An evening of music with a trio set from John Edwards (bass), Caroline Kraabel (saxophone/voice) and Regan Bowering (drums), and a duo from Mike O'Malley (guitar) and Daniel S. Evans (turntable and electronics).
Doors 7pm
Tickets £8-12
John Edwards grew up in London and started experimenting with the bass guitar before he switched in his twenties to play double bass. He is deeply rooted in the creative free jazz and improvisation genre. Since the 80ties he is as soloist and in many groups and ensembles in Europe active and became one of the most renowned bass players. He played/plays regular for example with Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Phil Minton, Maggie Nichols, Evan Parker, Roscoe Michtell, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Mark Sanders, Caroline Kraabel, John Butcher, Pat Thomas, Irène Schweizer, Hans Koch, Florian Stoffner, Gabriele Mitelli, John Dikeman.
"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz."
- Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
Photo: Clement Kraabel
Caroline Kraabel is a London-based improviser.
In 2022 Kraabel founded a large improvising group made up of all sorts of women, non-binary, and transgender improvisers: ONe_Orchestra New. They explore improvisation and difference in monthly labs and regular performances (recent release, Live at the Vortex July 2024). Kraabel’s soundfilm, London 26 and 28 March 2020: imitation: inversion won the 2021 Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art Composer.
Other active groups: duo with John Edwards (double bass) – Soundtrips70 tour and 2024 CD, Sparrow Dance. Duo with recorder player Teresa Hackel, release pending! Duo with Zhuyang Liu (guzheng). Duo with percussionist Bex Burch. 2024 CD release of Still Dancing CD with Daniel Thompson (acoustic guitar) and Max Reed (dance). Duo with cellist Khabat Abas –Five Communiqués released 2023; Transitions Trio (with Charlotte Hug and Maggie Nicols, new CD release: On Dizziness); OTO-Moers Quartet, with Bex Burch, Simon Camatta and Raïssa Mehner; Fit To Burst, a song-based trio with Sarah Washington and John Edwards; a duo with Pat Thomas (CD release, whats wrong, August 2023); and the Poetry Quartet with Rowland Sutherland, John Edwards and Sofia Vaisman Maturana, which incorporates live poetry.
Kraabel has performed and recorded with many other improvisers, including Robert Wyatt (CD, LAST1 LAST2), Louis Moholo, Cleveland Watkiss, Hyelim Kim, Annie Lewandowski (duo CD, In The Garden City), Susan Alcorn (duo CD, Giving Out), Mark Sanders and Veryan Weston (trio CD, Playtime; duo CD on Emanem with Weston, Five Shadows), Mariá Portugal, Neil Metcalfe (duo CD, March), Crystabel Riley, Pei Ann Yeoh, Charlotte Keeffe, Alex Ward, Cath Roberts, Dee Byrne, Damsel Elysium, Chris Corsano. Radio: Improvisers and Improvisation, made with John Edwards, is a 22-hour radio piece including music, noise, electronics, live performance and many new interviews with improvisers; part of 2022’s Radio Art Zone.
Kraabel’s solo saxophone improvisations while walking in London and elsewhere with her infant child/ren in their pushchair were broadcast weekly 2002-2006 on Resonance 104.4 FM as Taking a Life for a Walk and more recently (without babies) as Going Outside. Other radio work includes a ResonanceFM series of interviews with improvisers in many media (music, dance, visual art, politics, activism), Why is Improvising Important.
Regan Bowering is a percussionist, improviser and sound artist based in London. Her solo work explores various combinations of drums and percussion, objects, amps, speakers, and feedback. Her debut album Solos for _ _ _ _ Spaces (Dec 2023 on Bezirk Tapes) was described as “a play of contrasts, contradicting voluminous expressions with confined phrases, taming resounding feedback with faint percussive flutters, but one that feels driven by the desire to craft electrifying drama rather than pure autotelic dissonance.” (The Quietus). She is one third of a collaborative project with Li Song and Conal Blake, with two releases: 2 Movements (Feedback Moves, 2024) and Music for Snare Drums and Portable Speakers (Infant Tree, 2023). Her debut LP A Technology of Feeling was released in January 2026 on Infant Tree.
Mike O’Malley is a guitarist and producer based in London, best known for his work as part of the band caroline.
Daniel S. Evans is a multi-instrumentalist and producer based in London. He plays as part of the experimental folk groups Shovel Dance Collective, Sullow, and The Greater London Banjo Trio, and as Meanders in a duo with Jasper Llewellyn.