Sunday 28 May 2023, 2pm
Special matinee show featuring a debut OTO performance from the improvising trio of Eddie Prevost (drums), Silvan Schmid (trumpet) and Tom Wheatley (bass), plus a solo set from N.O. Moore.
With support from
A founder-member of AMM (1965-2022)
“[Eddie Prévost’s] is one of the greatest metallurgists that music has produced. […] sparks delicately arcing through the air, of slow lava ingesting its surroundings, of the shifting grind of tectonic plates across each other, of the rustle and glint of a firebird darting between shadows, and of ore smashing into the surface of the earth; but perhaps this language is overwrought: all that needs to be remarked upon is Prévost's industry, his diligence.”
Nathan Moore — liner note to AMM’s ‘Indúsria’
Matchless Recordings mrcd105.
But beyond this work Prévost has also maintained a relationship with the jazz drum-kit.
“His free drumming flows superbly making perfect use of his formidable technique, but his most startling feature is his stylelessness. It’s as though there has never been an Elvin Jones or a Max Roach.” - review of a set with saxophonist Lou Gare, Melody Maker (27.03.1975)
“Prévost, meanwhile, was simply miraculous; it was fascinating to watch him and to compare his approach with that of a Kern or a Nilssen-Love. I can only say that he was possessed of an uncanny, burning intentness that navigated the ensemble through passages of stark, sculpted beauty, grave concentration and full-on, bristling energy.”
Blue Tomato, Vienna 2012. In concert with Marilyn Crispell and Harrison Smith. Richard Rees-Jones
“An excellent release from one of the finest percussionists around, jazz or otherwise.” review of Prévost’s solo CD ‘Collider’
Matchless Recordings mrcd106 – Brian Olewnic, Squidsear (2022).
“Relentlessly innovative yet full of swing and fire.” – Morning Star
Silvan Schmid is a trumpet player based between Zürich and Maastricht. He plays live and does recordings with people and projects such as Solo, Gamut Kollektiv,Miao Silvan Makossiri, Alex Riva, Mraolia, Félicie Bazelaire, ТЕПЛОТА x RIVASCHMID, Lotus Eddé Khouri, TZUSSS, Fabian Saul.
Tom Wheatley is an artist and musician based in London. His work is patterns, rhythms and cycles, at an interface of physical and digital zones.
His projects are Tennota with Grundik Kasyansky, Vesta Payne with Sarah Hartnett and Cast-On with Ilana Blumberg. He also works closely with Daniel Blumberg and Adam Christensen.
Pre-prepared music (prepared air) with live guitar improvisation.
Following my ‘The Tscherkassky Tape’, performed at Café OTO in 2023, this piece is inspired by the films of Jane Arden, particularly The Otherside of Underneath (1972) and Anti-Clock (1979). My aim is not to create a point-to-point resemblance or musical equivalent, but to simply produce an affect analogous to the films in a different medium. Through this, to further the development of my own musical vocabulary and responsiveness, in a personal drive towards the universal.
Pertinent issues: capitalist realism – capitalism & schizophrenia. What is mental ‘health’ under conditions of capitalism/neoliberalism/patriarchy/Anthropocene? No answers, just problems.
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Why use prepared air? Admittedly, I don’t read music notation. Obviously, notation is a memorialisation by the composer and a communication to the performer: therefore, a question of memory and practice. Prepared air allows for a more imprecise memory and better miscommunications. Consequently, a different type of performance/practice has to be developed in the moment (i.e. improvised). Prepared air encourages a disclosed composition, or decomposition (rather than an enclosed improvisation), to take place. The interesting possibility is that this gives access to a point where entropy and negentropy (what breaks down and what (self) organises) become indistinct.
N.O. Moore can be heard on recent releases Traktor (Shrike Records, with Iris Ederer and Eddie Prévost) and Under the Sun (Matchless Recordings, with Rachel Musson, Olie Brice, and Eddie Prévost). Upcoming is Chord (Shrike Records) and A Company of Others (Matchless Recordings).
