An afternoon of music, words and performance.
Mark Browne (saxophone/percussion), Molly Bloom (words), Anthony Osborne (saxophone), Geraldine Gallavardin (performance), Spinecakes (electronics).
Doors 3:30 | performance 4pm | enrty £5
As Mark says:
“My experience with poetry has been difficult. Firstly, I found the series of books “The Penguin Modern European Poets”. These were published in the 1970s and featured mostly literal translations. I felt that the appearance of poetry was arresting. The presentation of a single or limited number of ideas on a single page seemed noble. The absence of rhyme made them seem almost imitable, or performable.
My experience with the French language has been catastrophic. A bad experience in Mrs Jones’ French class: caught in t…he spotlight of unrelenting questioning by an unsympathetic teacher. Followed by a later misfortune in a Paris McDonald’s where great mirth was enjoyed by the queue as they witnessed my faltering attempt to obtain a Double Burger.
In the mid-1980s I read a book about French poets. I believe that I was already familiar with Baudelaire and Rimbaud in translation, but Stephane Mallarme caught my interest. Why an interest in the work of someone who is regarded as the most difficult of poets in his own language, without the added difficulty of translation?
In 1998 I performed a concert called “The Death Of Mallarme”. The original idea was to incorporate Mallarme’s poetry into the performance. However, this didn’t happen and became a musical event that marked the 100 years of his death. It was somewhat lacking in authenticity with the absence of any text.
Several years ago I played several concerts that involved Geraldine Gallavardin. The idea of a Mallarme text piece seemed relevant. A mixture of French and English – in some way demonstrating the problems of translation.
I have been involved with Murmurists performances and met Anthony Osborne and Molly Bloom. This presented another opportunity for a text piece, but this time using original texts (if a little bit Joycean).”
Mark Browne (saxophone /collected objects):
Mark Browne picked up a saxophone in 1980 first playing alto and then soprano and sopranino (affectionately referred to as the castrata and piranho saxphones). 1983-86 playing with Cockpit Improvised Music with Adam Bohman, Jonathon Bohman, Richard Crow, Nick Couldry, Paul Bevan and Teddy Coleridge. An occasional member of Conspiracy with Adam Bohman, Andy Hammond, John Telfer and Nick Couldry. 1984-present duo with Steve Nash (The Fanatics Of Disaster/The Fastidious Amateurs Of Grief). 1994 performed around Denmark as a guest of Martin Klapper. Throughout the 1990s occasional concerts and recording with Lol Coxhill. Late 1990s changed instrumentation to incorporate collected objects (small percussion, bowed objects, bone, glass and game calls). Attended the first Eddie Prevost workshops. 2006-13 member of the Roland Ramanan Tentet. 2007-2012 guitar and saxophone playing with the Alpha Males. 2010 formed Crush!!! with Sonic Pleasure and Ian MacGowan. Recent recordings: Malapert and Erratic, The Prejudices Of History, The 1926 Floor Polish Variation (Browne/Sanderson/Thompson) for Linear Obsessional and Genial Decay a solo saxophone recording for Confront. 2015 – present recording and performing with Lust Rollers with Dan Gregory and with Spinecakes (Mark Gerrard). The 4th Edition of the 52 Noisy Little Clouds (a set of 52 unique recordings packaged with artwork) completed in August.
Geraldine Gallavardin is a conceptual contemporary French artist; a curator, poet, musician & actress based in London. She’s the founder of Lab451london. She’s originally from Lyon, France. She holds two MA in Fine Art, one from Les Beaux-Arts de Grenoble, France (1997) & one from Chelsea College of Fine Art & Design, London (1999). Geraldine has been in the Art Scene since the 90s. She collaborates with the Camden Image Gallery in London as a curator & art consultant.
She used participatory/readymade performances art (mainly as a tribute), social sculptures, installations, drawings, videos & live art as her main artistic language. She used Free Improvised Music/soundscape in her performances & had played abroad & in the UK with band such as “The A Band”. She has exhibited internationally in Art Centres & in the UK in places such as the ICA, the South London Gallery, during the London Biennale in-situ on the lawn of Tate Modern/The Serpentine Gallery…
She has acted in few films during her artistic career, recently in “Third Contact” filmed in London by British director Simon Horrocks, the film is now available online (www.thirdcontactmovie.com). She is also in the film “The Mentor” by director Ngozi Enuma (2014).
Spinecakes (Electronics):
Spinecakes (Mark Gerrard) born in 1921, starting life as the seventh son, of the seventh son of some minor English Royals. The silver spoon of this low ranking toff extended to a boarding school education, holidays in the South of France, and many introductions to various types of turpitude. Fast running out of funds in the early 80s and becoming notorious after alleged liaisons with both Jerry Hall and Jade Jagger in the 90s, Mark was required to reluctantly embark on a career in music. Having no other talent than an unnerving awareness of natural occurring magnetic fields, his chosen area of expertise was to become a practitioner in lo-fi electronics.
Anthony Osborne says “I am driven by a limited number of obsessions – small in number but powerful for all that; chief among these obsessions are free jazz and the writings of James Joyce. As an improvising musician I am drawn to the saxophone primarily – free jazz, fire music, energy music and also noise music. As a composer and bedroom producer I am drawn to handheld electronics and smallscale methods – a necessity can be a virtue, Blunderphonics, if you will. I am a member of two audiovisual collectives – Union Furnave and Black Howler; the former centred on noise and drone, the latter combining these elements with an interest in song structure.”
