Improvised music from Colin Webster / Mark Holub (duo), Caroline Kraabel, Aga Ujma, Alex McKenzie (trio), and Agata Genissel / Joshua Barfoot (duo).
Doors 7pm
Tickets: £8-12 Sliding Scale
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.
“Webster belongs in a long line of sharp-toned alto players, and while he rarely explores the freakish registers of a Kaoru Abe, he could remind you, at different moments, of people like John Zorn, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Anthony Braxton or even Jackie McLean.
There is this ‘punk’ spirit in his playing as well, an unfettered abundance, but he never sounds like a loose cannon. Webster has become a razor-sharp thinker who keeps the link between thought and execution as short as possible, spraying his barrage of stuttering and sputtering morsels of sound with a fearsome precision, as if there is some formal structure behind his freedom.”
– Guy Peters (taken from the liner notes to New Invention).
Drummer, composer and bandleader originally from the US and now based in Vienna, Mark Holub is most notably known as the bandleader and composer for Led Bib. Holub is also active in other projects including Blueblut an improvising trio with Pamelia Kurstin - theremin and Chris Janka - guitar, Lobster a new quartet which Mark is composing for featuring Irene Kepl - violin, Werner Zangerle - sax and Bernd Satzinger - bass, Mustard Pie a recent collaboration with his Led Bib compatriot Liran Donin with the Polar Bear rhythm section (Tom Herbert, Seb Rochford) and UK sax legend Jan Kopinski (Pinski Zoo), and he also features regularly on the improv scene with various collections of players including work with Sheik Anorak, Colin Webster, Irene Kepl and many others.
Photography: Clement Kraabel
Caroline Kraabel founded a large improvising group made up of trans-masc, trans-fem, non-binary, and women improvisers: ONe_Orchestra New in 2022. Runs monthly improvisation labs. She has performed/recorded with Khabat Abas, Susan Alcorn, Bex Burch, Dee Byrne, Iris Casling, John Edwards, Damsel Elysium, Charlotte Hug, Charlotte Keeffe, Hyelim Kim, Olga Ksendzovska, Zhuyang Liu, Louis Moholo, Maggie Nicols, Mariá Portugal, Max Reed, Cath Roberts, Mark Sanders, Rowland Sutherland, Pat Thomas, Saadet Türköz, Sarah Washington, Cleveland Watkiss, Solène Weinachter, Veryan Weston, Robert Wyatt, etc.
Aga Ujma
Photography: Hannah Jane Murrell
Alex McKenzie is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and improviser based in London. With a collaboration centred practice, their primary output is as a member of the experimental folk band Shovel Dance Collective, the post-rock group caroline, the polystylistic performance project Gentle Stranger, the interdisciplinary live art collective Capital City, and the new music ensemble Search Engine Quartet. Though musicially varied, their work is constistently uncompromising, drawing from 'non-idiomatic' free improvisation, traditional folk music, noise, sound art, and experimental songwriting. They have released a number of critically-acclaimed albums, and perform live regularly both within the UK and internationally.
They have an ongoing duo projects with Tom Hardwick-Allan, Grace Black, Aga Ujma, Cat Winter, and Adélaïde de Alfaro as Ant Mill. Alongside these ongoing collaborations they have performed in improvised music ensembles with artists including Moor Mother, Elaine Mitchener, Evan Parker, Caroline Kraabel, Adam Bohman, Heather Roche, Caius Williams, Able Noise, Black Midi, Mosquito Farm, and Eli Winter, and collaborated with the artists Jesse Darling, Agnes Scherer, Adam Christensen, and Plastique Fantastique.
Agata Genissel perforates sound, producing disembodied sonic environments. Working with texture, density and materiality, her practice unfolds through unresolved exploration. She is based in London.
Photography: Luna Wang
Joshua Barfoot is London based drummer and multi-instrumentalist. He’s known for his work as a member of the groups Shovel Dance Collective, Gentle Stranger, and Sullow.