Nicky Heinen (aka Nicky Scott-Francis) is a flautist specialising in all music with improvisation at its heart. She has toured, recorded and broadcast extensively in the UK and throughout Europe playing a wide range of music including Folk-Rock/Jazz/ Latin/African/Romanian/Electro-Acoustic/Euro Pop/Free Improvisation – group + solo performances. Also, performed in combined arts projects with Sculpted Sound – music + sound sculptures. Flute + poetry. Flute improvisations interpreting exhibition artworks including William Blake in the National Gallery. Nicky has also composed music for theatre productions and played on many recording sessions.
Current projects include screenings of her flute improvisation + abstract art animation film Yellow, Red, Blue – A Tribute to Kandinsky inspired by Kandinsky’s paintings and synaesthesia which integrated his auditory and visual senses. Flute + Iraqi poetry improvisations with the distinguished Iraqi poet, Adnan Al-Sayegh. 50 Trillion Cells We Are – a neuroscience themed solo flute suite recording of 4 improvisations. 4 Seasons – 4 flute compositions introducing improvisation through art, colour and emotion.
Gabriel Keen studied at Dartington College of Arts and London College of Music. He won second prize in the 5th British Contemporary Piano Competition, and has recorded works by contemporary composer Brian Inglis. He is a member of jazz group MOUTH and performs French chanson in a duo with mezzo-soprano Gina Fergione. He is also an accompanist for jazz and opera singing classes at the City Lit in London.
Mark Wastell
Mark Wastell has been active as a musician since the early 1990’s. Over a twenty year period, he has collaborated with numerous musicians including Angharad Davies, Bernard Gunter, Hugh Davies, Nikos Veliotis, John Wall, Evan Parker, Mattin, Tony Conrad, Keith Rowe, Otomo Yoshihide, Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Toshimaru Nakamura, Lasse Maurhaug, Eddie Prevost, Tomas Korber, Peter Kowald, Taku Sugimoto, John Zorn, Phil Durrant, Lee Patterson, Tim Barnes and Max Eastley. His regular groups are The Sealed Knot (with Rhodri Davies and Burkhard Beins) and Oceans of Silver & Blood (with Joachim Nordwall). Mark also runs the Confront Recordings record label. www.confrontrecordings.com
Marcio Mattos (double bass, ‘cello) is a highly-solicited and well-known contributor to the international Improvised Music scene, having performed with Evan Parker, John Stevens, Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd and the Ballet Rambert Dance Company amongst many others. He was a long standing partner with the late Elton Dean and toured with the Bardo State Orchestra. Marcio Mattos is a much travelled and experienced improviser who can readily adapt and excel in every musical environment both in Double-Bass and Cello. His “success”, in this respect, is primarily due to the high level of commitment he makes in every situation faced. His presence can be heard in very many released CD’s and especially in his latest solo recordings, “SOL[os]” (EMANEM 5035). He is also a ceramics artist with a studio in Hackney
Adnan al-Sayegh was born in al-Kufa, a city on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq in 1955 and is one of the most original voices of his generation of poets. His poetry denounces the devastation of wars and the horrors of dictatorship. Adnan has published twelve collections of poetry, including the 550-page Uruk’s Anthem (Beirut 1996) and the 1380-page The Dice Of The Text (Beirut, Baghdad 2022). He left his homeland in 1993, lived in Amman, and Beirut then took refuge in Sweden in 1996. Since 2004 he has been living in exile in London. He has received several international awards; among them, the Hellman-Hammet International Poetry Award (New York 1996), the Rotterdam International Poetry Award (1997) and the Swedish Writers Association Award (2005), and has been invited to read his poems in many festivals across the world. His poetry had been translated into into many languages, including 7 books of poetry in: Swedish, English, Dutch, Iranian, Russian, Spanish and French.
