Monday 8 January 2018, 7.30pm
Rare duo set from Japanese musician and artist Ken Ikeda – who has composed and recorded for David Lynch and Moriko Mori amongst others – and English percussionist Eddie Prévost, the seminal figure of free improvised music since the 1960s.
Support comes from Allum, Charbin and Kanngiesser – all London-based musicians that have played together for a number of years - the last time as a trio at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. While they are coming from a classical and jazz background, their music has moved a long way from the historical piano/cello/violin relationship. Instead, it is driven by a shared investigation of elemental sounds that are woven into spacious, complex and joyful music unresting on the edge of definition.
A founder-member of AMM (1965-2022)
“[Eddie Prévost’s] is one of the greatest metallurgists that music has produced. […] sparks delicately arcing through the air, of slow lava ingesting its surroundings, of the shifting grind of tectonic plates across each other, of the rustle and glint of a firebird darting between shadows, and of ore smashing into the surface of the earth; but perhaps this language is overwrought: all that needs to be remarked upon is Prévost's industry, his diligence.”
Nathan Moore — liner note to AMM’s ‘Indúsria’
Matchless Recordings mrcd105.
But beyond this work Prévost has also maintained a relationship with the jazz drum-kit.
“His free drumming flows superbly making perfect use of his formidable technique, but his most startling feature is his stylelessness. It’s as though there has never been an Elvin Jones or a Max Roach.” - review of a set with saxophonist Lou Gare, Melody Maker (27.03.1975)
“Prévost, meanwhile, was simply miraculous; it was fascinating to watch him and to compare his approach with that of a Kern or a Nilssen-Love. I can only say that he was possessed of an uncanny, burning intentness that navigated the ensemble through passages of stark, sculpted beauty, grave concentration and full-on, bristling energy.”
Blue Tomato, Vienna 2012. In concert with Marilyn Crispell and Harrison Smith. Richard Rees-Jones
“An excellent release from one of the finest percussionists around, jazz or otherwise.” review of Prévost’s solo CD ‘Collider’
Matchless Recordings mrcd106 – Brian Olewnic, Squidsear (2022).
“Relentlessly innovative yet full of swing and fire.” – Morning Star
Ken Ikeda is a composer and performer, born in Tokyo. He creates unique electric improvisation by a delicate combination of sine waves. After studying at Berklee College of Music, he has exhibited sound art and visual installations around the world. He has released five solo albums and collaborated on albums with David Toop, Eddie Prevost, John Russell, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Chihei Hatakeyama and many other improvising musicians; Also he has collaborated with, amongst others, visual artist Mariko Mori, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Darren Almond; and composed and recorded for film maker David Lynch. He released CD albums from Touch, Spekk, Baskaru, White Paddy Mountain and Home Normal. Ken Ikeda currently lives and works in London, UK.
Jennifer Allum is a violinist who improvises and plays experimental music.
While she was a post graduate student at Goldsmiths, London she began to attend Eddie Prevost's weekly improvisation workshops where she met musicians like Ross Lambert, Ute Kanngiesser, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga and Daichi Yoshikawa. She also began working with composers such as Christian Wolff, Tom Johnson, Michael Pisaro and Michael Parsons around the same time too.
More recently she has played and recorded with The Seen, including performances of John Stevens 'For Sake Of Joy Of Study Of Oneself Together' featuring Stewart Lee as narrator.
She has a number of other recordings available, and her most recent is with John Butcher, Eddie Prevost and Ute Kanngiesser on Ftarri records. Other releases are available from Matchless Recordings.
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
Marjolaine Charbin is a French pianist performer based in London. After studying sound engineering and later jazz piano at the conservatoire in Brussels, she has developed a practice rooted in improvisation. Her sonic palette moves fluidly between prepared and unprepared piano: inside-piano techniques, objects, contact microphones and voice merge with the keyboard.
She has collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Eddie Prévost, Ute Kanngiesser, John Butcher, Phil Durrant, Bill Thompson, Artur Vidal, Chris Cundy, Angharad Davies, Grundik Kassiansky, Emmanuelle Waeckerlé, Dominic Lash, Maggie Nichols… as well as with dancers, theatre and film.
Drawing from her practice of musical, sonic and philosophical fragments that attracts her attention, Marjolaine approaches performance as a site of discovery and social reconstruction.
Latest releases include, on matchless recordings, a duet with Eddie Prévost “The Cry of a Dove Announcing Rain” and “The Art of Noticing”, with John Butcher, Ute Kanngiesser and Eddie Prévost, which was listed amongst the 10 best albums of the year 2023 by the New York City Jazz Review. She received a grant from the Arts Council England to develop her creative practice in 2022.
https://www.marjolainecharbin.com
https://www.instagram.com/marjolainecharbin/
https://marjolainecharbin.bandcamp.com
