Tuesday 7 October 2025, 7.30pm
Across two decades of restless experimentation, the Chicago trio Haptic (Steven Hess, Joseph Clayton Mills, Adam Sonderberg) has earned a reputation for meticulously assembled recordings that are complemented by unpredictable, often riveting live performances. Consistently blurring the line between different genres and disciplines, Haptic’s practice has expanded to include collaborations with dancers and filmmakers, soundtracks, installations, and unique site-specific performances, and they are as likely to be found performing in a gallery or museum as a bar or concert hall.
Throughout the fall of 2025, the group will stage a series of unique events to celebrate their 20th anniversary, beginning in Chicago and continuing with a short tour of the UK. In concert, the trio is frequently joined by a different rotating fourth member, and here they will be accompanied by Mark Wastell (making a rare appearance on double bass).
“Indescribably beautiful” – The Wire
“Mesmerizing, totally engrossing” – Boomkat
“Sheer artistry, plain and simple” – Decoder
Mark Wastell is a versatile improvising musician who has played a central role in the British improvised music scene for thirty years. He has performed and recorded extensively and his varied resume includes projects with Derek Bailey, Phil Durrant, John Butcher, Lasse Marhaug, Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell, Burkhard Beins, John Tilbury, Mattin, Tony Conrad, Evan Parker, Tim Barnes, Bernhard Günter, Keith Rowe, John Zorn, Peter Kowald, Joachim Nordwall, Otomo Yoshihide, David Toop, Max Eastley, Hugh Davies, Julie Tippetts, Alan Skidmore, Mike Cooper, Chris Abrahams, Stewart Lee, Clive Bell, Arild Andersen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Maggie Nicols, Will Gaines, Charlotte Keeffe, Thomas Lehn, Thurston Moore and David Sylvian.
Seth Cooke describes most of his practice as “filling noise with space”, adopting an accidental turn of phrase coined by his daughter. This side of his work attempts to say something useful about “place” by snookering himself via broadband noise, scavenged data, media artefacts, graph theory, or his flimsy strawman arguments about other artists. The other side of his work involves snookering himself in performance through bloody-minded rules-based adherence to feedback, resonance, routing or mathematical processes that he can barely control, if he can control them at all. Sometimes he escapes through luck, sometimes it’s all just excruciatingly high effort/low reward.
“I saw Seth Cooke play tonight and he did something I’ve been trying to capture for a while. Completely pure music that does one thing but that one thing does everything. Whole, super-nutritious music in one tone-stew.” – Matt Loveridge (MXLX, Knife Library, Gnar Hest, Fairhorns)
“… richly investigated, purposeful work looking into the sonic artifacts of the unresolved dissonances in constellations of history, politics, and media. Through his no-input field recording technique, Cooke brings into consideration the materiality of the inscription devices, a sort of sonic ghost hunting that rewards investigative listening.” – Derek Baron (Reading Group)
