Sunday 26 February 2023, 2pm
Dave Tucker / guitar
Pat Thomas / piano, electronics
Phil Minton / voice
Roger Turner / drums
plus special guest
Alan Tomlinson / trombone
"The near telepathic group improvisation of Scatter is a joy to witness. There are plenty of brilliant individual elements - the falsetto throat singing that makes Phil Minton sound like a demonic Robert Wyatt. The subtle elasticity of Roger Turner's drumming, Guitarist Dave Tucker's acoustic scrabble & electric flash. Pat Thomas's space invader synths - but the beauty is the way they come together, particularly in a vividly Pastoral section thats all bird song, wood and minerals." – Stewart Smith (The Wire magazine)
Alan Tomlinson has been active on the London impro scene since the late 70’s. A member of John Stevens’ Away, Tony Oxley’s Angular Apron, Peter Brotzman’s Alarm, and has played solo gigs throughout Europe, works with his own trio (with Dave Tucker and Phil Marks) and several projects with the artist Christian Marclay. He works with new music groups Sounds Positive and New London Winds, several composers have written pieces for him on both alto and tenor trombones.
Dave Tucker is originally performed in the late 70's Manchester Punk scene with Mellatron who released a record in 1978. between 1980-81, performed and recorded the legendary "Slates" with The Fall. Since the mid 80's, has been resident in London and has performed and recorded with amongst others, Evan Parker, John Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Mick Beck, Phillip Wachsmann, Barre Phillips, Otomo Yoshide. Also a long time menber of Alan Tomlinson Trio, Scatter with Pat Thomas, Phil Minton and Roger Turner as well as being a long time guitarist and conductor with London Improvisers Orchestra. He has written and performed music for film and TV, including BBC and channel 4 which won the rory peck ward.
Pat Thomas studied classical piano from aged 8 and started playing Jazz from the age of 16. He has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990/91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.
"Sartorially shabby as Thomas may be, and on first impression even rather stolid, he has a somewhat imperious charisma that’s immediately amplified when he starts to play. Unlike other pianists whose virtuosity seems to be racing ahead of their thought processes Thomas always seems supremely in command of his gift, and his playing, no matter how free and ready to tangle with abstraction, always carries a charge of authoritative exactitude." - The Jazzmann
For a long time now Phil Minton has been working as a improvising singer, solo and in groups and situations at various locations all over the place, deserts, quarries, concert halls, pubs, holes, dodgy clubs, containers, up trees, in prisons, on mountains, in churches, under bridges and cafe oto etc.
Phil Minton comes from Torquay. He played trumpet and sang with the Mike Westbrook Band in the early 60s - Then in dance and rock bands in Europe for the later of part of the decade. He returned to England in 1971, rejoining Westbrook and was involved in many of his projects until the mid 1980′s.
For most of the last forty years, Minton has been working as an improvising singer in lots of groups, orchestras, and situations. Numerous composers have written music especially for his extended vocal techniques. He has a quartet with Veryan Weston, Roger Turner and John Butcher, and ongoing duos, trios and quartets with above and many other musicians, including tours with American singer Audrey Chen - with whom he has sang far and wide in the last ten years.
Since the eighties, His Feral Choir, where he voice-conducts workshops and concerts for anyone who wants to sing, has performed in over twenty countries.
Over decades Roger Turner has brought the renowned volcanic power and finely-honed precision of his drum work to ensembles that have forged substantial connections with musicians both sides of the Atlantic and more recently from Japan. In addition to pioneering an acoustic percussive language that can run in tandem with approaches to contemporary electronic instruments, he has worked extensively in the microscopic laboratory of the acoustic duo situation where he acquired a highly developed sense of detail and of dynamic control. One of that select group of world-class players who have collectively redefined the language of contemporary percussion, in Turner's hands minute inflections of tension can shape the group's musical direction and galvanise a new level of audience experience.
