Angharad Davies is a violinist, one at ease in both improvising and composition, with a wide discography as part of varied range of ensembles and groups. She’s a specialist in the art of ‘preparing’ her violin, adding objects or materials to it to extend its sound making properties. Her sensitivity to the sonic possibilities of musical situations and attentiveness to their shape and direction make her one of contemporary music’s most fascinating figures. 2015 has seen her being commissioned for a new work at the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow and premiering Eliane Radigue’s new solo for violin, Occam XXII at the El Nicho Festival, Mexico. She’s performed at, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms, Music We’d Like to Hear’s concert series, is an associate artist at Cafe Oto, is a member of Apartment House, Cranc and Common Objects, been artist in residence at Q-02 , and played live with Tony Conrad in the Turbine Room at the Tate Modern.Other collaborations have featured the likes of John Butcher, Daniela Cascella, Rhodri Davies, Julia Eckhardt , Kazuko Hohki, Roberta Jean, Lina Lapelyte, Dominic Lash, Tisha Mukarji, Andrea Neumann, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, J.G.Thirlwell, Stefan Thut, Paul Whitty, Manfred Werder, Birgit Ulher, Taku Unami and she’s released records on Absinth Records, Another Timbre, Potlatch and Confrontrecords.
Phil Durrant studied classical violin and piano at the London College Of Music. Since 1977 he has been a freelance musician, improviser and composer. He has performed at festivals all over Europe, U.S.A and Canada and has had his music broadcast on radio and television in many countries. Electronic projects include Ticklish, Secret Measures (with John Butcher), Lunge (with Gail Brand, Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders) and the international electronic orchestra, Mimeo. He also plays violin in Assumed Possibilities (with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell), “Beinhaltung”, a trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn another trio with Berlin musicians, Burkhard Beins and Ignaz Schick, and the string quartet Quatuor Accorde, with Tony Wren, Charlotte Hug and Mark Wastell. Durrant has also played in the very influential trio with John Butcher and John Russell, as well as the Chris Burn Ensemble. During his career he has played with many creative and important musicians, including: Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Grooverider, Shut up and Dance, John Zorn, Phil Minton, and Tom Cora. He has also been awarded various Arts Council grants to research and develop his use of electronics. Two current duo projects – at early 2001 – were: Durrant, violin and software synth/sampler with Wade Matthews, bass clarinet, alto flute; and Durrant software synth/sampler with Mark Sanders drums and sequenced samples. Phil Durrant has also been collaborating and composing music for a wide variety of choreographers. He also wrote the music for a play by Nick Sutton called Home movies.
Matthew Davis is an artist working in sound, music and performance living in Cornwall. Davis first studied visual art at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 1994. An interest in strategic photography and process based work led him to the world of improvised and experimental music and sound art. In 1999 he relocated to Barcelona, joined the IBA collective and ‘L’Orquestra IBA’ as well as working with the dance company La Sospechosa – a collaboration which lasted many years. On returning to London in 2002 he curated a series of events entitled FIELD designed to unite improvised music and dance. These events, with the support of the Chisenhale Dance Space Artist’s Program, eventually became a live-art project investigating notions of space and performance, and were particularly influenced by the work of geographer Doreen Massey who collaborated on the project. He has performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe, as well as touring Japan with Broken Consort in 2003. In 2008 he joined the ensemble Zeitkratzer, and in 2009 moved to Cornwall, where he is a member of the SoN collective and the trio Emlow. Davis Works mainly in improvised and experimental music – using trumpet, field recordings and electromagnetics. The latter could be described as performance based improvisations using electromagnetic fields from custom built cracked electrical devices and the immediate situation/space as well as field recordings of electromagnetic phenomena. Exploring them as acoustic phenomena and for their potential as feral musical elements. ‘Field’ is a live art/performance project, operating since 2003, which investigates Space as an ‘ongoing contemporaneity of crossing trajectories’*….. as a non-hierarchical, always-being-made matrix of realities, thoughts, histories or concepts. Rather than a discreet work of art which invites a singular reading, concept or idea.
Douglas Benford, composer and sound artist, has been involved in various audio genres since the late 1980s, performing at institutions in the UK (Bristol’s Arnolfini, London’s Science Museum, Tate Modern, The Roundhouse, ICA and Glasgow’s CCA), festivals worldwide (Mutek, Synch, Transmediale) and has had installation work in numerous UK galleries (London, Swansea, Stroud and Essex). After numerous electronica releases in his ‘si-cut.db’ guise, in the past few years he has focused on acoustic improvisation and installations, using field recordings, classical instruments, vocals and children’s toys. His collaborators include Blanca Regina, poet Tamar Yoseloff, Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte, Steve Beresford, sculptor Rob Olins, as well as – in the past – pop group Saint Etienne, Jem Finer (The Pogues), Momus, Rod Thomas (Bright Light Bright Light), Scanner, Stephan Mathieu and DJ Andrew Weatherall. He is also co-curator with Iris Garrelfs since 1996, of Sprawl audio events in London.
Doors 3:30 | music 4pm | entry £5 donation
