Wednesday 30 January 2019, 7.30pm
The programme will include two sets
Set 1.
- Jaap Blonk - solo ‘Vibrant Islands’ 25m
- Beibei Wang- solo 15m
- Jack Goldstein with ‘Herethere’ film by Blanca Regina & Pierre Bouvier patron - 7m
Set 2.
- John Edwards- solo 15m
- Jaap Blonk & Steve Beresford - duo 15m
- Jaap, John and Beibei - trio 25m
“Vibrant Islands”, an acoustic voice performance by Jaap Blonk -
Vibrant Islands" is a cycle of 9 pieces for acoustic vocal performance, made in 2015. Each movement consists of a number of "islands" containing phonetic signs, many of which were invented by himself. For many years he has been working on a personal extension of the International Phonetic Alphabet: BLIPAX (BLonks IPA eXtended). In the performance the islands can be visited in any order, and repeatedly as well. In every score of the cycle the coastal lines have a different form, for instance angular, crenelated, straight or rounded, according to the prevalent sound character of the movement.
‘herethere’ film by Blanca Regina and Pierre Bouvier Patron live Soundtrack by Jack Goldstein
And in the second half a different combination of performances by Jaap, Bei Bei, John and Steve.
Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Netherlands) is a self-taught composer and poet. His unfinished studies in mathematics and musicology mainly created a penchant for activities in a Dada vein, as did several unsuccessful jobs in offices and other well-organized systems.
In the early 1980s he discovered the power and flexibility of his voice, and set out on a long-term research of phonetics and the possibilities of the human voice. At present, he has developed into a specialist in the creation and performance of sound poetry, supported by a powerful stage presence. He performs and gives workshops worldwide on a regular basis. With the use of live electronics the scope and range of his work has acquired a considerable extension. From his sound poetry scores he developed an independent body of visual work, which has been published and exhibited.
Steve Beresford has been a central figure in the British and international spontaneous music scenes for over fifty years, freely improvising on piano, objects, electronics and other things with people like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink and John Zorn. Long-standing groups have included Alterations (with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack), The Melody Four (with Lol Coxhill and Tony Coe, both RIP) and London Improvisers Orchestra.
He has written songs, composed for large and small ensembles, and scored short films, feature films, TV shows and commercials. He was part of the editorial teams of ‘Musics’ and ‘Collusion’ magazines, writes about music in various contexts, and was a senior lecturer in music at the University of Westminster.
Steve has worked with Christian Marclay on various Marclay mixed media pieces. He has also worked with The Slits, Najma Akhtar, Stewart Lee, Ivor Cutler, Prince Far-I, Alan Hacker, Tania Chen, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Faradena Afifi, Blanca Regina, Ray Davies, Mandhira De Saram, The Flying Lizards, Zeena Parkins, The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Ilan Volkov, Rachel Musson, Vic Reeves, Lore Lixenberg, Valentina Magaletti and many others.
Beresford has an extensive discography - around 500 releases - as performer, arranger, free-improviser, composer, conductor and producer. He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn award for composers in 2012.
In 2021, Bloomsbury published a book by Andy Hamilton: ‘Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise: Conversations with Steve Beresford’.
In 2022, Siglio published the book ‘Call and Response’, which partnered photographs by Christian Marclay with notated improvisations by Beresford.
John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Louis Moholo, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke, Jonny Greenwood and countless others.
"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz." - Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
Genre-defying percussionist Beibei Wang is an acclaimed international virtuoso percussionist with both a Chinese and British musical education background. Beibei has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the classical music world, receiving international praise for her performances. She was listed in the top 50 Chinese musicians in the “Sound of East” project by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, as well as endorsed by the Arts Council, England receiving an Exceptional Talent visa from the British Government. Following a successful world tour, Beibei now leads a traditional Chinese percussion programme at SOAS, University of London. In 2020, Beibei was named Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Most recently Beibei was appointed as percussion professor of the Crossover Studies Faculty at London Performing Academy of Music. www.beibeimusic.com
Spanish interdisciplinary artist, audiovisual designer and educator based in London, working across live performance, projection art, installation, sound and film. For over two decades she has developed spontaneous composition systems in which image, light and sound merge into a single field, drawing on traditions of free improvisation and expanded cinema. Her collaborators include Matt Black of Coldcut, Leafcutter John, Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Benedict Taylor, Mandhira de Saram and Laetitia Sadier. She is founder and Director of Unpredictable Series CIC and a member of LAC at Cruce Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid. She holds a PhD cum laude in Audiovisual Performance Art from URJC Madrid, and her work has been supported by Arts Council England, the British Council, Sound & Music and the Francis Chagrin Award.
Visual artist based in London, working between digital video and analogue film and exploring the boundaries between them through moving image works, performances and installations, with a background in experimental film, expanded cinema and documentary. He presents video screenings and performances both solo and in collaboration. His work has been shown at L'Atelier MTK in France, Cruce and Proyector Festival in Spain, Café OTO and Iklectik in London, Sowieso in Berlin, Zaal100 in Amsterdam, and in Mexico.
https://www.studiopierre.art
JACK GOLDSTEIN makes Experimental Lo-fi Power Pop/Emo. His latest record, entitled Sandwiches, is a Brian Wilson-esque song-cycle set in an imagined interzone near the Oxford that Goldstein grew up in.
His previous record, Tonic Of Wilderness, was described as “a quiet triumph; a….collage of sound taking in so many moods, emotions and samples that it’s hard to keep track”.
He is also a musicologist and academic at Goldsmiths University, and was awarded the Bob Gilmore Prize for Outstanding Work in Musicology for his dissertation on the influence of politics and brass bands. He has written on pop, experimental and improvised music.
