Tuesday April 1st
8pm
£8 / £6 members + concs
@ The Cowley Club, Brighton

PLEASE NOTE! Different venue to usual: The Cowley Club!

Raymond MacDonald & Jer Reid

Safehouse are very happy to welcome two key members of the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra – the main hub for improvisation in Scotland!  Saxophonist Raymond MacDonald and electric guitarist Jer Reid met through the GIO.  They’ve been touring the UK and recording together since 2017, have released several CDs together over the last few years.

Raymond MacDonald is a saxophonist and composer who has released over 60 records and toured and broadcast worldwide. His work explores the boundaries and ambiguities between what is conventionally seen as improvisation and composition.

Much of his recent performing work has been in collaborative free improvisation contexts, however his roots in jazz and pop music are always evident in his playing and writing. MacDonald collaborates widely and has worked with visual artists, dancers, writers and filmmakers and has produced music for film, television, theatre and the concert hall.

MacDonald has worked internationally with many of the current pioneers in avant-garde music including David Byrne, Damo Suzuki, Nurse with Wound, German trumpeter Axel Dorner, the sublime US pianist Marilyn Crispell,  US trombonist and educator George Lewis, The Necks and ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Jim O’Rourke .

His album Buddy was also named in top CDs of year in Wire magazine, Jazzwise and All about Jazz.

Jer Reid is an electric guitarist with a very raw and dynamic approach.  He has spent a lifetime engaged with live and recorded music in a whole gamut of forms:  from working with dancers, to sound design, dramaturgy and film composition. He has improvised with poets, played music or sound teched in about 30 countries; facilitated improvising workshops and sessions;  released records and had his music played on Radio 1, 3, 4 and 6.

Andrew Clare & Iain Paxon

Andrew Clare is mostly known as the singer, guitarist and founder of the band I’m Being Good,  but he’s also had a hand in many experimental and improvised projects over the years, going all the way back to an early collaboration with Thurston Moore and Derek Bailey called ‘The Thirteen Ghosts’.  His label Infinite Chug has been releasing records for over 30 years.

“slinging deliriously woozy lead guitars over tightly wound, angular art-rock foundations.” Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times.

Iain Paxon  has made 20 albums with the group Hamilton Yarns, as well as numerous solo projects, such as his bicycle-based album Inside the Wheel.  Regular Safehousers will of course know him as the host of the monthly Safehouse Lewes sessions!

+ Wildcard Quartet

+ DJ Fiery Biscuits

Sunday 20th April 2025
1pm-4.30pm
The Con Club, 139 High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XS
£3 

Thursday April 24th
7pm
£9 / £6 members + concs
@ The Rose Hill

John Butcher, Dominic Lash & Emil Karlsen

John Butcher – saxophones
Dominic Lash – double bass
Emil Karlsen – drums

A trio of three acclaimed improvisors, who released their debut album ‘Here and How’ on Bead Records in 2023.

“Dominic Lash brought this trio together for a recording session at the end of 2022, reasoning that there is only ever one chance of capturing the first time a group plays together. Not that the trio was starting from nothing – although the session that resulted in the album Here and How represents the first time John Butcher and Emil Karlsen had ever played together, Lash and Butcher have a collaborative history going back about fifteen years, while Lash and Karlsen have worked together with increasing frequency.

There is also the heritage of the sax/bass/drums trio format, which this band treats as a resource to be drawn upon rather than a template to be limited by. This allows the music to move seamlessly from pure sonic exploration to dynamic momentum and back again. The album garnered positive reviews and the group has since been featured on BBC Radio 3 and performed regularly. ”

“A master class in closely attentive group playing… anticipation and responsiveness become indistinguishable.” – Julian Cowley, The Wire

“The technical skill on display is incredible, giving these wild, angular jaunts an undercurrent of precision that elevates them to new heights.” – Foxy Digitalis

+ In Threads

James Parsons – drums, percussion
Daniel Spicer – piano, voice, percussion
Verity Spott – cello

In Threads have been playing for over 10 years, with slots at Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival, the Verdict jazz club, Safehouse, the Hi-Zero series of contemporary poetry readings, and at various other events and happenings, including a poetry/music event curated by Dan Spicer at Café OTO in London.

Their first full-length record ‘Orange Justice’ came out on Eyeless records in 2020 and features live and studio recordings that draw on their their light-footed, fun and informal approach to spontaneous composition.

+ Wildcard Quartet
+ DJ Fiery Biscuits