Back in May 2018, percussionist Steve Noble met bassist Farida Amadou, and have since developed their own high-energy and exploratory music together as a duo. Steve's rolling, detailed and pointillistic playing melds in symbiosis with Farida's smudged, deep, funked-up lyricism, creating a physical sound that tosses and tumbles across lightning-speed interplay. As a unit they've welcomed into the fray ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and recently free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann, but for this set of trio releases they invite saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, clarinetist Alex Ward and bass clarnitest Yoni Silver for a series cooked up in our OTO Project Space.  For this session, Chris Pitsiokos shoots winding darts of needle-sharp saxophone through Steve and Farida's sound world, taking the language of the likes of Coltrane and Braxton and pushing it into whole new extremes. -- Steve Noble - percussion Farida Amadou - electric bass Chris Pitsiokos - saxophone -- Artwork & mastering by Oliver BarrettCover photo by Laurent Orseau

Back in May 2018, percussionist Steve Noble met bassist Farida Amadou, and have since developed their own high-energy and exploratory music together as a duo. Steve's rolling, detailed and pointillistic playing melds in symbiosis with Farida's smudged, deep, funked-up lyricism, creating a physical sound that tosses and tumbles across lightning-speed interplay. As a unit they've welcomed into the fray ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and recently free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann, but for this set of trio releases they invite saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, clarinetist Alex Ward and bass clarnitest Yoni Silver for a series cooked up in our OTO Project Space.  Alex has played closely with Steve over the years, but nestles himself perfectly in Steve and Farida's world here, zig-zagging, dipping and diving with a set of complex melodic, harmonic and tonal gestures. -- Steve Noble - percussion Farida Amadou - electric bass Alex Ward - clarinet -- Cover artwork & mastering by Oliver BarrettCover photo by Laurent Orseau

Back in May 2018, percussionist Steve Noble met bassist Farida Amadou, and have since developed their own high-energy and exploratory music together as a duo. Steve's rolling, detailed and pointillistic playing melds in symbiosis with Farida's smudged, deep, funked-up lyricism, creating a physical sound that tosses and tumbles across lightning-speed interplay. As a unit they've welcomed into the fray ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and recently free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann, but for this set of trio releases they invite saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, clarinetist Alex Ward and bass clarnitest Yoni Silver for a series cooked up in our OTO Project Space.  For this particular three-part set, Yoni's cursive sheets of sound and guttural cries drill a hole between Farida and Steve's interplay, pushing the trio in fascinating directions. -- Steve Noble - percussion Farida Amadou - electric bass Yoni Silver - bass clarinet -- Cover artwork & mastering by Oliver BarrettCover photo by Laurent Orseau

Farida Amadou is one of the most exciting young players to emerge from the free-improvisation/experimental scene in Europe, having treated us to some explosive performances with Steve Noble and Thurston Moore here over the past few years. Farida's own solo bass playing takes centre stage here, utilising the metallic timbre & rhythmic potential of her strings as the basis for two exploratory improvisations. Terse melodies, harmonic shards and rumbling patterns are sewed together in elapsing incendiary phrases, like Jamaladeen Tacuma's playing if he joined an industrial punk band instead of Ornette Coleman's group circa Body Meta. With fx pedals Farida is able to open the possibilities of her instrument open, exploring thick fuzzed-phrases, spacious harmonic interplay, drones and more. We look forward to hearing more of this sort of thing from Farida in OTO, hopefully in the not-too-distant future. -- Farida Amadou - bass & electronics -- Recorded and mixed at Les Ateliers Claus - Brussels, by Christophe Albertijn august 19th 2020Picture - Laurent Orseau Artwork design - Oliver Barrett Thanks to Tommy, Christophe, Laurent and Jérôme.