Category: Improv
Splitting that atom
After our unexpected duo at Convivium last November, James and I decided it was worth doing some more gigs and seeing how it goes. We played at a pretty ravey Splitting The Atom and went down well, despite struggling with the dynamics of playing a short turnaround gig at The Green Door store. Not a bad thing in itself, but possibly not for us right now. Agata was there recording the event and did this video
I was there from pretty much the beginning until about 8pm and saw some great things. Echopet and Warren Schoenbright really stood out, one kind of broody and the other pretty brutal. Had a quick chat with Echopet and hope we’ll able to get over and play in Portsmouth some time.
The next Muster gig is at the end of February for those great people at Club Integral, more soon.
The Long Half Day
The Long Half Day happened at i’klectik in March. It’s difficult to condense 12 hours of playing into a few words, so here’s the whole thing courtesy of Resonance Extra who broadcast it the following week.
You can make your own mind up, I really enjoyed it.
Al Strachan of Lost Property made this excellent short(er) film of it which is worth a watch if you have half an hour.
nil – The golden headress
Chris and I had a couple of beers around the campfire last week and decided we really should get a new album out. We listened to a some recordings Chris made of gigs at The Scope and The Cowley and thought they sounded good to go so The golden headress is now on Bandcamp for free download.
The Scope is the new Spirit of Gravity thing at The Caroline of Brunswick every month, we played at the first one with The Zero Map and Captain Poopdeck and it was a fine and well attended affair. The Cowley gig was one of the many gigs the excellent Graham Newbury has organised in support of Brighton Community Radio and was a cracker with us and some other people.
Thee Bald Knobbers / Reds / Bolide / Nil
Me and Chris are playing at a benefit gig for Brighton and Hove Community Radio, a just cause if ever there was one. Its at the Cowley Club inevitably, which is on London Road, Brighton.
28th February at 8pm, Donations.
You can find it listed on the excellent Brighton Eyeball Google calendar, for all your Brighton & Hove experimental music requirements:
Earsthetic part 2
Earsthetic was great, all the acts were on top form and it was really nice to play on a top quality pa with a top quality sound engineer (thanks Jem!). I had an attack of nerves beforehand which to my relief disappeared immediately I walked on stage . Our collaboration with Mirei was a success and we’re hoping to work together again.
The Long Half Day packages
Chris came over last night and we loaded the first of the usb sticks with the recording of the long half day, plus remixes, writing and Tim’s scroll viewer. It all adds up to a nice package and the boxes Chris made look great.
Nil – tre
Chris and I did a Nil thing at Splitting the Atom at the beginning of June. We thought the recording sounded ok so we’ve released it on Bandcamp as a free download. I was only there in the afternoon and everything I saw was inspiring, there was more low key stuff too, although I heard things degenerated as the night wore on.
Here’s the album
A couple of gigs
So Gus and I played as The Static Memories at Club Integral on April 19th and then as part of the SafeGrav Orchestra at Dear Serge at the De La Warr Pavillion on the 20th. Both good gigs, one in London and one in Bexhill which are about as different as places as you could get I guess.
Great gig at Club Integral, we only saw one other band as we had to drive back to Brighton from Stockwell and we were first on. She was Nad Spiro of Barcelona and she was great, there’s a Bandcamp download that’s worth getting. Very nice crowd of people and a great pa. Another great pa at Dear Serge and playing in two quintets with people from Spirit of Gravity and Safehouse and live visuals from Bartosz Dylewski.
The Long Half Day
I was involved in a 12 hour improvisation performance on February 3rd. An amazing way to start the year and one of the best experiences in my creative life. It came about after Gus and I met the Carousel Collective at a gig in London organised by James Alaska and Tom Mudd. Carousel are Tim Yates, Nora Sanatian, Benedict Taylor and Charlie Sdraulig they are a group of musicians who are interested in exploring the possibilities of music in new and imaginative ways. After a performance in Brighton last year which I helped organise Tim suggested we collaborate on a long improvised piece at The Coach House in Kemptown.
I was lucky enough to get Adam Bushell, Kev Nickells and Chris Parfitt involved as well and the eight of us started with some trepidation at 10.30am. 12 hours later we drew to a close after a truly remarkable experience which was very different to my expectations. With maybe 3-4 twenty minute breaks I was performing for the whole time, as was everyone else. There were great moments when we all clicked together followed by an ebb and flow for a while and then another upsurge.
There is a recording but who knows what will happen to it, we’re trying to work that out at the moment.
http://carouselcollective.com/
