This concert has been cancelled due to heavy snow …
Lawrence Casserley is celebrating fifty years of making music with electronic means. He has a history of creative collaborations with a huge variety of musicians, poets and visual artists. His Signal Processing Instrument draws the sounds of his colleagues into new sonic landscapes. Casserley has worked with a wide variety of musicians including duos with Philipp Wachsmann, Evan Parker, Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Jeffrey Morgan, Alan Tomlinson and Viv Corringham; larger groups including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and the Electroacoustic Cabaret; and various other groups and collaborations. He has recordings on many labels including psi, Amirani, Bead, Creative Sources, FMR and uniSono.
“…the certainty is that Lawrence Casserley can be more innovative and creative than many of the ringleaders of the young generation of laptoppers.” – Rui Eduardo Paes
Today he will be joined by two of his Oxford colleagues, Pete McPhail (saxes/flutes) and Bruno Guastalla (cello) in a new trio, and then by a duo from the North of England, Charlie Collins (percussion) and Shaun Blezard (live electronics).
Door 3:00 | music 3:30 sharp | entry £5
Pete McPhail is an Improviser on saxes/flutes/electronics. He formed Ghosts in 1980 w Pat Thomas; Matt Lewis. Played with Moire Music, LJCO, Talisker and more recently groups led by Alex Hawkins and Ian Smith. He also works with theatre and dance as composer /performer/workshop leader. (Also Colourscape). In recent years has worked a lot with Bruno Guastalla in improvised performance and with Butoh company Cafe Reason.
Bruno Guastalla’s working life for many years has been as a maker and restorer of violins and cellos. I also play cello and bandoneon, and write music. I tend to gravitate towards an in-between improvisation, score, and experimentation. Recent projects include performance with Ryoko Akama, Jurg Frei, Manfred Werder (HCMF 2015); collaborations with dancers: together with Pete McPhail and Mal Atkins with Cafe Reason Butoh Dance Company (Oxford), and also with Macarena Ortuzar (Iklectik Gallery London); score for a documentary film about WW1, and ongoing collaborations with members of Oxford Improvisers in a variety
of contexts.
Charlie Collins is a creative percussionist, free polyrhythmic drummer, and sound artist, based in the UK. His work continues to explore the boundaries between pure sound and rhythm, frequently incorporating metal percussion and free improvisation. Early recordings for cult labels Industrial, Fetish, and Doublevision were soon followed by collaborations with many of the pioneers of free improvisation, while his interest in East Asian percussion and rhythm technique is displayed in current work with komungo player Eun-Jung Kim, pianist Yoko Miura, visual artist Bongsu Park, composer Ryoko Akama, and Butoh dancer Tsukasa Kamidate. He is one of a handful of musicians to have played both Derek Bailey’s Company Week and Top Of The Pops.
Shaun Blezard is a musician who uses off the peg touch technologies to create spontaneous music. He was a New Voices Composer inducted into the British Music Collection in 2014 during his time as a Sound and Music portfolio improviser and has been a regular on the free improv, electronics, and network music events. Currently based around an iPad set up he has played with Matthew Bourne, Yoko Miura, Charlie Collins, Mick Beck, Stephen Grew, Matt Robinson, Susan Matthews, Seth Bennett, Anton Hunter, Julie Kjær, Rachel Musson, Cath Roberts, Keith Jafrate, Steve Beresford and many more.
‘The sounds oscillate (sometimes literally) between noise, tuneful fragments, delicate melodies, questing ambiance, social commentary, and so on but the whole thing hangs together as a single and coherent aural journey, practically cinematic, a tribute to large-scale creativity and the editing skills of Mr Blezard.’ Dave Foxall – A Jazz Noise
He has played many networked and remote concerts and rehearsals – using conference call technology to play with musicians around the world – this includes Cumbria/Nashville duo Keystrok Recordr and New York/France/Sheffield/Manchester/Cumbria experiment Ghost Ships.
