'He spoke about music in its pre-cultural state, when song had been a howl across several pitches, [when] musical performances must have had a quality something like free recitation; improvisation. But if one closely examined music, and in particular its most recently achieved stage of development, one noticed the secret desire to return to those conditions.'- Thomas Mann Doctor 'Faustus' 'We are searching for sounds and for the responses that attach to them, rather than thinking them up, preparing them and producing them.'- Cornelius Cardew 'Everywhere, the orthodox systems of our times anticipate the careful and clear presentation of ready-worked-out on-tap outcomes, throughout our lives. Said systems seldom afford focused vantage on the vagaries, protean problems, the awkward wealth, of investigation itself. Generally, the on-goings of development are hidden, edited or simply unseen; what has been developed over time is rendered public, honed for appreciation after the fact, variously knowable, reproducible and endorsable qua final product or record.'- Seymour Wright Percussionist Eddie Prévost co-founded in the 1960s the seminal improvising music ensemble AMM. In this book he presents a very personal philosophy of music informed by his long working practice and inspired by the London weekly improvisation workshop he first convened in 1999. Perhaps controversially, this view is mediated through the developing critical discourse of adaptionism; a perspective grounded in Darwinian conceptions of human nature. Music herein is examined for its cognitive and generative qualities to see how our evolved biological and emergent cultural legacy reflects our needs and dreams. This survey visits ethnomusicology, folk music, jazz, contemporary music and 'world music' as well as focusing upon various forms of improvisation - observing their effect upon human relations and aspirations. However, there are also analytical and ultimately positive suggestions towards future 'metamusical' practices. These mirror and potentially meet the aspirations of a growing community who wish to engage with the world - with all its history and chance conditionals - by applying a free-will in making music that is creative and collegiate.Softcover, 235pp Copula, Harlow, UK, 2011

A collection of Cornelius Cardew's published writings. With commentaries and responses from Richard Barrett, Christopher Fox, Brian Dennis, Anton Lukoszevieze, Michael Nyman, Eddie Prévost, David Ryan, Howard Skempton, Dave Smith, John Tilbury and Christian Wolff. The English composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-81) was among the most adventurous, controversial and innovative musicians of his generation. After an initial association with Stockhausen and the European avantgarde, he became engaged with the aesthetic ideas of John Cage and the New York School. A leading figure in the experimental music of the 1960s, Cardew is widely acknowledged as a pioneer of indeterminacy, graphic notation, free improvisation and performer involvement. As well as extending the boundaries of music in unprecedented directions, he enquired deeply into its social relevance and meaning. His passionate and untiring quest for wider social significance led him eventually to become a political activist. In the 1970s he repudiated his earlier experimental work and adopted a more traditional musical language. He joined a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party and devoted himself to political action, at the same time searching for ways to express his commitment in musical terms. At the height of his political involvement he died tragically at the age of 45, killed by a hit-and-run driver near his home in East London. This Reader brings together a diverse collection of Cardew's major essays and writings from different stages of his career, together with commentaries by other writers associated with his work. It reflects developments, changes and contradictions in his thinking about music from the late 1950s to the end of his life. As a companion volume to John Tilbury's biography 'Cornelius Cardew a life unfinished', Copula, 2008, it provides essential material for the study of Cardew's life and ideas; it also makes a significant contribution to discussion of the wider issues involved in the relationship between music, ideology and political commitment.Softcover, 383pp Copula, Harlow, 2006 Matchless Recordings

The only way we have any purchase on the world is by our own actions. And just the thought of the usual strategies for political and cultural response - applying the democratic process - in the face of the overwhelming odds of tradition and existing economic and political power is immobilising. Our activities must be closer to home, closer to our being. To borrow from William Blake: it is in the development of 'the minute particulars' that we have real power. As musicians our power is in how we decide to create sound. Now we place a sound next to another. How we chime with or divert a musical course in dialogue with others - while at the same time developing the structure, the nature and the dynamic of dialogue itself. As an audience too we must decide how we discern and positively support these practical efforts in music-making, and insist upon such aesthetic priorities. If these considerations begin to command our musical lives and even become the basis for musical appreciation and cultural critique, then the power of those who wish to do things to others is challenged by the determination of those who choose to do things with others.Softcover, 178pp Copula, Harlow, UK, 2004

The improvising group AMM was born some 30 years ago [1965], at a time of extraordinary creative ferment and transformational social possibility. Though its history has not been completely smooth, it continues today to pursue a unique sonic course, unswayed either by academic orthodoxy or the conformist pressures of the market. In this book, Eddie Prevost, drummer and a founder member, explores the reasons it came to be, the influences and refusals that have shaped its history, and the potential and the failings not only of the meta-music AMM is committed to, but all music everywhere: classical, jazz, folk, pop and the experimental avant-garde. In a unique series of acute and often moving dissections and meditations, directly modelled on AMM’s attitudes and practices in performances, Prevost examines the meanings of sound itself, giving them aesthetic, social and political dimension. These, together with an outline of the events of the group’s three decades of existence, of alliances and conflicts within the collective, give voice to a radically contrarian but always thoughtful underground strand in present-day music-making, which adherents all over the world, among players and listeners. It will fascinate and perhaps trouble anyone with an interest in modern music’s deeper currents.   The idea of the performer of a written work as technical executor,or as a kind of curator (as Brendel puts it), precludes the possibility of free dialogue. If musical works could be perceived less as marketable or sacred objects, and more as possible views of the world on which to reflect, greater freedom might develop. Eddie Prévost'ss book, with great skill and imagination, provokes the readers into contemplating such questions. -  Piano Journal This is an inspiring, modest and (to use a word that Prévost is not ashamed to use) beautiful book. Nothing in it is more beautiful than his own cry of resistance: ˜I am something other than what you tell me I am' - The Wire One of the most successful attempts to illuminate the aesthetic, social and political aspects of the modus vivendi of improvised music.Dissonanz (Swiss)No Sound is Innocent: AMM and the Practice of Self-Invention: Meta-musical Narratives: Essays Softcover, 188pp Copula, Harlow, UK, 1995 an imprint of Matchless Recordings and Publishing

Percussionist, Improviser and AMM founding member Eddie Prévost's fourth book presents a fascinating series of reflections and challenging insights on music in its various forms, and the development of improvised music at the intersection of contemporary compositional and conceptual forms; alongside a personal history of Prevost's life and his relationship with music. "Part personal history, part provocation, here is a compelling book about musical improvisation. But it's also about so much more."-- Ajay Heble, Director, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, University of Guelph  ".... a very different kind of musician's memoir, a provocative and stimulating account in which the founder-member of AMM questions every aspect of his life and purpose in making music."-Richard Williams  "An uncommon voice that weaves together an extraordinary life of musical exploration and trenchant, relentlessly discomfitting observations on improvised musicking, Eddie Prévost's unsettling An Uncommon Music for the Common Man excoriates critical pretense and academic cant while getting at uncomfortable truths about how and why music matters." Daniel FischinSoftcover, 242pp Copula, Matchless, 2020

The second recording made in a series of concerts at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, in which Eddie Prévost invited notable saxophonists to make music with him.  --- John Butcher / tenor and soprano saxophones Guillaume Viltard / double bass Eddie Prévost / drums  --- Recorded at the Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, on the 1st August 2011 by Giovanni Le Rovere. Mixing and editing by John Butcher. Cymbol photography by Tom Mills. Design my Myuh Chun.  --- Review in Point of Departure: The first part of the three-part suite opens up with tuned toms, and moves quickly into popping, lip-smacking sax and burbling pizzicato, making for a good old free jazz romp for starters. Amidst the nicely heated metal and woody thwacks, you can hear Butcher digging into some of his most audibly saxophonic playing (to call it conventional, even though there are lines and intervals, would be overstating things). But there’s also such a sheerly avian quality, at times evolving into a menacing spitfire, that you forget those previous passages altogether as overtones proliferate. There are also some extraordinary moments in the second part, where Butcher seems to reduce the soprano to pure whizzing sound, with no breaks in the sound, only a massive metallic whistle that occasionally boils down into burrs and grumbles. I have to confess that there are moments when (partly owing to his place in the mix) Vitard sounds a bit inconsequential; and in the hot exchanges to begin “part 3” it’s clear that the sympathy between Butcher and Prévost is where the action is. But thankfully the bassist subsequently proves me wrong with a truly sizzling arco solo – bold and confessional at once – midway through the 28-minute closing section.
– Jason Bivins

"These pieces create a coherent and cohesive statement of Cardew's approach to interdeterminacy. They set in motion his dual attention to extreme pragmatism and philosophical, even utopian ideals. They are subtle essays in how one might initiate a skeletal framework to be fleshed out, to be made corporeal, by future generations. Cardew referred to this as 'growth mechanisms' : ie, how changing performance practice and musical outlooks can be accommodated by compositional activity. It is a balance between 'cogent explicitness' and 'sufficient flexibility' rather than a fully notated, self contained piece." - David Ryan, 2001.  --- Anton Lukoszevieze / celloSimon Allen / vibraphone & marimbaBridget Carey / viola Rhodri Davies / harpAndrew Sparling / clarinetDavid Ryan / bass clarinet & pianoSarah Walker / piano & prepared pianoDave Smith / prepared piano & melodicaTania Chen /pianoRobert Coleridge / organMichael Parsons / electronic keyboard --- Recorded by Apartment House, directed by Anton Lukoszevieze. First commercially released recordings of many of Cardew's early compositions.Recorded at Gateway Studio, Kingston-upon-Thames on the 6th and 7th of April, 2001. Front cover artwork: detail from 'Solo with Accompaniment'

"AMM music may initially seem impenetrable, but it sure as hell penetrates you. Soon the desired state is instilled in the listener; a rapt vacancy somewhere between supreme concentration and utter absentmindedness." - Melody Maker On AMMMusic, long tones sit next to abrasive thuds, the howl of uncontrolled feedback accompanies Cardew's purposeful piano chords, radios beam in snatches of orchestral music. AMM's clearest break with jazz-based improvisation concerned the idea of individuality. Initially through an engagement with eastern philosophy and mysticism and later though a politicized communitarianism, AMM sought to develop a collective sonic identity in which individual contributions could barely be discerned. In the performances captured on AMMMusic the use of numerous auxiliary instruments and devices, including radios played by three members of the group, contribute to the sensation that the music is composed as a single monolithic object with multiple facets, rather than as an interaction between five distinct voices." - Francis Plagne --- Cornelius Cardew / piano, cello and transistor radio Lou Gare / tenor saxophone and violin  Eddie Prévost / percussion Keith Rowe / electric guitar and transistor radio Lawrence Sheaff / cello, accordian, clarinet and transistor radio --- Recorded on the 8th and 27th June 1966 at Sound Techniques by Harry Davis and Jac Holzman.

John Tilbury presents interpretations of two radio pieces by Beckett - Cascando and Rough for Radio 1. For the first he speaks both parts and plays subtly electronically modulated piano, for the second he is joined by Christina Jones (speaking) and Eddie Prevost and Sebastian Lexer (music, or rather sound interludes).  ---- Samuel Beckett / composition John Tilbury / piano and voice Sebastian Lexer / electronics Christina Jones / voice --- Tracklisting: 1. Cascando - 22:442. Rough for Radio - 19:01  --- Recorded at Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, and the Electronic Music Studios of Goldsmiths College, London between 2004 and 2005. Front cover: 'Script' by Janice Tilbury.

This is the third recording made availiable in a series of concerts at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, in which Eddie Prévost invited notable saxophonists to make music with him.  --- Jason Yarde / alto and soprano saxophone Oli Hayhurst / double bass Edwin (Eddie) Prévost / drums --- Recorded at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, on the 7th August 2011. Special thanks to the theatrical custodians of The Network Theatre and especially Keith Wait - for being so positively disposed for this series. Recorded by Giovanni La Rovere. Mixed and edited by John Butcher. Cover artwork by Tom Mills. Design by Myah Chun.

Recorded at The Loft, Cologne on 14 October 1997 by Ansgar Ballhorn.  --- Keith Rowe / guitar Jeffrey Morgan / alto saxophone --- Front cover by Keith Rowe. --- Tracklisting:
 1. Addition - 20:08 
2. Dynatron with Electric Seats - 15:47 
3. Ballad from another Planet - 12.25 4. Savannah Heat - 10:42 
5. Teddy Bears in the Closet  - 7:02 6. Subtraction (recommended for radio play) - 6:51

A member of the Scratch Orchestra in the 1970's and a contemporary and collaborator of Cornelius Cardew, Gavin Bryars and John White amongst others, Smith has amassed an extensive body of work that draws on a wide range of influences from contemporary composition to Javanese classical and Albanian folk musics. Here, John Tilbury plays a collection of 12 of Smith's brief sonatas, each focusing on a particular musical genre. --- John Tilbury / piano --- Recorded April 1988 in London. --- Tracklisting: 1 - Charleston 3:282 - Maxixe 2:543 - Ramble 4:204 - Dub 2:585 - Mambo 3:236 - Nocturne 4:327 - Bossa Nova 2:568 - Boomerangs 2:529 - Quasi Tambura 4:3310 - Tango 3:0011 - Thelonious 2:3712 - Allegro Barbaro

The recording of a concert given at Rice University, Houston, TX, USA on Friday 19th April 1996. DL includes divided tracks and piece as a whole. With special thanks to Daniel Plunkett, Rob Forman, Jeff Filla and all the friends we made in Austin during our 1996 US tour. Recorded by Paul Winstanley. Artwork by Keith Rowe.  --- Keith Rowe / guitar John Tilbury / piano Eddie Prévost / drums --- "A stupendous continuation of the 90's AMM sound, ala previous documents such as Newfoundland, Live In Allentown and From A Strange Place. Shifting patterns consistently emerge; via Prévost's bowed percussion; via Rowe's distinct prepared guitar emanations that so distinctly verify the interior nature of electricity; via Tilbury's near-hallucinatory piano lines which seem to take on three dimensional status on this recording. Ultimately, it's AMM. Whose albums have been described as "alike or unalike as trees." This is another one, but it's not like the others. Music that you can play at almost any volume, at any time, forever." - Forced Exposure.

This is the first recording made in a series of concerts at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, in which Eddie Prévost invited notable saxophonists to make music with him.  --- John Edwards / double bass Evan Parker / tenor saxophone Eddie Prévost / drums  --- Recorded at the Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, on the 30th May 2011 by Giovanni Le Rovere. Mixing and editing by John Butcher. Cymbol photography by Tom Mills. Design my Myuh Chun.  --- Review:   The first was All Told with arch-bassist John Edwards and the huge and brilliant breath of the Bristolian tenor saxophonist Evan Parker. “I want life!” exclaims Prevost of his endless quest for improvisation in the album’s sleeve notes, and “a metamusical approach; one which revels in personal discovery and surprises as well as being sensitive and active towards incoming signals from others.” It is a commentary and metaphor for art as life, and this record is full with it, the three musicians playing as an amalgam, unifying their powerful technical dexterity with an intense and reflective beauty, humanity and generosity towards each other and their listeners. Edwards’s musical mastery is also in every way remarkable, as if he is the pulse of all that we hear, while Parker’s assertion of breath-with-end gives us a simile, an onomatopoeia of continuing life and hope enveloped in aural radiance. As for Prevost, in his drums is an insistence of the real, of the touching, tapping, hammering, striking, pounding, ringing of the detail of work and action which is everywhere in our lives, in every second, awake or asleep, the sonic edge of production. Like his Huguenot forebears, he works in a world of workshops: but his workshops are the workshops of drums.   Chris Searle — Morning Star 26th January, 2016

This is the fourth recording made availiable ina series of concerts at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, London, in which Eddie Prévost invited notable saxophonists to make music with him.  --- Bertrand Denzler / tenor saxophone John Edwards / double bass Eddie Prévost / drums --- Recorded at The Network Theatre, Waterloo, on the 12th December 2011. Special thanks to the theatrical custodians of The Network Theatre and especially Keith Wait - for being so positively disposed for this series. Recorded by Giovanni La Rovere. Mixed and edited by John Butcher. Cover artwork by Tom Mills. Design by Myah Chun.

Complete audio recordings of Evan Parker, John Edwards and Eddie Prévost's May 2013 residency at Cafe OTO.  --- Evan Parker / tenor saxophone John Edwards / double bass Edwin (Eddie) Prévost / drums Alexander von Schlippenbach / piano Christof Thewes / trombone --- "Given the different line-ups and the inclusion of both sets from each of three nights, the listener is presented with the chance to hear the music exposed and developing in many dimensions. Not only can each player be heard by himself and in shifting combinations - duet, trio or quartet - with the others, but the progression in mood and approach across an entire evening can be clearly appreciated. This is particularly marked on the second disc, where the careful exploration of the first set is succeded by the all-in surge of the second, which begins as if the four are resuming an interruped conversation. From the first night to the last, the music played over these three nights is of the highest quality. What can't be captured in the discs, but should never be underestimated, is the presence of listeners whose attentiveness cleared and charged the space in which the performers could do their work of creating a music as delicate in its inner workings as it is robust in its insistance on building for itself, night after night, a world without walls." - Richard Williams. --- Audio recorded by Giovanni LaRovere. Mastered by Rupert Clervaux.

Two concerts of experimental improvisation from Eddie Prevost and Christian Wolff, two giants of conceptual improvisation and composition, recorded at Ikletick in London in 2015 and at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire in 2016; with superb pacing and brilliant execution, these dialogs between keyboard and percussive instruments explore unique sound worlds with depth, inquisitiveness, and a sense of wonder. "The set documents two concerts - 1, recorded at Iklectik in London in September 2015, is in two parts, 37 and 18 minutes in length; 2, recorded at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, in July 2016 is a singular 50-minute piece. Each musician restricts himself to a relative narrow palate. Prévost uses a bass drum as both drum and resonator and explores bowing and scraping cymbals for sustained metallic sounds, with very rare eruptions of multiple sounds. Wolff plays piano with even greater delicacy, from isolated sustained tones, alternated intervals, subtle use of plucked strings and minimal preparation and an occasional brief melodic figure. A keyboard wind instrument, perhaps a melodica, arises brieflyin both concerts." - Free Jazz Collective --- Eddie Prévost / percussion Christian Wollf /piano --- Artwork by Myah Chun Grierson. Edited and mastered by Giovani La Rovere and Rupert Clervaux. Recorded by Giovani La Rovere and Sangwook Nam.

Recorded at a concert given at The Band on the Wall Manchester, England on 26th May 1994.  --- Marilyn Crispell / piano Eddie Prévost / drums --- Tracklisting: 1. Opening Time - 6:49 2. Slow Chaser - 3:59 3. Fragments - 2:48 4. Dogbolter - 2:05 5. Apart (I) - 2:33 6. As Our Tongues Lap Up The Burning Air - 6:29 7. Old Thumper - 1:08 8. Night Moves - 12:11 9. Bishop's Finger - 1:11 10. Irons - 3:47 11. Quiet Now - 3:37 12. Spitfire - 3:42 13. Last Orders - 8:20