Steve Noble (drums) and Alex Ward (Clarinet) have been playing in duo for over 20 years- performing in clubs and festivals throughout Britain and Europe, most recently at the INCUS FESTIVAL, CALLING OUT OF CONTEXT (ICA), and regular gigs at BOAT-TING.
Their music - always totally improvised - veers from abstraction to full on swing- and everything that falls between! Check out the video below for an idea of the kind they get up to.
They were featured in the TV serialisation of
Derek Baileys book ’Improvisation, its nature and practise’.
STEVE NOBLE
Leads the groups N.E.W, DECOY, 4TET (Yarde/Robinson/Edwards), Wilkinson/Edwards/Noble and
the trio with Lol Coxhill and John Edwards. He is also the drummer in Aethenor, Badland, Duck Baker 4, SFQ and Orphy Robinsons’ Spontaneous Cosmic Raw Xtra.
He has also performed with Derek Bailey, Lee Konitz, Bow Gamelan Ensemble, the Kino Club and the Mancini Project plus recent concerts have seen him play with Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Matthew Shipp, Jason Spaceman and Paul Dunmall.
Noble has been MD for the Spanish dance company MAL PELO since 199
ALEX WARD
Born in 1974- he has been active in free improvisation since being
given his first gig by Derek Bailey in 1987. He has played in bands led
by Simon Fell and Eugene Chadbourne and leads his own quartet
featuring Fell, Noble and Luke Barlow (with whom he runs the Copepod label).
Alex released his first solo clarinet recording ‘Cremated Thoughts’ in 2008 on the Treader label.
Since 2000, he has been increasingly performing on the guitar. He co-led the rock band Camp Blackfoot and in 2005 released a solo album of songs entitled ‘Hapless Days’.
He currently writes the material (as well as playing the guitar and singing) in the two piece rock band Dead Days Beyond Help with drummer Jem Doulton.
GUILLAUME VILTARD
Viltard grew up North of the Ivory Coast in a wild countryside with almost no music - but many natural sounds. Back in France at the age of ten, he was seized by a compulsive desire of music, listening to many sorts of music, and especially free jazz, to the great displeasure of his brothers who never appreciated Cecil Taylor for breakfast.
Viltard gave his first improvised bass solo in 2003 and has since played with many artists of the French improv’ scene, including Heddy Boubaker, Nusch Werchowska, Isabelle Duthoit, Alexandre Kittel, Catherine Jauniaux, Jean Pallandre, Mathias Pontévia, Etienne Brunet, Soizic Lebrat, Sébastien Coste, etc.
Since relocating to London, Viltard has become a vital part of the scene here, bringing his lyrical and expansive playing to dates with Roger Turner, John Russell, Lol Coxhill, Eddie Prevost & the London Improvisers Orchestra as well as the new generation of improvisers that includes Sebastian Lexer, Seymour Wright, Ross Lambert, Philip Somervell, Paul May, I-Chin Li and others. He also plays in the trio 'Tree house', and in another trio with Grundik Kasyansky (electronics) and philadelphian saxophonist Jack Wright.
