Afternoon:
A crowded hall, ready for John Butcher and Mark Sanders, saxophones and drums, a palpable hum of expectation. Butcher out fast with greasy, smeary tenor saxophone as Sanders bounced rhythms and sounds around him. Not all sturm und drang – plenty of episodes where Butcher displayed his remarkable technique on both saxes, multiphonics, snapping/popping of the reed, digging deep into the ontology of the instrument, as it were. Sanders had small metal bowls and cymbals to bow and scrape and rub against his kit to match the granular excursions. Exploratory – and held together throughout, no meandering, each playing for the other. When they finished, the audience gave them a rapturous reception. Lot of lurve here...
Jennifer Allum/Grundick Kasyansky/David O'Connor/Eddie Prévost:
Eddie Prévost runs regular workshops for improvisers in London and this set showcases some of his participants. Electronics, baritone sax, violin and Mr Prévost at his kit – although tonight, as if in penance to Gods of Improv for his forays into straight time the night before (it would have been classic if someone had suddenly displayed a banner with the message – 'Go home, dirty bopper!' A gag for the older among you – see here...), he in the main concerned himself with finely graded texture – bowing a large gong and cymbals. This was thoughtful, austere (yet almost dreamy music at times) that flowed well – the obvious benefit of those workshop sessions. Again, violin suffered a bit from undermiking.
Adam Bohman/FURT (Richard Barrett/Paul Obermayer)/Ute Wassermann:
Phil Marks in on drums, depping for the indisposed Richard Barrett - started a wild barrage somewhat at odds with the others. They took a long time pre-set trying to get the balance right and... well... Ute Wassermann, one of my favourites from last year (when she played with Aleks Kolkowski see here), was struggling at times to rise above the mêlée . A superb singer with an operatic technique that she bends successfully into the wilder shores of vocal improv, covering a gamut of sounds that FIT... Some nicely abrasive laptop interruptions. Adam Bohmann back in the mix – despite his impressively large jumble sale table – getting some good textural noise when you could hear him. Somehow it didn't quite coalesce, but I enjoyed it. Perhaps a lot of the fun is the high-wire balancing acts that improvisation demands – sometimes you fall, but I'd rather be witness to that than tribute band banality...
Jean-Luc Guionnet/Ross Lambert/Philip Somervell:
I missed some of this set. Some fascinating piano sonorities, interesting alto playing – much of the acoustic guitar playing of Lambert was under-miked in the overall balance.
EVENING
Stellari String Quartet: John Edwards/Charlotte Hug/Marcio Mattos/Philipp Wachsmann:
The players assembled in front of the stage (again), this time I was a little better sited. Improvising essentially chamber music, with the odd jazzy nuance, one could argue that this is what 'third stream' music should have sounded like. They played through the gamut of contemporary string techniques – rubbing, scraping, attacking the instrument in places on the body other than the strings and neck – but these were flowing from the music rather than being grafted on artificially, propelled by a strong emotional force. Plenty of ideas here – a thicket of melody and sound at times, listening and looking to each other to come together or stand back. Mattos and Edwards locked in as and when to provide a thrumming bottom bottom end and middle as Philip Wachsmann and Charlotte Hug spun off each other with shards of melody and sonic exploration. Wachsmann wafted his violin about while bowing like an old-time hoedowner at a couple of points. To improvise music of this level of creativity and coherence is a mighty achievement. A gas, as we used to say... Unfortunately, this was the last of the festival for me – I had plans to get across town to the Cafe Oto to catch Carlas Bozulich but just ran out of energy...
Summation: some marvellous music, some that didn't quite work but I applaud the participants for their risks – and that's only my opinion anyway. A couple of other blog reviews - Mapsadaisical one and two and Daid Grundy's very details account here to consider... A festival – especially one like this, with so much concentrated in a relatively short time space of two days – will – and should - always offer a collision of styles and strategies. Put it this way - there was no musician or group of performers that I would not want to see again, either here (next year) or in other contexts/venues. Evan Parker shouldered much of the compering duties and he was both amusing and acerbic – rants aplenty. Despite his acrid observation that Time Out had not bothered to give them a mention, my overall observation was that the audience was out in force for demanding musics and seem to me to be much more of a cross-section in age and sex than when I first went to this event a few years ago back at the much-lamented Red Rose. Evan said that they will be back next year and I look forward to that. The only downside for me was that some of the miking seemed underbalanced, especially for the acoustic stringed instruments – violin, cello, guitar. Wish list? Same as last year... I think that the festival could benefit from some more interesting electronic performers. It would be interesting to see how the noise mob would fit in - after all many of them base their musics on improvisation. It's a little on the academic side here, compared to the fire and energy available in other areas. I'd enjoy someone like Aaron Dilloway on stage with Steve Noble, say, a power sax player and John Edwards (if his bass was balanced in the mix)... But let's be thankful this festival in still ongoing and congratulations to all who make it happen...
