An evening of intricately improvised tension, with German pianist Magda Mayas and Australian clarinet player Laura Altman returning to Cafe OTO following their standout set with Phil Durrant in 2012, performing in their trio with Sydney accordionist Monika Brooks as Great Waitress.

GREAT WAITRESS

“Multiplicity emerges in Great Waitress through virtuosic collective listening, and creates a unique lucidity. This is intricate, complex music – but … they can also converge to make the monumental.”- Rafa Segura, Modisti



MAGDA MAYAS / piano

Magda Mayas is a pianist living in Berlin.

Developing a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage.

Alongside the piano, Mayas has recently been performing on a Clavinet/Pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices.

The last time Magda played at Cafe Oto was in a stunning trio with Tony Buck and John Butcher and we're very pleased to see her here again.

LAURA ALTMAN / clarinet

Laura Altman is a clarinetist, improviser and composer, born and based in Sydney. She has been an important voice on the Sydney improvised music scene since 2007, playing with groups such as The Splinter Orchestra and Prophets, and collaborating with Australian improvisers including Jim Denley, Dale Gorfinkel, Monica Brooks and Peter Farrar. Laura has toured Australia and Europe with a range of projects including the trio Great Waitress, featuring Monica Brooks on accordion and Berlin-based pianist Magda Mayas. Laura graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a B.Mus Composition (Honours) in 2011, and composes both instrumental and electro-acoustic music.

lauraaltman.net

MONIKA BROOKS / accordion

Monica Brooks models compositions and improvisations on piano, computer, and accordion. As a performer she has collaborated with musicians such as Jim Denley, Dale Gorfinkel, Herminone Johnson, Chris Abrahams, Robbie Avenaim, Kraig Grady, Richard Nuns, Eugene Chadbourne, and Joe Talia. Long-term projects have toured nationally and internationally, including Great Waitress with Laura Altman & Magda Mayas, West Head Project, with Dale Gorfinkel & Jim Denley ; and Embedded quartet. Monica’s sound installation works are often heavily inspired by the technology and usage of radio transmission. Brooks also fronts the eight-piece ensemble, Electronic Resonance Korps, developing compositions for multiple computer performance. Other projects include co-presenting/producing Shepard Tones on Eastside Radio 89.7FM, and currently undertaking a Masters at the University of Western Sydney.



www.softpotatoes.net

MARK SANDERS (solo)

Mark Sanders has been acclaimed as “the most exciting, original and overwhelmingly powerful drummer alive” (Steve Reynolds, Jazz Corner) and is one of the key figures of European free improvisation, unostentatiously experimental, never using exactly the same kit twice and always seeking out new sonic possibilities and musical potential, his precise and propulsive drumming has graced projects with, to name but a few, Evan Parker, Jah Wobble, Broadcast, Agusti Fernandez, John Butcher, Roswell Rudd, and Otomo Yoshihde Axel Dörner to Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Brötzmann and Matthew Shipp.

"ubiquitous, diverse and constantly creative, drummer Mark Sanders always outdoes himself, whether playing with restraint or erupting like a dynamo." - Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery. NY