Wednesday 5 July 2023, 8pm
Unpredictable Series presents an evening of free improvisation, with pioneers Alterations and a first-time constellation of Naima Karlsson, Adriana Camacho and Blanca Regina.
Alterations - David Toop, Peter Cusack, Terry Day, and Steve Beresford - is a quartet of key thinkers and pioneers in music and visual arts. They played numerous concerts in the years 1977 to 1986 and came back together in 2015 to play in London for the Alterations Festival at Cafe OTO, curated by Unpredictable Series
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALTERATIONS
The group existed from 1977 to 1986 and played often in festivals and clubs throughout the UK and Europe. Their work presented new ways of making and understanding music and art.
“The great discovery of Alterations was that musical styles and idioms are there to be played with.” – Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen
They made three LPs in that time:
Alterations on Bead in 1978
Up Your Sleeve on !Quartz in 1980
My Favourite Animals on nato (France) in 1984
In addition, there were CDs of various live performances.
In 2000, Intuitive Records in Denmark issued Alterations Live and in 2002 Atavistic in the US published Voila Enough!
In 2015, Alterations was put back together for London performances at Cafe OTO (with Max Eastley) and Iklectik. These events were very successful and attracted new audiences. Alterations Boxset a compilation of unreleased material was presented at this festival and, later in 2017, a live record from the concert at Cafe OTO, Void Transactions. A reissue of Up Your Sleeve was presented in 2022 by Paradigm Disks.
Double bassist, documentary filmmaker and improviser from Mexico City, and an active promoter of free improvisation and free jazz in Mexico and internationally. She has recorded and performed with Anne Waldman, Ana Ruíz, Chefa Alonso, Daniel Carter, Guro Moe, Phillip Greenlief, Germán Bringas and Natalia Pérez Turner, among many others, and has played in improvisation ensembles directed by Kahil El'Zabar, William Parker and Greenlief. Venues and festivals include Suoni per il Popolo (Montreal), Roskilde, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Café OTO and the ICA in London, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, Kuhlspot in Berlin and Pavilion 2.0 in Venice. She was a resident at 577 Records' Sounds of Freedom in Canale Monterano, Italy, in 2023, and has organised concert series and festivals including Musica Libre, Free Music Thursdays at UNAM and the 13th Musica Radical. Current projects include No tan Cuerdas, Ronronoise, David Contreras Trio, Ana Ruiz y su orquesta Koryma and her solo project Loope.
https://www.adrianacamacho.com/
Naima Nefertari (b. 1982) is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician based in London. Her practice interweaves sonic and visual forms led by interests in repetition, improvisation, and the abstract relationships between language, symbol, image, and sound. Naima’s main instrument is the piano, as well as percussion, vibraphone, and organ. Improvisation is at the core of the artist's musical process, combined with minimalist uses of tone, arrangement, and an inherently organic approach to playing. Naima is part of the duo Exotic Sin with Kenichi Iwasa, and she is an archivist and coordinator for the Estate of Moki Cherry and Cherry Archive. Naima recently released an album with Angel Bat Dawid called Journey to Nabta Playa on Spiritmuse records, and she is an NTS radio resident with her show Fragrant Sacrifice.
Instagram: @naima_nefertari
Spanish interdisciplinary artist, audiovisual designer and educator based in London, working across live performance, projection art, installation, sound and film. For over two decades she has developed spontaneous composition systems in which image, light and sound merge into a single field, drawing on traditions of free improvisation and expanded cinema. Her collaborators include Matt Black of Coldcut, Leafcutter John, Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Benedict Taylor, Mandhira de Saram and Laetitia Sadier. She is founder and Director of Unpredictable Series CIC and a member of LAC at Cruce Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid. She holds a PhD cum laude in Audiovisual Performance Art from URJC Madrid, and her work has been supported by Arts Council England, the British Council, Sound & Music and the Francis Chagrin Award.
