An evening of music from Robert Stillman featuring Sean Carpio and Crosspiece, the duo project of Theodora Laird and Caius Williams.
Doors 7pm
Tickets £10-15 Sliding Scale
Robert Stillman is a saxophonist, improviser, and composer. His projects are characterised by a willingness to ask and answer questions about reality, and his relationship to it, as well as by a radical commitment to spontaneity and process.
He has been heavily influenced by regular collaboration over the past five years with Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner as a touring solo support for and performing member of The Smile, as well as in projects led by Skinner, Dave Okumu, and co-led with Sean Carpio and Anders Holst, among others.
In addition to 12 records under his own name, he has also created work for installation and various media, has curated the Oscillate collection of artist lecture performances/essays in collaboration with the Turner Museum, Margate, and contributed to film score recordings by Adem Ilhan, Daniel Pemberton, Jonny Greenwood, and Thom Yorke.
Originally from Maine, USA, Stillman has played saxophone since the age of 11, and his teachers have included George Garzone, George Russell, and Danilo Perez. Based in the UK since 2007, he makes music from his studio based in Margate, UK, and lectures in Music at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Crosspiece is the duo project of Theodora Laird and Caius Williams. Through both composed and improvised material, they examine the tensions and fragility of dualism.
“An improvised dialogue, in which each part moves around the other in a way that recalls the sensation of holding two magnets close together at the same poles: something invisible keeps them shiveringly apart”
- Lucy Thraves, The Wire (August 2024)
Theodora Laird is a vocalist and multidisciplinary artist. Releases under her solo project feeo have received critical acclaim. Theodora's practice has involved in tandem with an interest in situating narratives within freely improvised music, specifically through frequent involvement in the GRAIN residency.
Caius Williams is a musician from London who plays the double bass, guitar, and bass guitar. He works in collaboration with others, alongside an ongoing solo project, and often works with improvisation.
Some projects include ‘Crosspiece’ (with Theodora Laird), a duo with guitarist Tara Cunningham, alongside recent performances or collaborations with Lifetones (Charles Bullen of This Heat), Steve Noble, feeo, Daniel O’Sullivan, Mark Sanders, Sachiko M, Tom Challenger, Maggie Nicols, Mark Wastell, amongst others.
Caius has been running the GRAIN series at Avalon Cafe in Bermondsey for the last 3 years, which is focussed on programming new and adventurous music and nurturing a growing community with cross-scene and cross-generational collaboration.