Monday 13 February 2023, 8pm
Preparations is an event where 23 artists have created a preparation* each for the grand piano. Three pianists/groups are then tasked with constructing individual live performances with the adaptable unit of preparations.
For this second iteration** of Preparations, musicians Finn Carter, Dear Laika and Ted Mair & Ed Bernez will be performing on the grand piano with preparations made by Ryoko Akama, Zoë Annesley, Jasper Appleby Sherring, Grace Black, Joseph Bradley Hill, Yasmine Brennan, Kara Chin, Gabriele Ciulli, Jacob Clayton, Leo DMB, enorê, Georgia Gendall, Harley Kuyck-Cohen, Kiran Leonard, Ruoru Mou, Siân Newlove-Drew, Karanjit Panesar, Lou Lou Sainsbury & Gabi Dao, Harry Smithson, Aga Ujma, Jake Vine, Tiffany Wellington & Isobel Whalley Payne.
*A preparation is an object that alters the sound of a piano when placed on or in-between the strings. Each artist has made a preparation that can be held comfortably in the palm of the hand, and the pianists will be encouraged to use as many of the preparations as possible in the piano at once.
**Late Works: Preparations first took place in September 2021 at Cafe OTO with pianists Finlay Clark (Still House Plants), Max Syedtollan & Aga Ujma.
Late Works is a sporadic series of live intermedia events and permutable collective of creative practitioners with a monthly radio show on Resonance Extra.
Founded in 2018 by artist Joseph Bradley Hill, each manifestation of Late Works is governed by a set of pre-determined rules and instructions, aimed to encourage discourse, collaboration and exchange between the artists taking part. The heavily process-based experimental shows are united by an ethos of indeterminate intermedia improvisation.
Composer and pianist Finn Carter has spent the last year playing a string of sold-out shows with his quartet including 3 late shows at Ronnie Scott’s and headlining Brick Lane Jazz Festival. His approach to playing is to try to remove the ego from improvising and serve the music.
Isabelle Thorn is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who most often records and performs under the name Dear Laika. After quietly self-releasing music online for five years, she released her latest album "Pluperfect Mind" in 2021 on NNA Tapes and Memorials of Distinction to acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and The Wire. The suite of songs on "Pluperfect Mind" is ambitiously mercurial, its rhythms ever shifting, its harmonies contorting as the pieces metamorphose from delicate chamber pop and dense choral writing to brutally manipulated string ensembles and finally into a blissful ambient oblivion. She draws equally from classical composers of the past eight centuries and electronic sound artists of our current one, blending the organic and digital as she meditates on dis- and reconnection and the fluidity of time and identity.
She currently teaches piano and also plays high-strung guitar and sings in Kiran Leonard's Trespass on Foot Group. Other than that, she tends to keep to herself.
Ted Mair is an instrumentalist and composer, who enjoys combining experimental textures with direct music. He currently plays in The Golden Dregs, as well as leading avant-pop group Sculpture.
Ed Bernez is a drummer known for his inventive use of found objects in modifying typical drum setups. He currently plays in Lichen and Last Living Cannibal.
The two play together in political punk project Findom, as well as its improvisational spin-off Fiscal Harm, which includes a revolving cast of London-based experimental and noise musicians. This will be their first performance as a duo.
