Wednesday 22 June 2016, 6pm, OTO Project Space
An early evening celebrating improvised music. Julie Kjær has gathered a strong team of some of the most inventive and fearless improvisers from the London and UK improv scene. At this concert the duo constellation will be explored.
Cath Roberts / baritone sax
Tullis Rennie / trombone
Sylvia Hallett / violin, bicycle wheel and electronics.
Julie Kjær / altosax, flute & bass clarinet
Julie Kjær's edgy and thoughtful playing and ‘dark, otherworldly imagery’ (Jazzwise) has become increasingly evident around Europe, inhabiting ground between composition and free improv. Experimenting with extended techniques, sound and rhythm she pushes her instruments to their limits. She tours internationally with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and his Large Unit and she has toured internationally and recorded with Django Bates and StoRMChaser. Currently her main focus is on her trio, Julie Kjær 3, with bass player John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble. They’ve just released their debut album on 14th March '16 on Clean Feed. Julie also plays with London Improvisers Orchestra and is a leader and side woman of several other English and Danish ensembles. In 2014 she was chosen to be a Sound and Music “New Voice” Artist and was chosen as a featured composer by the British Music Collection.
Sylvia Hallett is a composer and improviser, working with instruments (violin, hurdy-gurdy, saw,) and objects (bowed bicycle wheel, bowed branches etc) alongside simple live sound processing. She has worked extensively with dancers and in theatre, most recently with choreographer Miranda Tufnell on a tour of outdoor site specific venues in Northumberland. Recent albums: Tree Time and Bolt and Latch.
http://www.sylviahallett.co.uk/
Cath Roberts is a musician, artist and organiser whose work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. The primary outlet for this is the band Sloth Racket, formed in 2015 by Cath on baritone saxophone and compositions, which has toured widely and released several albums. More recently, improvisation using live electronics and objects has led to a solo release plus the beginning of several new collaborations.
Cath has a long-standing duo with guitarist Anton Hunter (Ripsaw Catfish), as well as regular collaborations with Tullis Rennie, Benedict Taylor, Graham Dunning, Bill Thompson and others, and bandmate duties in several groups including Alex Ward’s Items 10 and 7, Madwort Sax Quartet and Article XI.
As an organiser, Cath has co-run LUME with Dee Byrne since 2013, producing concerts, tours and festivals and releasing music on their offshoot label Luminous. Tom Ward, Colin Webster and Cath organise BRÅK, an improvised music series taking place in Brockley, South East London. Cath’s visual work can be seen on many Luminous releases, Sloth Racket tour flyers and LUME publicity materials, and appeared in 2021 in the form of a giant, fragmented graphic score created for a hcmf// commission, And then the next thing you know.
Tullis Rennie is a composer, electronic musician, improvising trombonist, sound artist, field recordist, and DJ. He currently lives in London. Recent activity has included a commission for the Vonnegut Collective (premiered at the RNCM, Manchester), two residencies at the UFRJ in Rio de Janeiro, and an hour-long broadcast specially composed for ResonanceFM. He is a founder member of Insectotròpics, a multi award winning audio-visual collective based in Barcelona. He has appeared as trombonist with with Anton Hunter’s Article XI and Belfast-based ensemble Foirmfada. His has been published in Organised Sound and Leonardo Music Journal. Tullis is a Visiting Lecturer at City University London. He recently completed a PhD in Composition at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.
