Noble's improvising power trio make a welcome return to Cafe OTO following their devastating set alongside Bo Ningen earlier this year. They are joined by David Bowie's guitarist of choice Reeves Gabrels and the revelatory trumpet playing of Ian Smith.

N.E.W.

“There’s as much rock here as jazz- Ward is all spidery glissandi and slashing power chords. Edwards is a dark magus of a bass player thundering against the elements, while Noble is a violent, malevolent presence. A white- knuckle ride you’ll be glad to take!”
(Duncan Heinig- Jazzwise)

"The bass player John Edwards turns up on the best British free-jazz recordings. The drummer Steve Noble cleaves through improvisatory rumblings with dramatic, decisive moves. And the guitarist Alex Ward, a compulsively creative polymath of indiscriminately omnivorous appetite, is a reliably unpredictable axe-hero for collaborators of all backgrounds.

The trio’s second record posits a bricolage bebop, an ugly ecstatic jazz, played on sheet metal, broken glass and barbed wire. Coming Up for Air bubbles like an electric soup, and an elastically extended Empty Ballroom finds Edwards and Noble stretching back to catapult Ward’s electric guitar far beyond the gravitational pull of Planet Rock." (Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times on 'N.E.W: Deadeye Tricksters')

STEVE NOBLE

From playing with Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde ,Rip Rig and Panic ,Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, Noble went on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey(including Company Weeks 1987,89 and 90)and was featured(along with Alex Ward) in the TV series based on Baileys book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe , Africa and America. Currently leads the groups ‘4tet’ - ‘Say What’- ‘Shakedown Club’- ‘Harry Love All Stars’ and a trio with Lol Coxhil / Edwards-he also fills the drum chair in the following groups ; SFQ, Badland , Gannets , Aethenor, Freebase and Tim Hills group Tongues of Fire.

Noble has also been MD for the Spanish dance company MAL PELO since 1998. He also runs the record company PING PONG PRODUCTIONS.

JOHN EDWARDS

Since taking up the double bass in 1987 and playing with the Pointy Birds and the Cholomondeleys dance company-he went on to play with B Shops for the Poor ,The Honkies and GOD as well as busking in the street and composing and performing music theatre with The Great Explorers. Since the early 1990s he has built a reputation as one of the finest ,and most in demand bass players currently active on the British and European improv/ jazz and New music scenes- a first choice for musicians such as Evan Parker ,Louis Moholo , Veryan Weston ,Charles Hayward and Spring Heel Jack- Other groups include BRUISE and the Obliquity trio with Alan Wilkinson and Noble.A solo double bass cd ‘VOLUME’ was released in 2008 on the PSI label.

ALEX WARD

Born in 1974, he has been active in free improvisation since being given his first gig by Derek Bailey in 1987, going on to work with a wide range of musicians as a clarinettist (sometimes also on alto sax), and increasingly since 2000 as a guitarist.His debut recording ‘Ya boo ,reel and rumble’, a duo with Noble was released in 1990 on Baileys label Incus,to great critical acclaim.He has played in bands led by Simon Fell and Eugene Chadbourne, as well as his own quartet “Help Point”, featuring Fell, Steve Noble and Luke Barlow (with whom he runs the label Copepod). He also co-led the rock band Camp Blackfoot with Benjamin Herve, and in 2005 released a solo album of songs entitled “Hapless Days”. He currently writes the material (as well as playing guitar and singing) for “Dead Days Beyond Help”, a 2-piece band with drummer Jem Doulton. 

REEVES GABRELS

Reeves Gabrels is an American guitarist, known for virtuosity, versatility, and originality. His compositions and improvisations defy genre and "explore sonic extremes with a great, adaptive intuition for what each song needs most." Gabrels' performance, songwriting and recording credits range from "hard-hitting blues rock to 21st century electronica." He works independently and in collaboration with musicians worldwide. He is best known for his long partnership with British singer David Bowie, with whom he worked regularly from 1987 to 2000. Before and during his association with Bowie, Gabrels built an active performing and recording career in Boston, London, and New York; from 2000 to 2006 he was based in Los Angeles and today he works from Nashville, Tennessee.

IAN SMITH

“Smith’s trumpet playing is a particular revelation. His brassy blats and smears play off of the hyperactive spatters of Eisenstadt’s drums. There is a clear jazz edge to his tone, which sounds almost radical these days when many trumpet players in the improv world seem inclined to turn their back on that vocabulary. But he can also dip down to breathy flutters and muted coloristic playing.” Signal to Noise


KAFFE MATTHEWS

Kaffe Matthews is one of the most active artists on the new electronic music scene, whose surprisingly rare approach exploiting digital gadgets and live performance has resulted in some unique works which transgress any boundary between sound and image. Since 1996 she has been regularly performing all over the world in clubs, galleries, concert halls, tea rooms, boats, warehouses, and the outback! Recently she has collaborated and performed with Sachiko M, Ikue Mori, Marina Rosenfeld, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz, and is currently working on a new formation of the lappetites with Eliane Radigue, pan-European electronics orchestra MIMEO, weightless animals (a trio with visual artist Mandy McIntosh and Zeena Parkins) and making interactive sonic space cartoons from research at NASA.