Thursday 29th September 2026
7pm
The Charles Dickens, 54-60 Heene Rd, Worthing, BN11 3RG
£4 entrance

Open session organised by Safehouse regular Alan Jackson. Small randomly picked groupings play through the evening, with occasional forays into conduction improvisation and overlapping larger group formations.

4th November 2026
7pm
£4 / £3 members

Note: earlier start time- set up from 11am, music starts 12pm

Sunday 15th November 2026
12pm-3pm
The Con Club, 139 High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XS
£3 

Wednesday November 18th 2026
7.30pm
£9 / £6 members + concs
At The Coach House
22 Walpole Road
Brighton, BN2 0EA

A special evening of improvised lap steel guitar and visuals, with John Bisset and Pete McPartlan.

Guitarist John Bisset has collaborated with countless artists, notably:  Rhodri Davies, Maggie Nicols, Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas and Jem Finer. He was a co-founder of the Manchester Musician’s Collective in 1977, whose members included Trevor Wishart (pioneer of electronics and improvising vocalist) and Tony Friel (cellist/bass player with the Fall), and this fertile scene set the pattern for Bisset’s creative trajectory in life – working in improvisation, songs, visual arts, and  facilitating events and collective activity.

Pete McPartlan is a visual artist with a special interest in experimental film, improvised music, drawing, concert visuals and live audiovisual performance. He has worked with innovative groups such as This Is The Kit and Rattle, and is also known for his work in science education films.

2nd December 2026
7pm
£4 / £3 members

Sunday 20th December 2026
1pm-4.30pm
The Con Club, 139 High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XS
£3 

Wednesday January 27th 2027
7pm
£9 / £6 members + concs
The Rose Hill

This special Safehouse night featuring Belgian reedplayer and filmmaker Hanne De Backer takes a different format to the usual: a screening of the documentary Gabbro in Gabbro, followed by a performance by Hanne on baritone saxphone and bass clarinet and Casper Van De Velde on drums and sampler.

Fascinated by stones and minerals, Hanne De Backer names her collective of musicians and artists ‘Gabbro’. Gabbro is a volcanic igneous rock formed from magma that cools slowly beneath the Earth’s surface. It wasn’t until later, during a tour in Italy, that she discovered it is also the name of a small, mysterious village in Italy…

In search of the story behind Gabbro, she travels with drummer Casper Van De Velde to the Tuscan hills. With their instruments as their compass, they wander through the remote village and strike up conversations with the residents. Amid music, silence, and improvisation, a place slowly unfolds where time seems to move differently. Step by step, their quest maps out the village, and they meet a handful of eccentric characters who give Gabbro its own, unforgettable character.

The result is a radically poetic documentary, a musical adventure in a special place with very authentic residents. Following the film screening is a live concert performed by Hanne De Backer and Casper Van De Velde, taking you on a hybrid journey of acoustic and electronic sounds, old radios, and Tuscan field recordings.

Wildcard Quartet

Thursday February 18th 2027
7pm
£9 / £6 members + concs
The Rose Hill

Tickets

Jessica Ackerley, Eli Wallace, Mark Hanslip and Nick Branton

We’re excited to welcome back to The Rose Hill guitarist Jessica Ackerley and pianist Eli Wallace, this time in a new quartet with reedsmen Mark Hanslip on Nick Branton.

Jessica Ackerley is a Canadian guitarist, improviser and composer based in Honolulu and New York City and has been described as “one of the most exciting guitarists to have emerged from the US free music scene in recent years” by Wire Magazine. Since 2017, Ackerley has released 19 albums to much critical acclaim with features in Wire Magazine, Pitchfork, BBC Radio, and Bandcamp.

Eli Wallace is a pianist, improviser, and composer who resides in Brooklyn, NY, leading his own projects, and collaborating with other like-minded artists. His work as a pianist displays a proclivity to free improvisation, incorporating elaborate piano preparations that John Lewis (The Guardian) says is “…pushing the boundaries of the prepared piano.”

Tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip emerged in the mid-2000s as a key player on the London jazz scene, gigging nationally and internationally with groups including Outhouse and Nostalgia 77, and has appeared on over 30 recordings on labels including Babel, F-iRE, Tru Thoughts and FMR. Now based in the north, he co-leads organ trio The Revival Room with keyboardist Adam Fairhall, plays in trio with laptop wizard Federico Reuben and drum legend Paul Hession.

Clarinet and saxophone innovator Nick Branton is a key figure in the North West’s improvised scene, performing with David Birchall, Johnny Hunter, and Mark Hanslip.

Last/Lost Ensemble

Matt Clark is an improvising guitarist and composer based in Brighton.We are delighted to host his vision of getting together an ensemble of musicians to play his new Vivaldi ‘Four Seasons’ inspired pieces. Using graphic scores and improvisation which we always find exciting !

His work sidesteps traditional notions of harmony and melody, instead exploring the random and unexpected within improvisation around twelve tones, and the sonic possibilities of unorthodox techniques.

He regularly performs in Brighton and London with a number of collaborators and ensembles, and is a regular participant and member of Brighton’s Safehouse collective and London’s Mopomoso Improvised Music series. His music has been played on both local and national radio stations, including Resonance FM and BBC Radio 3.

“What started as a reimagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons developed into an exploration of existence, a document of a difficult year passed and inspired by one of Matt’s poems. Based on the changing seasons, the piece, by way of a graphic score in 7 movements, is inspired by modal jazz, free improvisation and, well, Vivaldi!” says Matt Clarke

“Brave and experimental as if the boundaries have shifted somehow – anything is allowed, and as long as it makes sense – which this album does totally – it is okay.” – Sammy Stein (Review of Sounds of The City) on Free Jazz Collective

“This trio produces a version of free playing which uses familiar traces of music to give a frame to its more radical elements . This brings an appealing warmth and humor to the work, and is a far cry from the usual forbidding stereotypes given to free music…” – Jerome Wilson (review of Sounds Of The City) on All About Jazz

Wildcard Quartet

DJ Mystery Lesson