Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, London E2 8JD
http://www.hundredyearsgallery.com/
Tom Wheatley and John Edwards (double bass duet), Steve Noble (percussion solo), and field recording works from Visa Kuoppala
Entry by donation (suggested up to £5)
Doors 7:15 (the first performance will be at 8:00 pm sharp)
For this concert we are very pleased to present:
Steve Noble is London’s leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith
, Stephen O’Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.
In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey’s excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins).
John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.
Tom Wheatley “Despite being born into a musical family I did not aspire to play an instrument until the age of fifteen. I think it was necessary for them to give up on sparking a musical interest in me for one to develop. After attempts at a few instruments, I took up the double bass about six years ago. I play it regularly with Eddie Prévost, Daniel Thompson, Seymour Wright, Rachel Musson and Guillaume Viltard, amongst others, and also by myself.”
Visa Kuoppala is a Finnish composer, field recordist and improviser living in London. He is particularly active in the areas of acousmatic composition and electroacoustic improvisation, where he is fascinated with the poetic potential of enigmatic or ambiguous sounds. In his phonography practice he is interested in attaining unusual vantage points to sounds with extreme proximity or by using contact or lavalier microphones on nearby materials, allowing their resonant properties to colour the recordings. For his improvisation practice he has developed a granular synthesis and feedback -based instrument called Malegra, which he plays both solo and in groups.
At present he is working on a PhD in electroacoustic composition at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Jonty Harrison, towards which he has received funding from the AHRC and the university. He has performed or his works have been performed in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, USA, China and Italy.