Shih-Yang Lee: piano
Benedict Taylor: viola
Alice Eldridge: cello
Gus Garside: double bass

This is a Safehouse-related event and takes place at Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

PLEASE NOTE EARLY START: 7.30pm- 9.00pm (doors open 7.00pm)

Tickets £10 (£7 concessions) – on the door or in advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/237692 or concessions at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/237693

Shih-Yang Lee is one of the greatest musical talents in Taiwan. He is the founder and coleader of the improvisation group Ka Dao Yin, whose first album “Four Characters” won the Taiwan Golden Indie Music Award. After more than twenty years of classical and conservatory training, he became interested in improvisation. After performing with the great Fred Van Hove at the Meteo Festival in France, Shih-Yang will be coming to the UK for the first time. Tonight sees him with working with a string trio of three well respected UK improvisers.

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Arena di Avant Musica Contemporary music-theatre featuring Chien-Chun Lin (Voice) and I-Chin Li (Piano/ Laptop), Jonathan Whitten (Tuvan throat singing) and Tom Jackson (saxophones)

Shih-Yang Lee (piano) is one of the greatest musical talents in Taiwan. He is the founder and co-leader of the improvisation group Ka Dao Yin, whose first album “Four Characters” won the Taiwan Golden Indie Music Award. After more than twenty years of classical and conservatory training, he became interested in improvisation. After performing with the great Fred Van Hove at the Meteo Festival in France we are delighted to welcome ShihYang to the UK for the first time.

Benedict Taylor (viola) is a London based violist, specialising in contemporary music and improvisation. He performs and records throughout the UK, Europe and Asia as a soloist and ensemble performer with improvisation groups, new music ensembles, electroacoustic groups and full orchestras, in many of the world’s leading festivals and venues. He collaborates with composers, modern dance and theatre companies, visual & sonic artists and filmmakers.

Alice Eldridge (cello) is an improvising cellist, producer and researcher in biologicallyinspired sound systems. She has a PhD in cybernetically-inspired software for improvisation from University of Sussex, where she currently teaches Generative Creativity. After a few years with her solo cello-laptop AV duo Alice and her Self-Karaoke Machines, she now improvises with humans: with PRSF Women Make Music awardees Collectress, and in various ongoing duos with Ollie Bown (Icarus), Ron Caines (East of Eden), as one half of Duot with bass player Seth Bennett and as a vibrant member of Brighton’s Safehouse Collective.

Gus Garside (double bass) has worked in a variety of musical settings: jazz, contemporary music, pop, cabaret, dance, theatre and, most importantly, improvised music. He currently performs and records with a number of improvisation and contemporary music groups including his long standing string trio Arc (with Sylvia Hallett and Danny Kingshill) and Static Memories, a duo with Dan Powell (on laptop and processed percussion and guitar). “where he differs from the average jazz bassist is in the range of sonorities he conjures from his instrument” Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD.

I-Chin Li (Piano/ Laptop) After graduating composer and pianist I-Chin Li was commissioned by many contemporary theatre and modern dance companies and film directors in Taiwan. He combines ethnic fusions, improvisation, live electronics and experimental Avant Garde and modern interactive theatre. He has toured New York, Berlin, Köln, Darmstadt, Sydney, Canberra and London He is currently based in London where he is studying a music PhD.

Chien-Chun Lin (Voice) Soprano Chien-Chun Lin graduated with honour from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei. She continued her studies in Berlin and Rome and is currently an MPhil/PhD student at Goldsmiths in London. She has performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls with classical repertoire like Verdi’s Rigoletto and art songsfrom Mozart, Berg and others. She has also performed many contemporary vocal works and is developing her contemporary music theatre practice.

I-Chin and Chien-Chun have created the contemporary music theatre company Arena di Avant Musica and in their performances they work with a number of artists from differentdisciplines musician, dancers etc. In this concert they will appear with Jonathan Whitten (Tuvan throat singing) and Tom Jackson (saxophones)

Tony Bevan: bass saxophone

Tony Bevan began playing the soprano sax at age sixteen, inspired by the dislocated rhythms of Captain Beefheart and the endless repetitions of Terry Riley, and encouraged by fellow Aylesbury town boy Lol Coxhill, who was kind enough to give him his first soprano lesson. A year later he bought a tenor sax, and quickly added Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman and Warne Marsh to his list of influences. Around this time he also discovered the music of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and Han Bennink via ‘Topography of the Lungs’ and thereafter he dived headlong into the world of improvised music.

Over the last four decades he has played with Sunny Murray, Adam Bohman, Chris Corsano, Derek Bailey and countless other pioneers of free music. He has a powerful sound, built around circular riffs and refrains and the sheer oomph of the bass saxophone – indeed Time Out once described him as “the world’s greatest improvising bass saxophonist”.

Alongside this he runs his own record label: Foghorn records

“One of the unsung heroes of modern British music” – Ben Watson

Here’s a great piece he recorded with Derek Bailey, Sonic Pleasure and others a few years ago:

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Hákarl
Improvising violin/ guitar/ other-ist, Hákarl is the solo project of West Country born but Brighton-based Kev Nickells. Hákarl is sometimes one and sometimes many. Shows this year have included an improvised covers set for Splitting the Atom, a 12 hour performance at the Coach House (with the Carousel Collective/ Adam Bushell/ Nil), an evening of John Cage compositions at Brighton Unitarian Church and performing the graphic scores of Lama Dalai at Supernormal festival Oxfordshire – the same festival at which he performed for 36 non-stop hours in 2011 (along with Seth Cooke, Clive Henry, Jamie Glew-Osborne, Huw Webb and Barnabas Yianni) and has been involved in curating for 2012/3.

For the Safehouse Hákarl has composed a thematic improvisation based around a corrupted interpretation of Greek ode-form – Strophe, Antistrophe, Cadenza and Epode.

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The Wildcard Quartet
At the end of every Safehouse open session four members are picked at random to form a one-off quartet to play at the show at the end of the month. This is them.