Monday 8 January 2018, 7.30pm
Rare duo set from Japanese musician and artist Ken Ikeda – who has composed and recorded for David Lynch and Moriko Mori amongst others – and English percussionist Eddie Prévost, the seminal figure of free improvised music since the 1960s.
Support comes from Allum, Charbin and Kanngiesser – all London-based musicians that have played together for a number of years - the last time as a trio at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. While they are coming from a classical and jazz background, their music has moved a long way from the historical piano/cello/violin relationship. Instead, it is driven by a shared investigation of elemental sounds that are woven into spacious, complex and joyful music unresting on the edge of definition.
Eddie Prévost began his life in music as a jazz drummer. A recurring interest in this form has been maintained, although always with an experimental ethos. Along the way he has maintained his fifty-year plus experimental credentials with AMM and numerous other improvisation projects, including his now twenty-year long weekly workshop. But drumming has generally been backgrounded to his experimental percussion work. More though, is to be expected of his drumming in 2020 on forthcoming multi-CD album: The Unexpected Alchemy. A part of this Krakow festival recording features the drums and saxophone trio of Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, and Eddie Prévost. His most recent released recordings include AMM’s: An Unintended Legacy, and a duo with John Butcher - Visionary Fantasies, both on Matchless Recordings. Also, a solo percussion LP on the Earshots label called Matching Mix. Later, in 2020 he meets with Jason Yarde and Nathan Moore, while in March concerts and recording will hear him drumming with US guitarist Henry Kaiser and saxophonist Binker Golding.
And, early 2020 should see the publication of his fourth book: An Uncommon Music for the Common Man: a polemical memoir.
“Prévost's free drumming flows superbly making use of his formidable technique. It’s as though there has never been an Elvin Jones or Max Roach.” - Melody Maker
“Relentlessly innovative yet full of swing and fire.” – Morning Star
Ken Ikeda is a composer and performer, born in Tokyo. He creates unique electric improvisation by a delicate combination of sine waves. After studying at Berklee College of Music, he has exhibited sound art and visual installations around the world. He has released five solo albums and collaborated on albums with David Toop, Eddie Prevost, John Russell, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Chihei Hatakeyama and many other improvising musicians; Also he has collaborated with, amongst others, visual artist Mariko Mori, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Darren Almond; and composed and recorded for film maker David Lynch. He released CD albums from Touch, Spekk, Baskaru, White Paddy Mountain and Home Normal. Ken Ikeda currently lives and works in London, UK.
Jennifer Allum is a violinist who improvises and plays experimental music.
While she was a post graduate student at Goldsmiths, London she began to attend Eddie Prevost's weekly improvisation workshops where she met musicians like Ross Lambert, Ute Kanngiesser, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga and Daichi Yoshikawa. She also began working with composers such as Christian Wolff, Tom Johnson, Michael Pisaro and Michael Parsons around the same time too.
More recently she has played and recorded with The Seen, including performances of John Stevens 'For Sake Of Joy Of Study Of Oneself Together' featuring Stewart Lee as narrator.
She has a number of other recordings available, and her most recent is with John Butcher, Eddie Prevost and Ute Kanngiesser on Ftarri records. Other releases are available from Matchless Recordings.
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
Marjolaine Charbin plays piano with an ever mutating mix of keyboard technique and various inside-piano techniques using hands, objects, voice and contact microphones. Her sound sometimes evokes electronic music. Recent collaborations include Eddie Prevost, Jennifer Allum, Ute Kanngiesser, Angharad Davies, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Dominic Lash, Ed Lucas and Ken Ikeda.
https://www.marjolainecharbin.com
https://www.instagram.com/marjolainecharbin/
https://marjolainecharbin.bandcamp.com
