Category Archives: LJF

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

November and December activities

We have a couple of gigs coming up before 2017 is out. Read on for the lowdown on LUME plans for the next couple of months!

19th November: LUME/Jazzwerkstatt Bern @ Rich Mix for EFG London Jazz Festival

In February this year we were lucky enough to be invited to play at the tenth edition of the Jazzwerkstatt festival in Bern, Switzerland. Dee, Cath, Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter – who had been working together around that time on the LUME quartet project Word Of Moth – travelled to Bern to collaborate with Swiss musicians, play a live set and take in the festival for the week. It was a fantastic trip, and when we got back we knew we had to organise a return leg somehow. Thanks to Serious, producers of EFG London Jazz Festival, we’re making it happen this month!

On Sunday 19th November, a UK/Swiss sextet made up of LUME and Jazzwerkstatt-affiliated musicians will play the support set for The Thing at Rich Mix. This will be a blast – we’re looking forward to revisiting the music and catching up with our Swiss friends. Tickets can be bought from the festival website, and the lineup is:

Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Simon Petermann – trombone/electronics
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Oli Kuster – keyboards
Seth Bennett – bass
Johnny Hunter – drums

1st December: Sloth Racket/The Hat Speaks @ Hundred Years Gallery

On the first Friday of December we’re having an end-of-year shindig at one of our favourite venues, Hundred Years Gallery in Hoxton. Sloth Racket will play as part of a mini-tour to support their live album on the Tombed Visions label, and then the rest of the evening will be dedicated to a winter edition of our dice-and-hat improv session The Hat Speaks. We’ve lined up an exciting array of people to make up the nebulous ensemble of names in the hat:

Kim Macari – trumpet
Charlotte Keeffe – trumpet
Alex Bonney – cornet
Tullis Rennie – trombone

Alex Ward – clarinet
Tom Ward – saxophone, bass clarinet
Dee Byrne – alto saxophone
Cath Roberts – baritone saxophone
Sam Andreae – alto saxophone

John Macedo – electronics
Francesca Ter-Berg – cello/electronics

Seth Bennett – double bass
Huw V Williams – double bass

Simon Roth – drums
Liz Exell – drums

Doors will be 7.30pm, with the music starting at 8pm. Entry will be one Bank of England note.

LUMEkestra successfully unleashed!

Quick post to share Dan Paton’s photo of the LUMEkestra in action last night at IKLECTIK. It was a fantastic night: the venue was packed out, good times were had and new music was made. There will be more…..see you next time!

14th November: LUMEkestra + Entropi + Ripsaw Catfish (EFG London Jazz Festival)

Regular LUME gigs are on hiatus until 2017, but we’ve coaxed the LUMEfish off its sofa and put together a special one-off show as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Convening at IKLECTIK on Monday 14th November will be the first incarnation of the LUMEkestra, our brand new large ensemble project. Featuring:

Trumpet
Kim Macari

Saxes
Dee Byrne
Cath Roberts
Colin Webster
Julie Kjaer
Oliver Dover
Tom Ward

Trombone
Tullis Rennie

Guitars
Anton Hunter
Paulo Duarte

Keys
Adam Fairhall
Rebecca Nash

Vibes
Martin Pyne

Basses
Dave Kane
Olie Brice
Tim Fairhall

Drums
Johnny Hunter
Matt Fisher

Supporting this behemoth will be our very own Dee Byrne’s space-jazz quintet Entropi and Ripsaw Catfish, the duo of Anton Hunter and Cath Roberts (also our very own).

Doors are at 7.30pm and the music will start at 8pm sharp! Tickets are available now from the Luminous Bandcamp site.

The venue is IKLECTIK, 20 Carlisle Lane, SE1 7LG.

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

18th, 19th, 20th November: LUME @ London Jazz Festival

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

duck-rabbit

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

Entropi

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!

Thursday 21st November: London Jazz Festival Special! Quadraceratops and Entropi at Hundred Crows Rising

For this special LJF gig, we will present a double bill of our own bands: Quadraceratops and Entropi. Doors 8pm, music 8.30/8.45pm. £5 entry. We’d love to see you there, partly also to celebrate running the gig for nearly five months!

www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/inf o/entropi-and-quadraceratops

ENTROPI

Dee Byrne put the group together while studying at Trinity College of Music in 2010, and they explore her growing repertoire of original music. Expect heavy grooves juxtaposed with outbreaks of swing, tight arrangements framing open-ended improvisation, abstract harmony mixed with melodic departures. This will be an intergalactic evening of space sonics!

Dee Byrne – alto sax, compositions

Andre Canniere – trumpet

Rebecca Nash – keys

Sandy Suchodolski – bass

Mat Fisher – drums

entropimusic.com

QUADRACERATOPS

Cath Roberts formed Quadraceratops while studying for a Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2011.The band supported Get The Blessing at Camden’s Jazz Cafe as part of the 2012 London Jazz Festival. In June 2013, they played at Jazz In The Round @ The Cockpit hosted by Jez Nelson of BBC Radio 3′s ‘Jazz on 3′ programme. A few months later they appeared at the Vortex Jazz Club for the first time, playing at ReDiViDeR’s ‘I Dig Monk, Tuned’ album launch gig in September 2013 (presented by Match & Fuse). The current set of music is inspired by insects, fairground rides, underground tunnelling machines and fictional serial killers.

Cath Roberts – alto sax, compositions

Henry Spencer – trumpet

Tom Ward – tenor sax

Magnus Dearness – trombone

Dave O’Brien – keys

Jason Simpson – bass

Olly Blackman – drums

quadraceratops.co.uk