Friday 1 April 2022, 8pm
A large improvising ensemble brought together by Caroline Kraabel; for this event it is made up of women and non-binary people; the group is also open to trans people.
Khabat Abas, cello
Sofia Vaisman-Maturana, cello,
Isidora Edwards, cello
Shama Rahman, sitar
Shima Kobayashi, chromatic harmonica
Emi Watanabe, flutes
Emily Shapiro, clarinets
Caroline Kraabel, alto sax (contributing a piece for improvisers)
Dee Byrne, alto sax (contributing a piece for improvisers)
Sue Lynch, tenor sax, flute, clarinet (contributing a piece for improvisers)
Cath Roberts, baritone sax
Charlotte Keeffe, trumpet
Rosa Theodora, piano
Beibei Wang, percussion (contributing a piece for improvisers)
Greta Pistaceci, theremin and electronics
Kirsty Ferguson-Lewis, voice (contributing a piece for improvisers)
Lara Jones, soprano saxophone
Livia Garcia will provide an animated film-score for improvisation
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ONe exciting thing about improvising as a person who is not a cis-gendered white man is working to find a new musical language, freeing oneself of the default assumptions built up over millennia of domination and oppression... this may produce musics and processes that sound wrong in some ways, or to some ears, but if we can conceive of them and allow ourselves to explore them it opens up novel, important and unfamiliar sound-worlds.
Improvising is also a way for us to be together safely in sound, life and communication while we search for these new languages... mutual respect; listening, uttering… knowing when we can be trusted NOT to listen, learning to listen in new ways... every timeoneplays there are new ways of hearing, as well as new things to hear.
Improvisation is also, by necessity, a big part of just being ‘other’ ... and otherness (that everyone has somewhere in their heart, in some tiny or huge place) is where we improvise from, because we have little choice but to seek...
We don’t want to be granted special privileges from which we’re currently excluded, but to re-make the world so all can be heard.
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All proceeds from tonight’s gig will be donated to two organisations supporting refugees and civil society in Ukraine:
https://www.donio.sk/kto-pomoze-ukrajine
Providing the basic necessities of life, plus legal and psychological assistance for people in Ukraine, and those who have left Ukraine for Slovakia, offering a network of contacts and assistance for them in their integration into the labour market or education.
https://kyivpride.org/en/
Providing humanitarian support to LGBTI people in Kyiv
More links for support for Ukraine and all refugees:
VOLUNTEER:
The Work Rights Centre in London is looking for anyone who can support with interpretation and translation into Ukrainian (or at least Russian!) to support them in their work helping Ukrainians in London and abroad.
https://www.workrightscentre.org/
If you are a multilingual person, translator, or interpreter eager to use your language skills to be of service to migrants and refugees (many different languages supported, work is online), please join the Respond Crisis Translation team: https://respondcrisistranslation.org/en/get-involved
Another well-established NGO, Translators Without Borders, seeks help for the Ukraine crisis from people with one of the following languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, and German. Sign up here
If you’d like to volunteer to provide free legal advice to Ukranians seeking to come to the UK, contact: ukrainevolunteers@freemovement.org.uk
DONATE:
This site is regularly updated with information on current needs, ways of helping and donating.
Come Back Alive is a Kyiv-based charity providing Ukraine’s Armed Forces with equipment, software, personal body protection and training. It’s confirmed as a genuine charity by several sources:
https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/
The needs of the thousands of people crossing the border into the Republic of Moldova are collected by the Moldovan authorities and provided to "Moldova for Peace". These goods and services are sought and identified in order to reach the refugees. Support their crowdfunding efforts here:
https://chuffed.org/project/moldova-for-peace-solidarity-for-ukraine
Support the detainees of the anti-war movement and the rule of law in Russia:
https://donate.ovdinfo.org/en
Support for Nigerians leaving Ukraine:
https://lnkj.in/p/nido/
UN High Commission for Refugees Ukraine emergency appeal:
https://donate.unrefugees.org.uk/ukraine-emergency/~my-donation?_cv=1
Choose love Ukraine appeal
With your donations we’ll be supporting projects (that meet our criteria) providing vital aid and services to those still in and fleeing Ukraine, including: emergency medical care, food, shelter, clothes, legal support, support for the LGBTQIA+ community and mental health support.
https://donate.chooselove.org/campaigns/ukraine-appeal/
The Kyiv Independent needs support to continue reporting on the ground from Ukraine:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kyivindependent-launch
In London, donations of clothes, bedding, toiletries, medicines and medical supplies, sanitary products, wind-up or solar torches and chargers, batteries, and other essentials can be dropped off at:
The White Eagle Club, 211 Balham High Road SW17 7BQ, Tues/Weds/Thurs 09h00-19h00 and Sundays 10h00-17h00.
Support for all refugees:
https://care4calais.org/
https://utopia56.org/
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/syria-emergency.html
ISIDORA EDWARDS is a Chilean cellist, improviser and composer, currently a PhD researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she is actively exploring the ways in which women shape their performative praxis in sound under patriarchal biases. As a soloist and in collaboration with artists from different disciplines and ensembles, she has been part of many international experimental music and contemporary dance festivals. Isidora holds a MMus in Creative Practice from Goldsmiths and graduated and as a music performer from the PUC Music Institute, Chile. She lives in London with her son Nicanor and is an ANID Becas Chile scholarship holder.
Beibei Wang is a uniquely vibrant percussion talent. With a background in both Classical and traditional Chinese percussion, she brings characteristic flair and dynamism to her performances, presenting repertoire as diverse as contemporary classical to free improvisation with equal elegance.
Beibei has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and lead the BBC Concert Orchestra on their 2018 China tour. She has appeared as soloist on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including the Barbican Centre, Elbphilharmonie, Grafenegg Festival, and Southbank Centre.
http://beibeimusic.com/
Cath Roberts is a musician, artist and organiser whose work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. The primary outlet for this is the band Sloth Racket, formed in 2015 by Cath on baritone saxophone and compositions, which has toured widely and released several albums. More recently, improvisation using live electronics and objects has led to a solo release plus the beginning of several new collaborations.
Cath has a long-standing duo with guitarist Anton Hunter (Ripsaw Catfish), as well as regular collaborations with Tullis Rennie, Benedict Taylor, Graham Dunning, Bill Thompson and others, and bandmate duties in several groups including Alex Ward’s Items 10 and 7, Madwort Sax Quartet and Article XI.
As an organiser, Cath has co-run LUME with Dee Byrne since 2013, producing concerts, tours and festivals and releasing music on their offshoot label Luminous. Tom Ward, Colin Webster and Cath organise BRÅK, an improvised music series taking place in Brockley, South East London. Cath’s visual work can be seen on many Luminous releases, Sloth Racket tour flyers and LUME publicity materials, and appeared in 2021 in the form of a giant, fragmented graphic score created for a hcmf// commission, And then the next thing you know.
Dee Byrne (alto sax) is a composer and improviser working in both jazz and experimental music (acoustic and electronic). Since 2019, explorating deeper into the area where structured, composed material meets with free improvisation, Dee came up with a bunch of new music, which has since been recorded with two ensembles: her new sextet Outlines, with an album on Whirlwind Records 2023); and UK/Swiss collaborative sextet MoonMot, with an album due for release on ENJA in 2023. Dee has been playing in mainland Europe as well as the UK, both with MoonMot and European quintet Ydivide (led by Swiss drummer Clemens Kuratle). She is also active with UK/Swiss trio Motherboard Pinball, long-standing duo electro-acoustic duo Deemer with Dutch sound artist Merijn Royaards; and with the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Since 2013 Dee has worked with improvising baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts under the Banner of LUME, a platform for improvised music based in London. Dee and Cath play in a regular duo and will be performing at the Summer Bummer Festival in Antwerp in August 2023.
Emily Suzanne Shapiro is a bass clarinetist and clarinetist dedicated to exploring and creating new music. Originally from Canada, Emily pursued her studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Academy of Music, Concordia University and the Domaine Forget academy. Emily has a special love for the sound and scope of bass instruments and constantly pushes the limits of what she can do on bass clarinet. Alongside performing contemporary music on bass clarinet, Emily is involved in many other musical endeavours. Composing and improvising are central to her career, and she has been an active performer of Balinese gamelan for 10 years and has also explored jazz, klezmer, rock and electroacoustics. She is always seeking out new artistic experiences to enrich and motivate her work.
She is a proud member of Duo Arasari, the London Improviser’s Orchestra, the Corner Quartet and Lila Cita and has performed all over London, including iklectik, Café Oto, Hundred Years Gallery, LSO St Luke’s, the Vaults festival, the Barbican and many more. She founded and curates the Mellifera arts platform, a monthly interdisciplinary arts performance event and the Lonely Impulse Collective, and online daily solo improvised music project.
Outside of music, Emily loves gardening, running, whisky and making friends with animals.
Emi Watanabe was born in Japan where she trained in traditional flutes. Emi plays three different types of traditional flutes – Ryuteki, Nohkan and Shinobue. She has been invited to perform with numerous musicians since she moved to the UK in 1995.
Rosa Theodora is a London-based musician who plays the piano, bass, synth and percussion. She recently graduated from SOAS University of London with an MA in Music in Development, and in 2016 she graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in English and Music. She is currently involved in a number of projects, including Paradise Yard Ensemble (electro-acoustic ensemble), Existential Dress (marimba punk duo) Noon Garden (psych-pop), Los Bravos (Peruvian psychedelic cumbia), and is also in the process of composing a piece to be featured on the Tour de Moon’s Moon Music EP, which will be transmitted to the moon and back using Earth-Moon-Earth technology.
As a concert artist of chromatic harmonica, Shima has played throughout Japan and abroad, pioneering a new repertoire for the chromatic harmonica since winning the world championship in 1995.
Since settling in the UK in 2003, in addition to her harmonica career, she has expanded her activities to include music education, workshops and improvisation projects.
shimaharmonica.com
Tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute and composition. Sue Lynch currently runs ‘The Horse Improvised Music Club’ with Adam Bohman, Hutch Demouilpied and Adrian Northover.Performs with Adam Bohman, Eddie Prevost, Richard Sanderson, Anna Homler, Steve Noble, Crystabel Riley, Caroline Kraabel and Sharon Gal.
In 2016 she formed, ‘Paradise Yard’, an electro acoustic ensemble, featuring women improvisers, performing at Iklectik, Cafe Oto and The ICA. In 2018, she performed at 3 Klange Tag Music &Word Festival, Switzerland with Hildegard Kleeb, at Womad BBC Stage and, Tusk Festival and Guess Who Festival with Psychedelic Afro Beat Sudanese band, The Scorpios. Solo performance at Pied Nu Festival, Le Havre 2019. Recent releases with FMR records with ‘Dial’, a quartet featuring, Sue Lynch, Dawid Frydyk, John Edwards and Dave Fowler and ‘Secant/Tangent’ (dxdy recordings) with Crystabel Riley and Nathan Moore.
https://suelynch.bandcamp.com/
"Love It All. Brilliant!"-Gilles Peterson
'The triumphant expression of a unique vision and inimitable sound' - Songlines 4* Review
'Imagine DeadCan Dance and Björk getting together in a folk club, to make jazzy trip-hop records...with sitars.’ Songwriting Mag
"The result is a wonderful, genre-bending opus, illustrating an artist confidently reaching new musical and storytelling heights. Shama comfortably takes her sitar out of the traditional context, demonstrating a versatility rarely heard. Shama is an artist who deserves attention; a storyteller who embraces artistic expression in all its forms"-Folk Radio
Sitarist/Singer/Composer, Actress/Poet and Neuroscientist of Creativity, Dr Shama Rahman has albums 'Let The Light In' (2020), 'Truth BeTold' (2018), 'Fable:Time' (2014).
Her albums modernise the Sitar, arranged centrally within layered harmonies, electronics soundscapes and complex grooves to showcase it in different genres and instrumentation...[more]
