliver Dover – alto
Dee Byrne – alto
Rachel Musson – tenor
Tom Ward – tenor
Sam Andreae – tenor
Cath Roberts – baritone
Colin Webster – baritone
Grab some advance £8 tickets from the Vortex website, or show up on the night and it’s £10 on the door. We’d love to see you there!
A double bill this week with a new duo of Martin Speake and Malcolm Earle-Smith, plus a set from improv quartet Splatter.
Splatter
Splatter play improvised music that is not quite many things. It isn’t quite jazz, it isn’t quite free jazz, it isn’t quite free improvisation, it isn’t quite avant rock or plain old rock, or folk music or contemporary music – it is all of these things, mixed together in the moment – sometimes in the same tune.
Time Out remarked that Splatter ‘feed shards of rock and black metal into their freeform jazz Soundscapes”. They have released three CD’s to date, the most recent being ‘Cloudseed’ which features a collaboration with Polish bass guitarist, Rafal Mazur.
Rachel Musson tenor sax
Noel Taylor clarinet
Pedro Velasco guitar
Ansuman Biswas drums
Martin Speake & Malcolm Earle-Smith
Citing Lee Konitz, Charlie Parker, Warne Marsh, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, Rabi Abou Khalil, and Paul Motian as major influences, Martin has developed a personal musical voice that expresses a deep understanding of the history and language of Jazz with individuality as an improviser that is intelligent, melodic, cool, complex, direct, beautiful and profound. Martin will be performing an improvised duo set with acclaimed trombonist Malcolm Earle-Smith.
This week at Long White Cloud, we’re hosting the debut performance by a brand new improvising trio comprising Colin Webster (saxophones), Alex Ward (guitar), and Andrew Lisle (drums). The trio formed prompted by an offer of a free recording session – an offer too good to pass up! This first musical meeting led to the trio’s new album ‘Red Kite’, out this month on Raw Tonk Records.
All three members of the trio are prolific on the UK and European improvised music scene. Alex Ward is known for his early collaborations with Derek Bailey, his powerhouse trio N.E.W. with Steve Noble and John Edwards, and his composition/songwriting work with his sextet, and duo Dead Days Beyond Help respectively. Andrew Lisle has worked with a number of key London-based improvisors including Ward, Daniel Thompson, Seymour Wright, and plays in Roland Ramanan’s Tentet, and punk-improv band Shatner’s Bassoon. Colin Webster is known for his duos with drummer Mark Holub, and also turntablist Graham Dunning. He also performs regularly with Dutch free jazz/noise trio Dead Neanderthals.
Join us for a great night of music!
For this year’s London Jazz Festival we’re presenting a special three night series of our own current projects, featuring some of the UK’s most exciting improvising musicians aka the LUME usual suspects…
Tuesday 18th November: Ripsaw Catfish ‘Shoaling’
Ripsaw Catfish is Anton Hunter (guitar) and Cath Roberts (baritone saxophone). The Manchester and London-based duo formed in 2013 to explore improvised and composed music, and whatever lies between those things. They employ a collection of pre-composed elements which can be drawn upon, or not, during the course of an improvisation. Tonight they launch ‘Shoaling’, a UK tour with a collaborative focus, with support from Sound And Music. The duo will assemble ad hoc ensembles (‘shoals’) of improvising musicians at each location to play spontaneous sets of new music informed by, incorporating or ignoring the Ripsaw Catfish composed material. For this performance they are joined by improvising vibes player Corey Mwamba and his trio.
Anton Hunter guitar
Cath Roberts baritone sax
Corey Mwamba vibraphone, small instruments
Dave Kane bass
Joshua Blackmore drums
Wednesday 19th November: Deemer & duck-rabbit
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, drums, analogue electronics, tape, transducer microphones/speakers to instantly compose, activate space, and blur the boundaries between free jazz and sound installation.
Merijn Royaards electronics/percussion
Dee Byrne alto saxophone/electronics
This new improvising trio explores two contrasting and overlapping personalities; one acoustic, one electronic. Using unique electronic instruments, they interact with their acoustic improvisations to form a rich and varied dialogue. Their interaction creates an absorbing interplay between past and present, a constant re-imagining of ideas within an expanded sonic terrain. Two releases, ‘Path To Field’ and ‘Scattered Voices: Part 1’ came out in early 2014.
Joe Wright – saxophone/electronics
Tom Taylor – piano/electronics
James Opstad – double bass/electronics
Thursday 20th November: Entropi & Quadraceratops
Led by Dee Byrne, Entropi started life in 2010 as a vehicle for composition and improvisation. Dee’s compositions deal with the inconsistent nature of time, the transience of life, exploration of the unknown, pivotal moments of decision making, journeys in outer space and the unlikely symmetry of seemingly unrelated events.
Dee Byrne alto saxophone
Andre Canniere trumpet
Rebecca Nash keyboards
Olie Brice bass
Matt Fisher drums
Quadraceratops
Cath Roberts leads this septet playing her compositions, described by Jez Nelson as ‘suitably psychotic!’ The current set of music is inspired by insects, fairground rides, underground tunnelling machines and fictional serial killers. The first Quadraceratops album was released on Efpi Records in October.
Cath Roberts alto saxophone, compositions
Tom Ward tenor saxophone
Henry Spencer trumpet
Magnus Dearness trombone
Dave O’Brien keyboards
Jason Simpson bass
Olly Blackman drums
On all three nights it will be doors 8pm, music 8.30pm at Long White Cloud. We hope you can join us for three festive nights at LUME!
Composer, arranger and double bassist Paul Baxter brings together Leeds and London based musicians this week in an exciting double bill featuring two of his projects. Both groups will also perform a short improvised set together at the end of the evening.
Destination Out!
Formed in 2012 when Paul was studying for a Masters in Jazz Performance at Trinity College of Music, the ensemble explores the cosmos with free improvisation and group interaction using Paul’s idiosyncratic compositions as their astrological map. Think Ornette Coleman meets Tim Berne.
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Ian Bumstead – tenor & bass clarinet
Paul Baxter – bass/compositions
Corrie Dick – drums
Paul Baxter Trio
Premiering new material drawing on influences from Bojan Z, The Bad Plus and even Bartok. The group combine rhythmic complexity and propulsion with a joyous freedom reminiscent of the 70’s Jarrett trio all this enveloped by their unique blend of accessible, melodic compositions with fiery and expansive improvisation.
John Tomlinson – keyboard
Paul Baxter – bass/compositions
Kris Wright – drums
Doors 8pm, music starts at 8.30pm. £5 entry.
Long White Cloud,
151 Hackney Road,
E2 8JL.
Nearest station: Hoxton Overground (less than 5 mins’ walk)
See you there!
It’s another two-LUME week, so we’re back at the Vortex in Dalston this Sunday for a great double bill! The heavyweight improv trio of Rachel Musson, Liam Noble and Mark Sanders are sharing the bill with South East London’s nine-piece acoustic guitar group Broca Ensemble.
Broca Ensemble
Occupying the space somewhere between minimalism, classical and ambient, the
Broca Ensemble play soundscapes for large guitar ensemble. Formed in South East
London in 2010, the group has grown from an original four members to now having,
on occasion, up to ten players. The music is largely improvised and devised from a set
of simple rules; no piece is ever played the same twice. Influenced by the likes of Steve
Reich, Terry Riley and Rhys Chatham, the sound ranges from ambient soundscape to
a multi-guitar wall-of-sound.
Flexible lineup of acoustic guitars, including:
Ian Faragher
Jonathan Wood
Chris Watts
Nigel Bryant
Robin Prime
Victoria Wasley
Allan Seago
Richard Thompson
Matthew Russell
Rachel Musson / Liam Noble / Mark Sanders
The trio of Rachel Musson, Mark Sanders and Liam Noble played together for the first
time at the end of 2010, and since that time they’ve formed a thrilling group identity
with a distinctly original take on freely improvised music. Taken individually, these are
three highly creative musical deep-thinkers. Musson is a saxophonist capable of
switching from free-flowing lyricism to intense multiphonic skronk in the space of a
heartbeat. Sanders is a hugely experienced and in-demand free-drummer who plays
with an impeccable sense of internal swing. Noble is a pianist who brings a highly
original, acerbic intellect to the piano, and who has more recently begun to explore
the infinite possibilities of electronics. As a unit, they are making music that harks
back to the earthy roots of free-jazz while simultaneously gazing outwards into
galactic space. They have released an album, ‘Tatterdemalion’, on Babel Label.
Rachel Musson – tenor saxophone
Liam Noble – piano
Mark Sanders – drums
Tickets are still on sale from the Vortex website at £8, or you can get them on the door for £10. See you there!
A fantastic double bill of experimental improv this week, as not one but TWO touring groups stop off to play for us at Long White Cloud. Guitarist Han-earl Park, based in Ireland, brings his top class new trio with Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders, while Sam Andreae (who you might remember from Trio Riot’s gig at LUME last year) and Rodrigo Constanzo travel down from Manchester to bring us their duo project Strikethrough Me And You. This will be a special night of new music, so make sure you can join us.
Han-earl Park / Dominic Lash / Mark Sanders
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. He has performed in clubs, theatres, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces across Europe and the USA. Park engages a radical, liminal, cyborg virtuosity in which mind, body and artifact collide. He is driven by the social and revolutionary potential of real-time interactive performance in which tradition and practice become creative problematics. As a constructor of musical automata, he is interested in partial, and partially frustrating, context-specific artifacts; artifacts that amplify social relations and corporeal identities and agencies.
Ensembles include Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, Eris 136199 with Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora, and Numbers with Richard Barrett. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and instigator of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Josh Sinton, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, Andrew Drury, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder, and as part of large ensembles led by Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker and Pauline Oliveros. Festival appearances include Freedom of the City (London), Sonorities (Belfast), ISIM (New York), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), CEAIT (Los Angeles) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam). His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions, Creative Sources and DUNS Limited Edition.
Dominic Lash is a freely improvising double bassist, although his activities also range much more widely and include playing bass guitar and other instruments; both writing and performing composed music; and writing about music and various other subjects. He has performed with musicians such as Tony Conrad (in duo and quartet formations), Joe Morris (trio and quartet), Evan Parker (duo, quartet and large ensemble) and the late Steve Reid. His main projects include The Dominic Lash Quartet, The Set Ensemble (an experimental music group focused on the work of the Wandelweiser collective) and The Convergence Quartet. Based in Bristol, Lash has performed in the UK, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and USA. For nearly a decade he was based in Oxford and played a central role in the activities of Oxford Improvisers; much of 2011 was spent living in Manhattan. In 2013 and 2014 he is taking part in Take Five, the professional development programme administered by Serious.
Mark Sanders has played with many renowned musicians from around the world including Evan Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Derek Bailey, Myra Melford, Paul Rogers, Henry Grimes, Roswell Rudd, Okkyung Lee, Barry Guy, Tim Berne, Otomo Yoshihide, Luc Ex, Ken Vandermark, Sidsel Endresen and Jean Francois Pauvrois, in duo and quartets with Wadada Leo Smith and trios with Charles Gayle with Sirone and William Parker. New collaborative projects include ‘Riverloam Trio’ with Mikolaj Trzaska and Olie Brice, ‘Asunder’ with Hasse Poulsen and Paul Dunmall, duos with John Butcher and DJ Sniff, ‘Statics’ with Georg Graewe and John Butcher, and trio with Rachel Musson and Liam Noble.
Mark has performed in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Morrocco, South Africa, Mozambique and Turkey, playing at many major festivals including, Nickelsdorf, Ulrichsburg, Glastonbury, Womad, Vancouver, Isle of Wight, Roskilde, Berlin Jazz days, Mulhouse, Luz, Minniapolis, Banlieue Bleues, Son D’hiver and Hurta Cordel. He has released over 120 CDs.
Photo of Han-earl Park by Seán Kelly.
Strikethrough Me And You
This will be the first London gig for the battle/game pieces duo Strikethrough Me And You. They have devised a system of guided improvisation in which the pieces they explore are ‘not really compositions,’ as ‘modes of interaction may be determined, but the content is improvised’. Armed with their experience as improvisers and composers, the two musicians will be navigating this murky and/or fertile territory between the pre-determined and the spontaneous.
Sam Andreae is a musician active as an improviser and composer in Britain and Scandinavia. Currently living in Manchester, Sam approaches improvisation through the exploration of sound and abstract noise, developing extended uses of the saxophone both acoustically and through electronic augmentation. Originally trained as a classical musician he has developed is own musical voice through varied experiences in improvised, jazz and noise music, with the time he has spent in Scandinavia being a particularly formative period. Sam has had the pleasure of recently performing with Le Quan Ninh, Lisa Ullén, Christian Wolff, Michael
Duch, David Birchall, Mette Rasmussen, Corey Mwamba, Alex Bonney, Olie Brice, Colin Webster, Marlyn Crispell, Trio Riot, Silence Blossoms and Distractfold Ensemble.
Rodrigo Constanzo is a performer and composer living in Manchester. He is an avid improviser and performs regularly using home made electro acoustic, and modified electronic instruments. He is currently working towards a PhD in Composition at the University of Huddersfield and co-runs The Noise Upstairs, an improv collective and label which puts on monthly nights and quarterly workshops in Manchester.
Sam and Rod artwork by Angela Guyton.