Un/stable series showcases improvised music, with two sets from a trio formed of Benedict Drew, Angharad Davies, and Alex McKenzie.
Doors 7pm
Tickets £8-12
Benedict Drew (b. 1977, Kyneton, Australia) lives and works in Whitstable and Margate, UK.
Benedict Drew works across video, sculpture, drawing, painting, and music. He creates large-scale installations, often concerned with ecstatic responses to socio-political anxiety. Solo exhibitions include The Trickle-Down Syndrome, Whitechapel Gallery, London; KAPUT, QUAD, Derby; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; and THE ANTI ECSTATIC MACHINES and Heads May Roll, Matt’s Gallery, London.
Drew’s work has been exhibited internationally including at Adelaide Festival, Australia; Lofoten International Arts Festival, Norway; and in Hayward Touring exhibitions British Art Show 8 and Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness. He has been commissioned to create videoworks for public spaces including Art on the Underground, London and Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea. The installation KAPUT (2015) was acquired by the Arts Council Collection.
Since the 1990s Benedict Drew has performed in improvising ensembles, programmed concerts and club nights, and was a producer at the cultural charity London Musicians Collective. Drew has released several records on labels including Mana Records and Kaleidoscope, and often collaborates with other artists and musicians. He launched his own label, Thanet Tape Centre, in May 2020 and regularly makes work for radio. Benedict Drew is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London.
Angharad Davies is a violin player who’s work exists between the thresholds of improvisation, composition and experimental music.
Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument and performance expectation. Being an intrepid collaborator has seen her work with the likes of Tony Conrad, Eliane Radigue, Tarek Atoui, Gwenno, Richard Dawson, Lina Lapelyte, JG Thirlwell, Jessie Marino, Tim Parkinson, Rie Nakajima, Tim Etchells and Annea Lockwood.
As a composer she has been commissioned by Counterflows, LCMF, Tŷ Cerdd, Nawr, Explore Ensemble, GBSR duo for HCMF, AndPLAY, Ligeti Quartet for Rainy Days Festival and Heather Roche + Dominic Lash.
Photo: 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 performed at notable experimental music festivals such as Big Ears (Knoxville, Tennessee), Rewire (The Hague), INTONAL (Malmö), Unsound (Kraków), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, BRDCST (Brussels), Supersonic (Birmingham), Supernormal (Oxfordshire), Les Urbaines (Lausanne), and Ultima Contemporary Music Festival (Oslo).
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, 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.