Alex Ward's debut release, out on Derek Bailey's Incus! Having first played together at Derek's Company Week in the late 80s, the pair clicked on a punk tip, recorded this, and went on to found trio N.E.W. with with John Edwards, who have also enjoyed fantastic releases on Bo'Weavil & Dancing Wayang.  ---  Tracklisting: 1. 8th & HOW - 6:51 2. 6th & WHY - 6:15 3. 4th & WHO - 5:35 4. DOUBLE TROUBLE - 6:09 5. SHAKIN TONGUES - 10:50 6. SAW & CLARINET - 4:17 7. 1/4 TO 3 - 2:44 8. YA BOO, REEL & RUMBLE - 7:43 9. FIN - 5:23 --- Alex Ward / clarinet, alto saxophone Steve Noble / percussion --- Produced by Derek Bailey & Steve Noble. Post Production by John Haddon. Design by Steve Noble & Karen Brookman. Photos by Anne Clvin & Gerald Wright. Tracks 1 to 3 recorded at HOW studio, 11 March 1989; tracks 4 to 9 recorded at PING PONG studio 1 July 1990.

This week we’re pleased to be sharing a solo set from composer, improviser, performer and creative polymath, Alex Ward. Predominantly a guitar and clarinet player, Ward is regarded as one of the most technically accomplished performers of both free and composed music, and has recently played shows in the UK and US as part of the phenomenal This is Not This Heat. Having had his debut record put out on Derek Bailey's Incus, Ward has continued to play at an astonishing level ever since. His current work ranges from his formidably knotty guitar playing in avant-rock two piece Dead Days Beyond Help to his compositions-for-improvisers including Forebrace, the Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet, and his new ITEM series which returns to OTO in September.  After releasing his solo clarinet album in 2017 on the Weekertoft label, Ward's solo performances strive to bring acoustic and amplified playing into closer integration. '15.2.18' is a reminder of what a singular player he is, pulling open the full range of the instrument - from warm trills and woody overtones to overblown, amped up blowouts. --- Alex Ward / clarinet, guitar --- Tracklisting:1. 21:04 2. 5:08 --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on 15.2.2018 by Martyn Larcombe. Mixed by Alex Ward and mastered by James Dunn.

Tracklisting: 1 - Part one: Light Sleeper ; Part two: Trusted Domain [14:19] 2 - Part three: Fort ; Part four: Cold Trail [21:23] 3 - Part five: The Cusp [7:18] Alex Ward presents his second solo guitar album, conceived and developed over the first two months of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown and recorded on May 28th of that year. Unlike his freely improvised solo clarinet performances such as the Otoroku-released 15.2.18, Alex's solo guitar music integrates composed and improvised materials in a similar manner to that which he employs with his groups Items 4 and 10. His first solo guitar album Frames (released in March 2020 on Relative Pitch Records) consisted of six individual pieces encompassing a variety of approaches and moods. By contrast, the five new compositions on The Trade are dovetailed into a continuous 43-minute performance, the formal arc of which might not necessarily be best perceived by attempting to discern where each piece begins or ends (although a division into 3 tracks has been made for listener convenience). This seamlessness of approach is reflected in the high level of momentum and energy sustained across substantial amounts of the performance's duration, balanced out by the starker tone of the album's later portions. --  Alex Ward - guitar  -- Artwork design by Oliver Barrett

Tracklisting: 1 - Set 1 [21:28] 2 - Set 2 [23: 42] 3 - Set 3 [13:06]Back in May 2018, percussionist Steve Noble met bassist Farida Amadou, and have since developed their own high-energy and exploratory music together as a duo. Steve's rolling, detailed and pointillistic playing melds in symbiosis with Farida's smudged, deep, funked-up lyricism, creating a physical sound that tosses and tumbles across lightning-speed interplay. As a unit they've welcomed into the fray ex-Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and recently free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann, but for this set of trio releases they invite saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, clarinetist Alex Ward and bass clarnitest Yoni Silver for a series cooked up in our OTO Project Space.  Alex has played closely with Steve over the years, but nestles himself perfectly in Steve and Farida's world here, zig-zagging, dipping and diving with a set of complex melodic, harmonic and tonal gestures. -- Steve Noble - percussion Farida Amadou - electric bass Alex Ward - clarinet -- Cover artwork & mastering by Oliver BarrettCover photo by Laurent Orseau