26–27 August 2026
John Brennan is a percussionist and sound artist based in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. As an improviser his practice is centred on collaboration and collective music-making. He is a founding member of free improv psych quintet EarthBall, and has collaborated with artists including Farida Amadou, Steve Beresford, Chris Corsano, John Dieterich, Raven Chacon, Bill Orcutt, Andy Moor, Kjetil Møster, Alexander Moskos, Karen Ng, Greg Saunier, Victoria Shen among others. Parallel to his music practice, Brennan works as a recording, editing, mixing, and mastering engineer. He has contributed to numerous releases, including all of EarthBall’s records (Upset! The Rhythm), Buzzing With Rumours (Mint Records), his duo release with Chris Corsano, as well as many others.
For this two-night residency, Brennan brings together long-time collaborators and new musical connections from Canada, the UK, and Europe. Rooted in improvisation and artistic exchange, the residency grows out of relationships developed through years of touring, recording, and performance.
Across two evenings, Brennan will perform in a series of different ensemble configurations with invited guests Steve Beresford, Alexander Moskos, Mariam Rezaei, Farida Amadou, Karen Ng, and Jeremy Van Wyck.
Working entirely through improvisation and spontaneous composition, these artists will develop new musical relationships in real time, creating a unique experience for both performers and audiences across the residency.
FARIDA AMADOU is a self-taught bass player based in Brussels, Belgium. The electric bass has been her main instrument since 2011. In 2013, she has started to play a lot of different musical genres, including blues, jazz and hip-hop; soon she started to dive into improvised music, and was rapidly identified by local collectives and musicians. After a year (2017) as bass player in Belgian punk band Cocaine Piss, Farida decided to focus on her solo improvisation practice and collaborations with musicians such as Steve Noble, Thurston Moore, Peter Brötzmann, Terrie Ex, Lukas Koening, Pat Thomas and Julien Desprez, among others, occasionally also featuring with groups such as Jerusalem in My Heart and Moor Mother.
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.
Alexander Moskos is a Canadian guitarist, improviser, composer, and sound artist based in Montreal. He is widely known for his solo project Drainolith as well as for his work as guitarist in the influential avant-garde group AIDS Wolf. Through Drainolith, Moskos has developed a distinctive approach combining experimental song structures, electronics, modified consumer electronics, analog synthesizers, noise, and improvisation. Releases under the Drainolith name have received international critical attention from publications including Pitchfork, The
Wire, Time Out New York, and Dusted Magazine. His work has been released on labels including American Tapes, NNA, Deception Island, Wagon, Psychic Handshake, and Spectrum Spools. Alongside his solo work, Moskos has collaborated with John Brennan, Raven Chacon, Wolf Eyes among others while remaining active within free improvisation, noise, and experimental music communities internationally. He has performed at festivals including Mutek, POP Montreal, and Neon Marshmallow and currently serves as Director of the independent Montreal radio station CKUT.
Toronto-based improviser Karen Ng has established herself as a unique musical force nationally and internationally. Whether encountering her on tour with renowned artists or in an intimate venue in Berlin, audiences have come to know her distinctive tone and remarkable offerings in a variety of contexts. Over the last 15 years Ng has performed with some of Canada’s most prized artists such as The Weather Station, Andy Shauf, Do Make Say Think and many more, appearing in high profile performances such as Jimmy Kimmel, NPR’s Tiny Desk, Austin City Limits and festivals including Big Ears, Pitchfork, Bonaroo, Primavera, Osheaga, Best Kept Secret and Wilco’s Solid Sounds among others.
Mariam Rezaei (she/her) is a multi-award-winning composer, turntablist and performer whose work spans experimental new music, free improvisation, noise, mutant club music and hip-hop. The Anglo-Iranian virtuoso expands on classic turntablist skills by developing new techniques with vinyl, allowing her to manipulate an expansive range of samples in real time. Rezaei’s approach has been recognised by The Wire’s Peter Margasak as a “radical expansion of the artform.” Her innovations include free juggling, turntable sines, needle dripping, fractured loops and needle weaving. Across solo, duo, ensemble, orchestral and operatic works, Rezaei takes the philosophy and aesthetics of turntablism into new territory, creating wildly inventive, energetic and beautiful music.
Following on from the highly acclaimed Fractured (2024) and her ground-breaking Blud/Skeen/Bown trilogy (2019-2023), Rezaei will release Selected Adequate Works in early 2027. A major step forward in live turntablist composition, the double album captures the breadth of Rezaei’s vision from warped techno and mangled noise, to shimmering psychedelia and refracted chorales. Each track is recorded live in a single take, with Rezaei transforming her own samples alongside contributions from Elvin Brandhi, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Julien Desprez, Lukas Koenig, Eleni Poulou, Lucy Railton and Stewart Smith.
Her major commissions include Scholar’s Record for Donaueschinger Musiktage 2025, a four turntable tour-de-force which drew on the legendary festival’s audio archives, and 6 Scenes for Turntable and Orchestra, an orchestral collaboration with Matthew Shlomowitz for IMD Darmstadt/Tectonics Glasgow. This autumn, she premieres new projects with Ensemble Intercontemporain and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
In addition to her solo work, Rezaei is a member of the international free music supergroup The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, the pioneering Turntable Trio with Evicshen and Maria Chávez, 1984 with Kobe Van Cauwenberghe and Sakina Abdou, and Fire! Orchestra. Other collaborators include Pat Thomas, Bill Orcutt, Jennifer Walshe, Edward George, Farida Amadou, Mats Gustafsson, Valentina Magaletti, Robyn Rocket, Thurston Moore, Lasse Marhaug, Ensemble Contrechamps, Fritz Welch, Raymond MacDonald, Lukas König, Okkyung Lee, Dali de St Paul and Ali Robertson.
In November 2022, Rezaei received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation #AwardsForArtists in recognition of her contribution to music composition. She previously led experimental arts projects TOPH, TUSK FRINGE and TUSK NORTH. She is currently based in Newcastle, United Kingdom.
Jeremy Van Wyck is an experimental musician, drummer, guitarist, vocalist, and organizer who has been an influential figure in Canada's underground music community for more than two decades as a founding and current member of Shearing Pinx. Van Wyck has played a significant role behind the scenes as a promoter, label operator, and community builder. He helped establish the influential Fake Jazz concert series and festival, which has provided a platform for experimental, punk, noise, and avant-garde artists in Vancouver. While also curating and co-running the label Isolated Now Waves. Known for his adventurous approach to sound, Jeremy Van Wyck's work spans punk, free improvisation, noise, electronic experimentation, and psychedelic forms, reflecting a deep commitment to artistic exploration and collaborative music-making. Current projects include EarthBall, CROTCH, Behaviors, Aerosol Constellations and Mongst.
Jeremy Van Wyck is a Metis musician/artist and curator living and working in Nanaimo within Snuneymuxw territory on Vancouver Island.
