Intercontinental improvising quartet pairing local stalwarts Tony Bevan and Dominic Lash with American guitarist Joe Morris and Australian drummer Tony Buck for a super-charged encounter that combines passages of abstraction with no-holds-barred swing and telepathic interplay.

Tony Bevan (UK) – Soprano, Tenor and Bass Saxophones
Joe Morris (USA) – Electric Guitar
Dominic Lash (UK) – Double Bass
Tony Buck (AUS) – Drums


"It’s tempting (and not entirely inaccurate) to call Tony-Joe Bucklash a transcontinental supergroup of 21st century avant garde music. Brits Bevan and Lash, American Morris and Australian Buck are all major players on the world stage, experienced in out-sounds ranging from raucous free-jazz to minimal improv. and touching on points in between. Here, they strap in for a blazing live set (recorded with a slightly cavernous auditorium ambience) that rides the finest of lines between abstraction and all-out swing. Morris’s electric guitar has the kind of brittle, unadorned twang commonly associated with Jazz, which, coupled with the rhythm section’s fragmented, up-tempo bluster, gives the date a super-charged Charlie Christian set as imagined by Pablo Picasso. Morris and Bevan leave plenty of room for each other’s solo spots and when it’s the saxophonist’s turn to take the reins, his gruff tenor feels like a nod to Albert Ayler’s bar-walking days in roadhouse R&B bands. This should be required listening for anyone who thinks improvisation can’t shake its tail feathers." Daniel Spicer – JAZZWISE



TONY BEVAN / Soprano, Tenor and Bass Saxophones

Tony Bevan is an improvising virtuoso on Soprano and Tenor saxophones, but perhaps is best known for his work on the Bass saxophone, on which he is probably Britain’s only major modern performer (“the world’s greatest improvising Bass saxophonist” - Timeout). He is closely linked with the late Derek Bailey, with whom he appeared and recorded many times, as well as with Free Jazz legend Sunny Murray, who, along with Edwards, he has been playing with for more than a decade, releasing a number of award winning recordings and appearing in Antoine Prum’s award winning film “Sunny’s Time Now”. He recently curated with Prum a 3 day festival on British Improvised Music in Berlin, which will be released on film in late 2012, following more filming in the UK in early 2012 . His playing covers all bases from rock group Spiritualised (on whose new album he is a featured soloist) to Classical Avant-Garde composer Luc Ferrari, with the likes of Barre Phillips, Matthew Bourne, Joe Morris, Marc Ribot and Tony Buck of The Necks in between. He runs the Foghorn label.

“Bevan is already a giant of contemporary saxophone” - Point of Departure (U.S.A)

JOE MORRIS / Guitar

Joe Morris is one of the rare ones. A player who sets up great challenges for himself, and proceeds to meet them head on with resounding success. He plays the guitar like no one else; for comparative description, it's actually easier to refer to a horn player like Jimmy Lyons or Eric Dolphy than any other guitarist in the history of the instrument's existence. To be honest, the fretboard leaps unleashed to actualize the phrasing in his music often times seem superhuman.

For the last 30 years and over the course of well over 50 albums recorded since the early 80's, Morris has been creating a body of work that stands and walks with giants. It is his first-hand awareness of music's ability to transform a listener's mental state outside of the here and now, that has driven him to reach levels of virtuosity and a breadth of expression on guitar which are presently unsurpassed. The silk in the web he weaves is of the absolute finest grade. The web of music itself however, it's intricacies and continually revealing patterns, prompts true awe.

(Aum Fidelity)

"… a guitarist whose sound is completely his own, oscillating between deadpan sweetness and dangerous, shrapnel-like caprice." THE VILLAGE VOICE

www.joe-morris.com

TONY BUCK / drums

Tony is regarded as one of Australia's most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience across the globe. He has been involved in a highly diverse array of projects but is probably best known around the world as a member of the trio The Necks.

Following studies and early experience in Australia he spent time in Japan, where he formed PERIL with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki before relocating to Europe in the mid-nineties.

Some of the more high profile projects he has been involved with include the band Kletka Red, and touring and recording with, among others, The EX, The Exiles, and Corchestra, and involvement with most of the international improvisation and new music community and festivals.

He also creates video works for use with live music performance and has had pieces shown in Tokyo, Belfast, Berlin, New York and Sydney.

Current projects include long standing duos with Axel Doerner and Magda Mayas; New York based trios "Glacial" (with David Watson and Lee renaldo); "The Fell Clutch" (with Ned Rothenberg, Stomu Takeshi and Davd Tronzo); Berlin based "Heaven And" and "Asiplusband (with Asi Foecker and Andy Moor) and "project/TRANSMIT" (a guitar driven post-rock project based in Sydney and Berlin)

DOMINIC LASH / double bass

Dominic Lash has performed with Tony Conrad and Evan Parker; other currently active ensembles include a duo with Alex Ward, a trio with John Butcher and John Russell and The Convergence Quartet (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt and Alexander Hawkins). He also leads The Set Ensemble (an experimental music group mainly devoted to the work of composers from the Wandelweiser collective). Recent CD publications include work on the Another Timbre, Cathnor, Clean Feed and Psi labels. He was resident in New York for much of 2011, where he performed with musicians including Michael Pisaro, Fay Victor and Nate Wooley.

www.dominiclash.co.uk