An evening of radically divergent approaches to improvisation with a duo from cellist Okkyung Lee and drummer Steve Noble and a solo performance for snare drum by Seijiro Murayama.

OKKYUNG LEE / cello

Cellist Okkyung Lee is one of the most dynamic forces in improvised music today, a fearless and powerful performer whose playing incorporates a love of noise, extended technique and elements from the outer fringes of contemporary composition, together with a sensitive ear and a sense of suspense worthy of Bernard Hermann.



STEVE NOBLE / drums

Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.

In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins).

SEIJIRO MURAYAMA / snare drum

Murayama's approach to improvisation is based on attention to space and place, the energy of the audience and in particular quality of silence at different levels (physical, social, etc). He was a founding member of seminal noise/rock band A.N.P. (with KK Null) and also the original drummer of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. He has performed in collaboration with mnortham, Eric Cordier, Fred Frith, Tom Cora and Michel Doneda, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Pascale Crito, Eric La Casa, Axel Dörner, Tim Blechmann, Seymour Wright, Toshimaru Nakamura, Toshiya Tsunoda and many others.