Tuesday 28 August 2018, 7.30pm, OTO Project Space
SOLO:DUO:TRIO is a monthly night of improvised performances bringing together a wide variety of musicians and artists. Each show features a solo, a duo, and a trio performance where performers are invited to present something new or play with a person they haven’t played with before in an intimate and open environment.
SOLO: Brigitte Hart
DUO: Cath Roberts & Daniel Thompson
TRIO: Ingrid Plum, Yoni Silver & Alex Ward
£8 on the door (£5 members)
Ingrid Plum uses her voice with extended technique, improvisation, field recordings and electronics, to create layered soundscapes, spoken word and songs.
Originally trained in classical singing and performing from age 7, Plum was awarded a scholarship after her 5 octave range was discovered at 11. Specialising in Sound Art with Performance at the University Of Brighton before studying a Masters in Music Creative Practice at Goldsmiths, University of London, after graduating Plum continued her studies in voice by exploring extended vocal technique in ethnographic research, incorporating these techniques and traditions into her work which has been exhibited and performed internationally.
Plum formed the free improv group Susurrations in 2011 and in 2012 she launched Plum Records, released her solo EP 'The Tunnel Recordings' followed in 2015 by her debut album 'Plangent'. In 2016 this was followed by 'Everything Is Becoming Science Fiction' a collaboration with Graham Dunning, Ian Stonehouse and John Harries and 'Unsung', a collection of early sound works from installations and films 2002-2012. In 2016 she formed free improv trio PlumPyneThornton, founded all female noise choir The Larsens, and studied directly with Meredith Monk. Plum is a visiting lecturer in Interdisciplinary Practice, Sound and Media at Goldsmiths University Of London and the University of Brighton. She is the founder of Bechdel, a DIY event platform for female experimental/noise/spoken word/improv/free folk/free jazz/folk/Neo-classical acts and is based between the UK and Denmark.
“deftly weaves a breathtaking range of techniques and textures on the instrument, spanning frenetic highs to lows of bracing physicality. From dizzying clusters of notes to multilayered melodicism […] Silver gives a visceral, bodily performance”
Bass clarinet and multi-instrumental solos, keyboard player in Charles Hayward’s band Abstract Concrete, member of Ana Maria Avram and Iancu Dumitrescu's Hyperion Ensemble, RAY trio with Ashley Paul and Otto Willberg, orchestral song arrangener for Nico Teen and others, collaborations with Steve Noble, Sharon Gal, John Edwards, etc.
Cath Roberts (they/them) is an improviser, composer and artist based in Hastings, UK, whose work combines acoustic and electronic improvised music, experimental composition, and DIY publishing practices.
On saxophones Cath has collaborated with a wide range of artists and ensembles internationally for over a decade. Their band Sloth Racket has released five studio albums, touring widely and ‘lurching between riff and abstraction’ (The Wire) since forming in 2015. Other recent exploits include playing with Chris Corsano as part of his 2022 Cafe Oto residency, and being one of two UK artists (with Mandhira De Saram) commissioned by Australian Art Orchestra to co-create and perform Fresh Water – Salt Water in Melbourne and Huddersfield (a hcmf// and AAO co-commission, also in 2022).
Cath works with live electronics (SOMA Lyra-8 synthesiser, samplers, and small tabletop machines) in ongoing collaborations with Kate Carr (as Quartz Sand), Graham Dunning (as Grid & Robots) and Tullis Rennie (as Composite Mashworks). Be unafraid to open things up, a solo improvisation on tabletop electronics, was released on Fractal Meat Cuts in 2022. Cath’s sampler-based solo collage set appeared at hcmf// 2024, Sonics Hastings 2025 and Sacrum Profanum (Kraków) 2025.
In 2021 Cath was commissioned by hcmf// to create And then the next thing you know, a cross-artform installation/performance piece involving a giant, hanging, fragmented graphic score, elements of which are being integrated into a new audio-visual collaboration with Tullis Rennie. In 2024 Cath established the DIY small press Ink-Paper-Sound, and they co-run the Luminous label and the BRÅK concert series.
Daniel was born in Norfolk, England. Largely self-taught, he moved to London in 2005 and studied with the guitarist John Russell for two years. Since then, he has performed at many venues and festivals across the UK and Europe. In addition, he has also been organising concerts including the ‘The Shoreditch Church Concert Series' with Benedict Taylor.
Currently you can hear and see Daniel performing solo, with other musicians in many ad-hoc improvising situations and in long-term collaborations or 'working groups'. Recent collaborations include performances and/or recordings with Neil Metcalfe, Steve Noble, Caroline Kraabel, Max Reed, John Edwards, Benedict Taylor, Tom Jackson, Vid Drasler, Evan Parker, Adam Bohman, Sue Lynch, Alex Ward, Kay Grant, Roland Ramanan, Adrian Northover, Marcello Magliocchi, Alan Wilkinson, Colin Webster amongst others.
Daniel is the founder and artistic director of 'Empty Birdcage Records', a label dedicated to releasing documents of free improvisation. emptybirdcagerecords.bandcamp.com
Brigitte Hart is an Australian sound artist working across performance and installation. Currently based in London, her practice explores relationships between voice, objects, histories and ecologies, often engaging text, environmental recordings, remnants and archives. She holds particular interest in exploring the art of small sounds, sounds that can be imagined, and the memory of sound. Brigitte has developed installations, performances, compositions and workshops for Supernormal Festival, CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice), Wysing Polyphonic x Somerset House Festival, Resonance FM, Soundcamp/Reveil, David Roberts Art Foundation, Tate Britain and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (Audiosphere. Sound Experimentation 1980-2020). Her work with sound design has been presented at the Venice Biennale Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. In 2022, Brigitte is developing a series of experiments around the Thames, sound and listening as a recipient of the Develop Your Creative Practice funding (Arts Council England). She is also a member of the London Bulgarian Choir as well as Shortwave Collective, an international, feminist artist group interested in the creative use of radio.
