Sunday 6 August 2023, 2pm
Launch of Yumi Hara's 2nd solo album CD entitled 'Groove Study', consisting of her compositions exploring various aspects of rhythms while going back and forth between tonality and atonality including Raggae in 7/8, early music inspired song in 13/8, drum'n'bass played by pianos and Ekranoplan themed church organ epic as well as avan-rock treated Schoenberg's unfinished piano fragment. She will perform a selection of tracks from the CD with recording members Chris Cutler and Toshiaki Sudoh (from Japan) plus Pierre Chevalier (from Belgium) and Chlöe Herington.
Supported by School of Arts and Cutural Industries, University of East London
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Performers:
- Yumi Hara / piano, harp, voice (Half the Sky, Lindsay Cooper Songbook, The Artaud Beats, you me & us, Frank Chickens, etc)
- Chris Cutler / drums (Henry Cow, HIMMEL, The Hyperion Ensemble etc)
- Pierre Chevalier / keyboards (Present, faUSt, Aranis, Univers Zero etc)
- Toshiaki Sudoh / bass, drums (Melt-Manana, Machine & the Synagetic Nuts, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O'Rourke etc)
- Chlöe Herington / bassoon, electronics (Knifeworld, Chrome Hoof, VÄLVĒ)
- Tim Hodgkinson / clarinet, alto sax, lap steel guitar (Henry Cow, Konk Pack, The Hyperion Ensemble, etc)
- DJ Marina Organ (The Other Rock Show/Resonance FM)
THE WATTS (Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson) were formed to perform at the 25th anniversary event of Sakedelic Space Shuyukan in Oumi Hachiman, one of the most important venues for this kind of music in Japan, in 2017; after that they toured in Japan many times, played in the UK and France, and released the CD ‘Decoherence’. THE WATTS make stuff up as they go along but it seems to have undeniable form. There are songs; of a sort - and there are a lot of unidentifiable sounds, extended techniques, pedal work, preparations…. But still the result seems determinedly organic, contra-virtual and human (with frailties). Toshiaki Sudoh guests regularly when THE WATTS play in Tokyo and nearby cities, but this is his first appearance with THE WATTS outside Japan. THE WATTS with Toshiaki Sudoh's unreleased track will be included as part of ReR Italia 40th Anniversary compilation album due to be out in autumn 2023.
Yumi Hara studied the piano from 3 years old but stopped at the age of 12 when she felt the classical material she was practising was boring compared to British rock she found then. She subsequently studied North Indian music and dance, and went on to study medicine and became psychiatrist, but at the age of 33, she decided to go back to music and settled in London. She studied West African percussion, Korean percussion, North Indian vocal music, Javanese Gamelan at SOAS as occasional student, then continued to study 20th Century piano music, ethnomusicology, instrumental and electroacoustic composition and recording at City University and gained BMus and PhD. She performed as a member of Frank Chickens, run a concert series Bonobo’s Ark, did some drum’n’bass production and DJ, and her compositions have been performed by contemporary classical ensembles such as PianoCircus and the BBC Singers, but she has become increasingly well-known as an improvisor and performer in the avant-rock, Canterbury and RIO scene since she performed with David Cross (ex-violinist of King Crimson), and released a CD album DUNE with Hugh Hopper (ex-Soft Machine bassist) as HUMI in 2008. Since then, she has been collaborating with ex-Henry Cow musicians Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson, Geoff Leigh, John Greaves and Dagmar Krause, faUSt musicians Jean-Herve Peron and Zappi, ex-GONG Daevid Allen as The Artaud Beats, THE WATTS, Half the Sky/Lindsay Cooper Songbook, you me & us, and Jump for Joy! She has also performed and/or collaborated with Tatsuya Yoshida, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, David Jackson, Guy Evans, Asaf Sirkis, Charles Hayward, Fred Frith, Akira Sakata, Chloe Herington, Pierre Chevalier, Guy Harries, David Toop and Kiku Day, among others.
Chris Cutler (drums) is a renowned drummer whose activities encompasses from rock to contemporary art music, composition to improvisation, tonal song form to found sound. At the start of the seventies, he co-founded The Ottawa Music Company before joining British experimental group Henry Cow, with whom he toured, recorded and worked for the next eight years. Subsequently he co-founded a series of mixed national groups such as Art Bears and Cassiber. He is a permanent member of The Artaud Beats (with Yumi Hara Cawkwell, Geoff Leigh, John Greaves) and Half the Sky/Lindsay Cooper Songbook. He also founded and runs the independent label ReR Megacorp www.rermegacorp.com and is author of the theoretical collection File Under Popular as well as of numerous articles and papers published in 16 languages.
Toshiaki Sudoh is a Japanese musician, bassist, drummer, engineer. He began his career in the 90's as the original drummer of MELT-BANANA, and later became the drummer of MACHINE AND THE SYNERGETIC NUTS, while also working as a bassist in several bands and sessions. He has also played bass in the works of Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi (also her soundtrack for Drive My Car), and others. https://pseudodimension.com/profile/
PIERRE CHEVALIER is a keyboard player based in Brussels. He has been involved with avant-rock bands such as Univers Zero, Present, and Aranis, and currently plays with faUSt regularly. He played with Yumi Hara at Cafe OTO for her 2-day residency in 2021, and Yumi stood in for him for faUSt play FAUST IV tour in the same year.
Chlöe Herington is a Nottingham-born bassoonist, saxophonist, composer and sound maker, based in Wiltshire. Classically trained through an arts scholarship in Nottingham and then studying for a BMus (hons) at Goldsmiths College, University of London, she soon ventured out of the concert hall to seek new ways of creating music, suddenly finding herself in a very different kind of orchestra, Chrome Hoof, in 2000, with whom she stayed throughout their career. VÄLVĒ is the outlet for her compositional work using text and image as the starting point for scores. Regular other playing is currently bassoon, saxes and backing vocals with Knifeworld, processed sax in Hirvikolari and in Lindsay Cooper Songbook with Chris Cutler, Dagmar Krause, Tim Hodgkinson and Yumi Hara, performing the music of Lindsay Cooper (Henry Cow/News From Babel) as well as occasional live performances with Teeth of the Sea and Daniel O'Sullivan's live band. Chlöe has appeared on various recordings over the years by bands such as Guapo, Cathedral and Mothlite and has composed for and taken part in performance and sound artworks by Turner prize winner Tai Shani, Jonathan Baldock, Serena Korda/Daniel O’Sullivan and Circumstance.
With compositions featured at international festivals such as Tectonics, Huddersfield, Spectrum XXI, Nordlyd, and Ars Musica, and two sets of works for ensemble out on the Mode label, TIM HODGKINSON also has a powerful commitment to intense and highly energised performance practice. For over fifty years he has placed himself in a series of definitive projects, whether as cofounder of the seminal group Henry Cow, as saxophonist with influential avant-metal band God, or as bass clarinet soloist in the spectral compositions of Iancu Dumitrescu. His lap steel guitar playing remains completely uncategorisable, bringing subdued and not so subdued echoes of rock musics and other ethnicities.
http://www.timhodgkinson.co.uk/
