Sunday 23 October 2022, 2pm
John McCowen is a composer/clarinetist focused on extending the possibilities of the clarinet. His work has been described by The New Yorker as “the sonic equivalent of microscopic life viewed on a slide”. John's multiphonic approach embraces drones, difference tones, and beating harmonics as a means to squeeze out the compositional potential within a single, acoustic sound source. Documents of this practice have been released by Edition Wandelweiser, International Anthem, Astral Spirits, SUPERPANG, Dinzu Artefacts, and others. John was a 2017 & 2019 artist-in-residence at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan, China, and also the 2020 artist-in-residence at ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn. He received the Elizabeth Mills Crothers Award for excellence in music composition in 2016 from Mills College where he received an MA in Music Composition under the tutelage of Roscoe Mitchell. He currently resides in Reykjavik, Iceland.
John remains stubbornly dedicated to acoustic phenomena. His works do not utilize amplifier feedback or electronically-generated sounds unless specified.
Mengting Zhuo is an artist based in London, originally from Guangzhou, China. She composes situations with site, sound, body and time, in the forms of performance, participatory installation, and concerts. Often minimalist, subtle and intimate, her work invites the audience to reflect on themes of connection, transmission, contingency and distance.
Recently, she is exploring the politics of listening through a series of happenings predominantly using non-instruments, unwanted noise, found objects and the body.
As a performer and director, she has made encounters with audiences in theatres, galleries and other spaces, including a park, a beach, a karaoke club, a flat, and online. Her work has been presented internationally, including the UK, China, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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
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
