Tuesday 16 July 2019, 7.30pm
Excited to welcome back Riverloam Trio, the grouping of Mikołaj Trzaska, Olie Brice, and Mark Sanders to OTO for their first show here together in five years.
“It’s the fire music of our time—maybe now more like glowing embers, but still remembering something of the flames that gave rise to them.” – Free Jazz Blog on Riverloam Trio
Mikołaj Trzaska - saxophonist, bass clarinetist, composer of film music,
Studied fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. He grew up on the grounds of yass - an artistic and social movement. He co-founded the most important yass formation - the legendary Love, and was also the leader of the famous Łoskot. When the momentum of yass faded, he became a leading figure in the domestic avant-garde. His presence in the international world of improvised music began in the early 2000s, when he began his musical travels to Scandinavia, Ukraine, Western Europe and the United States. While touring, he learned the art of music alongside some of the world's most prominent artists in this direction, such as Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee and many others. These collaborations as well as his authorial achievements have been documented by dozens of record albums. For years he has been creating projects related to literature. The basis of Trzaska's creative search is the construction of a personal language and individual means of expression. He asks himself the question. “What do we create for? And what do we want to convey? He is known to a wider audience as a composer of film music, permanently cooperating with Wojciech Smarzowski, composing music for films: The House of Evil, The Rose, Wolyn, Under the Strong Angel, The Cleric, The Wedding 2. His latest work can be heard in the music track of Paweł Maślona film KOS.
“Mikolaj's sound on alto is mesmerizing, even at his most lyrical there's the inner tension in the timbre, you could hide entire planets in there, even at his most expansive and screaming, there's something intimate and emotional to what he plays.” – (Free) Jazz Alchemist
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
Olie Brice is a double bassist, improviser and composer. Raised in London and Jerusalem, he now lives by the sea in Hastings.Olie Brice leads a Quartet featuring Rachel Musson, Alexander Hawkins and Will Glaser, (their debut album “All It Was” will be released in 2025) and an improvising trio with Rachel Musson and Mark Sanders (“Immense Blue”, 2024). He has also led a trio, quintet and octet which can be heard on albums including “Fire Hills” and “Day After Day”.
Brice performs with a wide range of creative improvising musicians, including both legends of the music and his peers. Frequent collaborators include Mark Sanders, Paul Dunmall, Rachel Musson, Tobias Delius, Cath Roberts and Luis Vicente, and he has also appeared with the likes of Evan Parker, Tony Malaby, John Butcher, Trevor Watts, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Vandermark, Eddie Prevost and Louis Moholo. He is part of several ongoing improvising ensembles including Somersaults (with Tobias Delius & Mark Sanders), a Trio with Ziv Taubenfeld & Kresten Osgood, and the Flame (with Robert Mitchell & Andrew Lisle).
