Sunday 15 October 2023, 2pm
The second outing for London based saxophonist Colin Webster's large ensemble, which comprises many of the leading players in the current generation of improvising musicians.
Colin Webster / alto sax
Rachel Musson / tenor sax
Cath Roberts / baritone sax
Charlotte Keeffe / trumpet / flugelhorn
Sarah Gail Brand / trombone
Graham Dunning / electronics
Dirk Serries / guitar
Caius Williams / bass
Andrew Lisle / drums
Please note that this is a matinee show. Doors will open at 2pm and the performance will start shortly after.
London based saxophonist Colin Webster is quickly establishing himself on the European avant-garde scene. Collaborating with some of the key figures in improvised and experimental music, Webster is known for working from extreme sonic palettes – from minimal to maximal, constantly pushing boundaries.
“The application of circular breathing techniques are essential to this ritual-ready, sustain-heavy sound, it seems. Fans of an ensemble like Phurpa might get as much out of it as jazz cadets into, say, Peter Brötzmann, and if you happen to be the sort of wildcat who likes both, then Vs Amp is likely your kind of journey into sound.” – Noel Gardner, The Quietus
https://colinwebster.bandcamp.com
Rachel Musson is a saxophonist, improviser and composer living in London, UK. She is involved with a variety of improvisation projects, and works regularly with Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas, Hannah Marshall, Julie Kjaer, Corey Mwamba, Olie Brice, Alex Ward, Alex Hawkins amongst others. She features on several releases, including a nonet featuring her composition 'I Went This Way' (577 Records), two with Shifa, feat. Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders, (577 Records), one with Mark Sanders and John Edwards (Two Rivers Records), trio with Liam Noble and Mark Sanders (Babel), and Corey Mwamba (Takuroku).
"A free-improviser sensitive to melody-like narrative and dramatic pacing" – John Fordham, The Guardian
Cath Roberts is a musician, artist and organiser whose work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. The primary outlet for this is the band Sloth Racket, formed in 2015 by Cath on baritone saxophone and compositions, which has toured widely and released several albums. More recently, improvisation using live electronics and objects has led to a solo release plus the beginning of several new collaborations.
Cath has a long-standing duo with guitarist Anton Hunter (Ripsaw Catfish), as well as regular collaborations with Tullis Rennie, Benedict Taylor, Graham Dunning, Bill Thompson and others, and bandmate duties in several groups including Alex Ward’s Items 10 and 7, Madwort Sax Quartet and Article XI.
As an organiser, Cath has co-run LUME with Dee Byrne since 2013, producing concerts, tours and festivals and releasing music on their offshoot label Luminous. Tom Ward, Colin Webster and Cath organise BRÅK, an improvised music series taking place in Brockley, South East London. Cath’s visual work can be seen on many Luminous releases, Sloth Racket tour flyers and LUME publicity materials, and appeared in 2021 in the form of a giant, fragmented graphic score created for a hcmf// commission, And then the next thing you know.
Keeffe’s debut album ‘Right Here, Right Now’ is where you’ll find her exhibiting a passion for vibrant soundscapes rendered in live spaces. Released in 2021, also on Discus Music, she earned critical acclaim carving out a niche on the imprint. She also composes and performs for a number of the roster’s artists, including; Hi Res Heart, Carla Diratz and Julie Tippetts. She also co-leads Anthropology Band with the head of Discus Music, Martin Archer.
To date, her music has been featured significantly on BBC Radio 3, Jazz FM and BBC Radio 6, where she's been described as a 'prolific', 'dynamic' and 'excellent improviser!', by the likes of Corey Mwamba, Stuart Maconie and Jez Nelson. Keeffe is a Serious Artist and part of Serious’ Take Five 2022 cohort. She performed a duet with the mighty City of London as part of world-renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas' Festival of New Trumpet Music 2022.
Harnessing the power of art for social change is a crucial part of Keeffe’s musical identity: she has served as Assistant Musical Director of the London Gay Big Band, champions gender and diversity equality, as part of the Parliamentary award-winning Women in Jazz Media team, and played in Marin Alsop's Taki Concordia Orchestra at the World Economic Forum 2019, in front of world leaders and celebrities including Sir David Attenborough.
From stepping on Glastonbury and Wilderness stages alongside Charlotte Church, Laura Mvula and Kate Nash, to broadcasting to an international audience live from her bathroom during the pandemic, Keeffe understands that embracing individuality and letting go of inhibitions is the surest way to grasp the transformative power of music.
“Keeffe shows notable strength of character as she runs the sonic and emotional gamut..." - Kevin Le Gendre, JAZZWISE
Graham Dunning is self-taught as an artist and musician having studied neither discipline academically. His work explores sound as texture, timbre and something tactile, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects. He has performed solo and in ensembles across the UK, and Europe, and shown solo sound installations in the UK, New Zealand and USA. He teaches Experimental Sound Art at the Mary Ward Centre in London and also gives various independent workshops. Dunning has released through Entr’acte, Seagrave, Tombed Visions and more.
Dirk Serries is the curator of the A New Wave Of Jazz label but as well an established soundartist. This Belgian-based artist has experimented with music on the border between avant-garde, industrial, experimental and ambient for more than 30 years. He released his earliest work (1984) behind the pseudonym vidnaObmana up to 2007, with which he gained worldwide praise, when he closed the book on this project (realizing an extensive discography). Other projects like Fear Falls Burning and his Microphonics series made him collaborate with several key-players like Steven Wilson, Justin K. Broadrick, Cult Of Luna, Steve Roach and toured extensively on the sides of Jesu, MONO, Low, My Bloody Valentine and Cult Of Luna.
In October 2013 Dirk Serries re-booted his classic vidnaObmana ambient sound from the mid eighties/early nineties. In contrary to his original music that was mostly synth-based, this ambient music is constructed on electric guitar. Music that flows from its discreet origins: sonic purity, washes of harmony, and organic textures which slow time to a phase of transcendence. On the spot, improvised and real-time. Acclaimed albums were under his own name on Projekt Records and his swansong EPITAPH on Consouling Sounds.
However, being a follower of (free) jazz for years, when meeting Tomas Järmyr (Motorpsycho) and Kristoffer Lo to form YODOK III his confidence in improvisation boosted and slowly shifted from his meticulously executed subtle ambience to being a full improviser on mostly the guitar. As heavily influenced by legendary improviser Derek Bailey, over the past years Dirk manifested him as a strong and new leading figure in the Belgian impro scene and works extensively together with some of the best and modern improvisors like saxophonists Alan Wilkinson, Rodrigo Amado, John Dikeman, Colin Webster and Cel Overberghe, drummers Tomas Järmyr, Steve Noble, Tom Malmendier, George Hadow and Andrew Lisle, tuba player Kristoffer Lo, viola player Benedict Taylor, Otto Willberg (double bass), John Edwards (double bass), Daniel Thompson (guitar) Kris Vanderstraeten (percussion), Patrick De Groote (trumpet), experimentalist Graham Dunning and pianist Martina Verhoeven.
Andrew Lisle is the London-based drummer who performs regularly with saxophonist Colin Webster and guitarist Dirk Serries, with releases on the Raw Tonk and New Wave of Jazz labels. He studied at Leeds College of Music, as well as having a period in Portugal working with some of Lisbon’s veteran improvisers. Now based in London, he works regularly with saxophonist Alan Wilkinson and clarinettist Alex Ward.
Described by The Wire magazine as “the most exciting trombone player for years” Sarah Gail Brand has recorded and performed on the international Improvised Music and Jazz scene since the early 1990s with Mark Sanders, John Edwards, Elton Dean, Evan Parker, Phil Minton, Veryan Weston, Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Beresford, Georg Graewe, writer and comedian Stewart Lee and countless others. Sarah fronts her own tunes quartet (Sarah Gail Brand Sextet), has a long standing duo with drummer Mark Sanders, and a trio with John Edwards and Steve Beresford and continues to work as a soloist and in ad hoc ensembles. As well as being a composer, Sarah’s trombone work ranges from playing Improvised Music and Jazz, studio session work to arranging & playing in pop and rock music. Sarah is a music therapist and a professor of Improvisation at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London and leads workshops on improvisation around the world. Recordings of Sarah Gail’s work can be found on the Emanem and regardless record labels.
Caius Williams is an improviser, bassist, and composer from London with a varied practice including improvised music, electronic music, and projects exploring experimental approaches to composition. Some current collaborative/supportive roles include a duo project with guitarist Tara Cunningham, and recently working in ‘Lifetones’: a project led by Charles Bullen of ‘This Heat’. He has been running and curating the ‘Grain’ residency at Avalon Cafe in Bermondsey. His debut album ‘Gwannach’ is out now via Cafe Oto’s OTOROKU.
