James O’Sullivan is a London- based experimental guitar player and improvisor who employs a playful but meticulous approach to the instrument through the bringing-together of physicality, resonance, detail, and dynamics. He seeks to co-create a rich, layered, and engaging music that entwines the excitement of the moment with a creative, focused exploration, so as to shape an enduring document of the guitar’s potential.
His interest in improvisation, recording and performance has led him to record and perform across the UK and internationally, both solo and with numerous improvised music groups. More longstanding arrangements include Muster, a duo with Dan Powell (electronics), a duo with Paul May (percussionist), the improvising trio Found Drowned, and a string of collaborative releases on the Aural Terrains imprint. He has released three solo albums, feed back couple, released in 2011, IL Y A, in 2017 and Lovely Error in 2022. More recent releases include Repetition Disguises, an electric guitar duo with Nathan Moore, and CHORD, with Ross Lambert, Nathan Moore, and Eddie Prévost.
NO Moore is a guitarist interested in electronic sound and timbral manipulation. He has played live with musicians including Eddie Prévost, John Butcher, Rachel Musson, Steve Noble, John Edwards, Alan Wilkinson, Dominic Lash, Roger Turner, Sue Lynch, Crystabel Riley, Rohan de Saram, Phil Durrant, and Steve Beresford.
Recent releases include Do Disturb (Matchless Recordings w/ Prévost, Wilkinson, Edwards, and Catchpole); Chord (Shrike w/ James O’Sullivan, Ross Lambert, and Prévost); Repetition Disguises (Scatterarchive w/ O’Sullivan); Under the Sun (Matchless Recordings w/ Musson, Brice, and Prévost); and Ciphers (Superpang w/ Daniel Kordik).
James L Malone is a sound designer, improviser and educator interested in synthesis.
Chris Hill is an improvising musician and sound artist. Based in London he regularly plays with the London Improvisers Orchestra, Eddie Prévost’s workshop group and promotes performances under the name of Babble&Squeak and DiscountGnostic. Recent collaborations and releases have been with Phil Morton (Project 50:50), Matt Atkins (Map & Territory; Moonside Tapes, 2023), Stephan Barrett (Dawn and Soil Bound: MRM 75, 2023), Microtonal Music (Moonside Tapes, 2023) and Ed Shipsey with whom he records as Egg & Crisp (Suckle Time; Astral Sewage, 2023).
Regan Bowering is a percussionist, improviser and sound artist based in London. Her solo improvisations explore various combinations of objects and materials, drums and percussion, amps, speakers, and feedback. Collaborative projects include BLAKE/ SONG/ BOWERING, a trio with Li Song and Conal Blake who experiment with site-specific performance/ improvisations using snare drums, speakers, and found materials. She’s currently doing a practice-based PhD in Music at Goldsmiths, Uni of London.
Alan Newcombe was a member of the London Musicians Collective in the mid 80’s. But he mainly was part of a fluid grouping of musicians over a ten-year period playing a range of uncategorisable genres – the music was always spontaneous. Performances included definitely the last free improv gig in Railton Road before the Brixton riots. In the past few years, he returned to live playing and has been involved in MOWO, the Skronk sessions, the London Improvisation Workshop, Babble and Squeak, No Computers and the 50/50 project. Recent gigs in the past year include a quartet with Eddie Prevost, Dominic Lash and NO Moore, a nonet curated by James O’Sullivan, and duos with Chris Hill and Keisuke Matsui. Just over a year ago he played in a trio with Paul May and James O ’Sullivan.
He has also recently been sighted playing a version of bluesy hard bop at several jam sessions at the County Arms.
Martin Hackett is part of Oxford Improvisers, the London Improvisers Orchestra, Le Grand Orchestre de Muzzix of Lille, and the on-line ensemble Blank Canvas Octet. Current projects include the trio ‘Tern’ with Emil Karlsen and Philipp Wachsmann, and as-yet unnamed trios with John Bissett and Julian Faultless, and with Phil Morton and Nick Branton. He is planning a UK tour with the guitarist David Bausseron in the new year.