Roland Bates: keyboards
Dylan Bates: violin, saw, mediaeval fiddle, overtone flute, xaphoon
Steve Myers: great bass recorder

Steve Myers and brothers Roland and Dylan Bates have been playing together regularly since the mid ’80s when they were members of a band called Blood, Blood and Blood. They combine mediaeval instruments and electronics to create an eerie and startling soundworld. Their first performance as Bitten By A Monkey took place 16 years ago and the group has since played at some grand venues such as Hampton Court, the British Museum (when they wrote and performed original music for a production of Aristophanes’ Wasps) and Chelsea Physic Garden, as well as The Vortex and The Klinker.

This is probably one of the few times you’ll get to hear someone improvising on a great bass recorder – it’s worth coming down for that alone!

Plus

4thirtythree

Stuart Revill: guitar / loops / percussion
Tim Rancelant: sax / spoken word / percussion
Chris Parfitt: piano / sax/ flute / loops / percussion / voice


4thirtythree create instant compositions out of loops, snatches of spoken word and whatever else comes off the tops of their heads. Their debut album Switch was described as “refreshingly free of cliché, proudly non-idiomatic and actually kind of fun” by Daniel Spicer in Jazzwise magazine. Here’s a track from it…

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/38996776″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

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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.

Hannah Marshall: cello
Lauren Kinsella: voice
Nick Malcolm: trumpet

A trio of musicians who have built up incredible technique from their backgrounds in classical music and jazz, and are able to feed this into an energy-driven form of improv.

Hannah Marshall is a renowned improvising cellist. She began with classical studies, then found inspiration in John Stevens’ book Search & Reflect and has been exploring the outer reaches of cello technique ever since. She plays all over the world and regularly collaborates with musicians such as Fred Frith, Steve Beresford, Kay Grant, Roger Turner, Evan Parker and many more.

Award winning Irish vocalist Lauren Kinsella spent time studying in Ireland, India, Sweden and Switzerland before moving to London in 2010.

“Kinsella has a complete system of sounds and ideas working for her. And its brilliance lies in the way she blends it with the instruments around her.” – Jazzwise

“Lauren Kinsella, a bold and clever Dublin lass who vocalises the weirdest word-jazz you’ve ever heard.” – Jack Massarik London Evening Standard

Nick Malcolm has worked with musicians as diverse as Roger Turner, Gail Brand, Dominic Lash and Shabaka Hutchings and last year toured the UK with British Folk stars Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray.

“…fierce musical intelligence…” – Jazzwise

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Static Memories

Dan Powell: laptop / guitar / sampler / effects
Gus Garsdie: double bass / electronics

Dan Powell and Gus Garside have been working together as Static Memories since 2007. They recently performed at the Dome Studio, with dancer Mirei Yazawa.

Plus

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.

Adam Bohman: amplified objects
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg: voice

Adam Bohman has spent a lifetime extracting unexpected sounds from household objects: wire brushes, springs, egg slicers, combs, lightbulbs – it’s all grist to the Bohman sound mill. Check out this new film about him – it focuses mostly on his artwork, but there is some footage of him playing in there too:

Jean Michel Van Schouwburg is an improvising singer from Belgium. He is well versed in all sorts of vocalising: throat singing, overtones, yodels, mouth sounds, falsettos, multiphonics, invented languages to name a few.

Here he is in Peter Strickland’s 2012 movie Berberian Sound Studio, playing himself playing a goblin:

Plus:

Brokens
Xelis de Toro: trumpet, voice
Alistair Strachan: cornet, voice, electronics

A horn and voice-off – hopefully the fog will have cleared after this episode.

Plus:

Duncan Harrison
A Venn diagram of Duncan’s sonic doings would need to include drone, psychedelia, vocal improvisation, industrial tinged soundscape, tape and sample-based concrète sound arrangement, field recording and graphic scores. Check out this site for more: duncan-harrison.blogspot.co.uk

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.

Martin Archer: electronics / saxophones
Hervé Perez: electronics / saxophones
Peter Fairclough: drums

Martin Archer is a mainstay of Sheffield’s fertile experimental music scene, and this trio finds him exploring with Hervé Perez and Peter Fairclough an organic stew of sounds. They cite their main source of inspiration as “deep listening and a fascination for the science of the natural world.”

“…the sense of considered, focused interplay between the participants is undeniable. An hour or so of abstract noise passes imperceptibly, then, suddenly, everything feels shockingly different.” – Stewart Lee, Sunday Times

“Every track is a modernist gem of mournful, elegiac, deeply moving instrumental music” – Ed Pinsent, Sound Projector

“Some of the most engaged and engaging music currently being played in England” – John Fordham, Guardian

“Fascinating … defies categorisation … an internal coherence which makes it compulsive listening … an art-rock mini-universe” – Joe Cushley, Mojo

Susurrations

Ingrid Plum: voice
Rebecca Davies: cello
Joshua Legallienne: guitar

Susurrations are the self-proclaimed ‘quietest band in Brighton.’ Consisting of cellist Rebecca E Davies, guitarist Joshua Legallienne and vocalist Ingrid Plum, they specialise in creating special performances that are both completely improvised and wholly unamplified. Shunning loudspeakers and microphones in favour of a purer, acoustic sound, they provide an intimacy rarely found outside the rehearsal room.


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. On this occasion it’ll be Ron Caines, Z*qhygoem, Al Strachan and Clive Craske.

Oliver Dover: saxophone
Craig Scott: guitar
Johnny Richards: keyboard
Mick Bardon: bass
Andrew Lisle: drums
Joost Hendrickx: drums

Shatner’s Bassoon are a group of six Leeds based composers/improvisers. The group have built up their own sound based on developing complex compositional structures through improvisation. Influences include Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and Frank Zappa.

When they played the excellent Tinderbox festival in Oxford, they garnered this review:

“They have plenty of all-out free passages, but also some tightly arranged heads and traditional jazz solo spaces. There’s a Hancockesque Rhodes sound ladled liberally, and some nods towards supper jazz, reggae and even calypso in the maximalist compositions, proving that sense of humour is as high on their list as a sense of exploration. Shatner’s Bassoon are funny without being silly and musically intricate without being introspective. Chris Morris would be proud.”

Plus:

Ross Mason: flute
Alistair Strachan: cornet and electronics
Ryan Bollard: drums

Plus:

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.

Roger Turner: drums
Kazuhisa Uchihashi: electric guitar, electronics


Note: this is a Safehouse extra mid-month special and is on at Mad Hatters cafe, in the basement. 35 Montpelier Rd, Brighton, BN1 3BA

Roger Turner is a renowned improv drummer who will be familiar to Safehouse-goers for his wild show with Konk Pack a couple of years back.

Pioneering Japanese guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi has played with Otomo Yoshihide’s Ground Zero, and also turns his hand to daxophone and electronics.

Plus

HYSTERESIS

Charlotte CHW: body / movement
Jason Williams: saxophone

Jason Williams is known for his sometimes blood-spattered experiments with electric guitars and panes of glass. Charlotte CHW makes visceral performance art. Together they form the new duo Hysteresis, and they describe it thusly:

“Static and kinetic abstract formations. Body-object relations. Stage as palette, Tableau Vivant noise constructions. Contact / instant composition. Shared electronic signal generation. Auto-destruction. Trigger objects. Reaction cues.”

Plus

More to be announced!

Alan Tomlinson: trombones
Dave Tucker: guitar
Phil Marks: drums


A welcome return of the hugely entertaining trombone virtuoso with ex-Fall guitarist Dave Tucker and Mancunian drummer Phil Marks.

“He can make the trombone sound like frustrated elephants courting or like the finish at Brands Hatch.” – Melody Maker

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Painiak

James Parsons: drums
Daniel Spicer: percussion, voice

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The Wildcard Quartet
Dave Allen: electric guitar
Peter Pick: saxophone
Monty Oxymoron: keyboard / percussion
Clive Craske: percussion

Safehouse takes a break in the summer. There is an open session at the start of September, and a gig later that month.

The main event we are involved in for September however is Fort Process – an all-day festival of sound and art set in Newhaven Fort. Safehousers involved include Gus Garside performing his new piece Sleepwalkers, with a nine-piece strings ensemble; Alistair Strachan, who is part of the organising team; Annie Kerr, performing her new composition Fourfleckflock; and more besides.

Check out the whole line-up – it includes some leading improvisors: John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble, Chris Cutler, Geoff Leigh, along with acclaimed sound artists, talks, films and more!

http://fortprocess.co.uk

Kjetil Jerve: piano
Andreas Wildhagen: drums
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø: trombone

Think of Scandinavian jazz and two extremes come to mind – the meandering, softly intoned lines of players such as Arve Henriksen, Jan Garbarek and Nils Petter Molvaer on the one hand, and the fierce, thrusting improv of Paal Nilssen-Love and Mats Gustafsson on the other. Norway’s Lana Trio clearly like both of these things and in their music they attempt to find a delicate balance between intense, free jazz and exploration of more open-ended and non-idiomatic free improvisations.

The three musicians began to play together after meeting at Sund Folk college in 2007. Trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø explores both the brassy and boisterous side of the trombone and its microscopic and electronic sound possibilities, and he brings both elements into play with the trio. Together with pianist Kjetil Jerve and drummer Andreas Wildhagen the trio explore ways in which parameters like density, speed, duration and volume can be stretched (or compressed) to create different possibilities for interplay between the three musicians.

Their music moves in several, contrasting directions. Between abstract sound-oriented experiments, exploration of loose pulses along with dense and energetic interplay. Its level of energy is much higher than most other experimental Norwegian outfits who opt to follow the Sofa Music school of minimal and static improvisations, including Nørstebø’s own As Deafness Increases. The experimental side does not affect the fast and intuitive interplay that this trio has solidified through years of playing together.

Tilt

Ron Caines: saxophones
Gus Garside: double bass
Dave Fowler: drums

Plus

The Wildcard Quartet

Safehouse and Spirit of Gravity are teaming up again – this time for an Oxjam all-dayer on Saturday 18th October.

There will be sets from I’m Dr Buoyant, Noteherder & McCloud, Nil, SafeGrav Orchestra, Broken Star and Ron Caines, Tidal Surge (Al Strachan and VV) and TR Agency.

Interspersed with these sets will be Wildcard Quartes made up of Safehouse members and regulars.

Come down and get an earful! The gig is at our usual Safehouse venue – Good Companions pub on Dyke Road.

This London based improvising trio formed in February 2012, playing their first gig in a church with a very beautiful and complex acoustic – they instantly felt there was great potential the configuration and have played regularly since. They enjoy the freedom afforded by the separate acoustic spaces of their instruments and their complimentary musical personalities to make a music full of vibrant interaction.

Their first CD is called Zubeneschamali and is available on Leo Records.

Tom Jackson is a highly accomplished clarinettist and saxophonist based in London and works in the fields of contemporary classical and free improvisation; performing throughout Europe and beyond.

Like Tom, guitarist Daniel Thompson is a key figure amongst the up and coming generation of improvisers in London. Following a life changing period of study with legendary guitarist John Russell he now performs regularly in London and Europe and is an important organiser of concerts.

Roland Ramanan is one of the most highly regarded trumpet players on the London improvised music scene and has performed with Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann.

Plus

Gus Garside: double bass
Annie Kerr: violin
Kev Moore: electronics

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Wildcard Quartet

Warrior Squares

Paul Gardner: electronics
Geoff Leigh: flute, sax & electronics
James Weaver: electronics
Nick Weekes: stick, bass & random objects

Warrior Squares have been making improvised music together since 2009 and are based in Hastings & St Leonards-on-Sea. They are currently putting the finishing touches to their first collection of studio recordings.

All members are often busy working on various other projects and collaborations. Geoff was a member of Henry Cow, has recently been in Japan playing with The Artaud Beats and also did a show with Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple. Nick records as Ted Versicolor, plays bass with the band thismachine and has collaborated on a wide range of art, film and dance projects. Paul records as Idle Potentiate, hsk71 and The Astral Lodge. James records as Saxon Chambers, has co-written music for dance films and promotes the AxonoxA series of irregular events in St.Leonards-on-Sea.

www.warriorsquares.co.uk

Plurals

Daniel W J Mackenzie: guitar / noise
Dave Hamilton-Smith: voice / objects


Plurals are an improv/noise/drone/psychedelic group formed in 2007 who build patiently layered frequencies into unnerving crescendos of volume. All performances and recordings are fully improvised, using guitar, synths and keys, vocals, tape machines, CB radio and various reed and stringed instruments.

plurals-drone.bandcamp.com

Simon Mclennan

Two films by Simon Mclennan, with live soundtracking by Simon, Rebecca Askew and Paul Gardner.

Glass Flesh Kiss (Super 8 mm film, 2012, UK, Dir. Simon Mclennan)

“A series of automatic charcoal drawings of semi-abstract figures animated on super 8mm film. Recordings of speech reversed and cut up to produce a meaningless, yet recognisably human counterpoint to the movements and shapes on the film.”

Live soundtrack with improvising vocalist Rebecca Askew.

The Visitors (Super 8 mm film, 2012, UK, Dir. Simon Mclennan)

“An experimental documentary, edited in camera, depicting the sketch books and writings of the artist, in the context in which they were created i.e. the home of the artist.”

simonmclennan.blogspot.co.uk/p/films.html

Plus

The Wildcard Quartet

Noel Taylor: clarinet + bass clarinet
Tom Wheatley: double bass
Andrew Lisle : drums
Satoko Fukuda: violin


Clarinetist Noel Taylor last performed at Safehouse two years ago with the Italian group Heimweh – it’s good to welcome hime back with Trio Rewind. Noel explains the name thus:

“Why ‘rewind’? Because we have a willingness to look back as well as forward. And a willingness to inspect and reflect on how we work together. We try different approaches of playing – sometimes very abstract, sometimes a little melodic, sometimes with a reference to jazz chords or rhythms, sometimes playing in parallel to each other, sometimes with a free jazz feel, or sometimes touching rhythmic patterns from different types of popular music : folk, Latin American etc. – and often – layering more than one of these things together.”

In this version the Trio are joined by improvising violinist Satoko Fukuda, who used to be a regular at Safehouse back when it was based at The Open House.

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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. Recent shows 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.

Plus

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.

Mick Beck: tenor sax, bassoon and whistles
Anton Hunter: guitar
Johnny Hunter: drums


The recent Discus CD put out by Mick Beck’s trio emphatically shows why threesomes are his favourite means of creating dynamic music and performance. The partnership of his experience and power with the younger talented Hunter brothers is an exciting combination.

They easily span free music and free jazz, even making incursions into the wild west and middle European fantasies. The group was formed about two years ago and immediately caught the attention of critics and audiences:

“Saxophonist Mick Beck has been a fixture on the Sheffield free music scene since the early 1980s, but in this trio with the two younger Hunter brothers he sounds more like a denizen of some imaginary Chicago. His tenor darts from chatterbox quack to exasperated wail on the pugnacious “Hunting for Metal”, but he’s more playful on the longer tracks, exploring whistles, nose flute, and a rudely blurting bassoon. The guitar sharpens from soft pedal swells to tightly twanging pings, while the drums sketch a needle-sharp metallic pointillism of tinkling clatter-splat. Agressive when it needs to be, but comfortable winding down into unhurried, meandering humour, it sounds like a miniature Art Ensemble at play.” – Daniel Spicer, The Wire, 2014

“…truly mind-blowing, ranging between a cardiac arrest, epileptic fit and a nervous breakdown. The trio are extremely tight, threatening to unravel before skilfully coming back into sync. There is some jaw-dropping guitar work and Mick is a maestro on the saxophone, the music oscillating between anger and desolation.” – Rob Aldam, Now Then Magazine Oct 2013

PLUS

In Threads
James Parsons: drums
Verity Spott: cello
Daniel Spicer: trumpet, blowy things and percussion

In Threads is a new trio featuring members of Paniak, Bolide, Four Manatees, Binnsclagg and West Hill Blast Quartet, with an album forthcoming from Beartown records.

PLUS

Wildcard Quartet:

Z*qhygoem: guitar and electronics
Sara Jane Glendinning: clarinet
Gregg McKella: clarinet
Clive Craske: percussion

Mark Sanders: drums and percussion
Yoni Silver: bass clarinet
Tom Wheatley: double bass

Image: Andrew Putler

Mark Sanders has been described as “the most exciting, original and overwhelmingly powerful drummer alive” (Steve Reynolds, Jazz Corner) and his precise and propulsive drumming has graced projects with Evan Parker, Jah Wobble, Broadcast, Christian Marclay, Matthew Shipp, John Butcher, Roswell Rudd, Henry Grimes and Otomo Yoshihide.

Yoni Silver sprang from Israel’s tiny free improv and indie scene, and is now based in London. He has played with all sorts of people – Stephen O’Malley, Ghédalia Tazartès, Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides, Mazen Kerbaj and Crank Sturgeon to name a few.

Double bassist Tom Wheatley makes his second 2015 appearance at Safehouse on this night – we’re hoping he’ll be sitting in his favourite chair when we arrive.

PLUS

Dylan Nyoukis / Duncan Harrison
Nyoukis and Harrison use taped commentary, live vocal gibberings and other devices to create unsettling performances.

Image: Agata Urbaniak

PLUS

Xelís de Toro

“From sound to word to sound; a voice in an erratic journey.”

PLUS

The Wildcard Quartet: Ron Caines / Sue Craske / Al Strachan / Peter Pick

Note! This is a special co-promotion between Chocolate Monk and Safehouse. It’s happening on a different day and different venue from usual Safehouse night:

SATURDAY 25th APRIL at THE COWLEY CLUB
12 London Road, Brighton, BN1 4JA

Axel Dörner: trumpet
Roger Turner: drums and percussion
Dominic Lash: double bass

German-born trumpeter Axel Dörner has a unique style of playing based on unusual, often self-invented techniques that make use of breath and microscopic sounds as much as conventional note-playing. This short film of him playing on a bridge in Berlin gives a good introduction to his approach to music making:

Check out his extensive discography here as well.

Roger Turner is an absolute fiend on the drums – he has played a number of times at Safehouse, and every time it has been nothing short of mesmerising.

Dominic Lash has performed with musicians such as Tony Conrad, Joe Morris, Evan Parker and the late Steve Reid. His main projects include The Dominic Lash Quartet, The Set Ensemble and The Convergence Quartet.

CATHY HEYDEN & ROGIER SMAL DUO

International saxophone and drums duo. Connecting the dots between the vast Paris and Amsterdam music scenes. Wild jazz explorations with hints of noise, spirituals and punk.

 
Cathy Heyden – Autodidact sax improviser enjoys encounters with other musicians, dancers , comedians, poets and performers from all over the world such as Faust, Ganguru, Geoff Leigh, Jac Berrocal, Lost woman, Morihide Sawada, Uwe Bastiansen.
cathy.heyden.free.fr

Rogier Smal is a drummer who experiments with free percussion sounds. He plays with different groups, musicians and solo. Lately Rogier has been lucky enough to have been making sonic waves of liberty with gems like: Dagora, Marshall Allen, Dylan Carlson, David Birchall, Eugene Chadbourne, City Hands, Sunburned hand of the man, Mik Quantius, Daevid Allen, Nora Mulder, Johannes Lunds, Maria Bertel, Don McGreevy and many many more.
rogiersmal.blogspot.com

soundcloud.com/heyden-smal-duo

PLUS

Das Kiste Quintett
Five piece in scored confusion with vocals, objects & a box. With Dylan Nyoukis, Maureen Bourne, Duncan Harrison, Mel Potter and Robin Dickinson.

Ian Murphy Iain Paxon
Wheels of steel – Bicycle & Turntables