Radu Malfatti has long been a pivotal figure in improvised and experimental music, from his early day with ensembles like the Brotherhood of Breath to his subsequent involvement with the Wandelweiser collective and radical investigations into the relationship between music and silence. Long known as a trombone player, he is currently exploring the possibilities of the bass harmonica. Malfatti’s visits to London are rare nowadays, so we are very lucky to be able to present this concert with a magnificent line-up of musicians. There will be two improvised quartets and a sextet composition by Malfatti.
Radu Malfatti – bass harmonica
Mira Benjamin – violin
Isaiah Ceccarelli – percussion
Phil Durrant – violin
Dominic Lash – double bass
John Lely – [unspecified]
Doors 7:30 | music 8pm | Entry £5 / donations
Radu Malfatti
16 december 1943 born in innsbruck
1965-70 looked for the Academy of Music Graz
studied with eje thelin
spoke with sonny rollins
drank coffee with luigi nono
likes to play tennis with doris
read a lot, forgot everything
Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator. She performs new and experimental music, with an interest in collaboration and community-building among musicians and composers. Her practice has been informed by affiliations with Quatuor Bozzini, Philip Thomas, Martin Arnold, and the members of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, among many others. Most recently she has collaborated with Cassandra Miller, Martin Arnold, Bryn Harrison, Richard Glover, Beavan Flanagan, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Taylor Brook, and Scott McLaughlin. Mira co-directs nu:nord, an international community-building project that engages artists from Canada, Norway and the UK. Her PhD research focusses on microtonality in string performance practice, and is based at the University of Huddersfield.
Isaiah Ceccarelli is a drummer, composer, improviser, and occasional singer of very early music. He lives in Montréal, Québec.
Phil Durrant is an improviser/composer/sound artist who devises his own virtual performance instruments using Reaktor. As a violinist (and member of the Butcher/Russell/Durrant trio), he is one of the key exponents of the “group voice approach” style of improvised music. In the late 90s, his trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn represented a shift to a more “reductionist” approach to group improvisation. As a digital music composer, Durrant was part of the UK ‘House Music’ and ‘Breakbeat’ scene in the 1990s and worked with innovators Fabio and Grooverider and Shut Up And Dance. Durrant currently performs regularly with the acoustic/electronic group Trio Sowari (with Bertrand Denzler and Burkhard Beins). He has also been collaborating and composing site-specific music for a wide variety of choreographers, including Maxine Doyle, Susanne Thomas, and Gill Clarke.
Dominic Lash is a double bassist, improviser, composer and writer. He has collaborated with musicians such as Tony Conrad, Evan Parker and the late Steve Reid. Current ensembles include his own Quartet (somewhat jazz-based), Consorts (drones and improvisation), The Set Ensemble (collaborative experimental music group) and a number of ensembles with clarinettist/guitarist Alex Ward. He also has an expanding repertoire of solo compositions; recent and forthcoming works written for him include Occam XVII by Eliane Radigue and a new work by Jürg Frey.
John Lely writes music and words, plays objects and electronics, and curates concerts. His work has been influenced by associations with Antoine Beuger, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Michael Parsons, Tom Johnson, Manfred Werder, Taylan Susam and Laurence Crane, among many others. Formative and ongoing collaborations include work with the musicians of Apartment House, the Bozzini Quartet and the Edges ensemble. He is co-author, with James Saunders, of Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation (Continuum 2012), a book about text scores. Together with composers Tim Parkinson and Markus Trunk he curates Music We’d Like to Hear, a concert series described by TEMPO as ‘an oasis of thoughtful and idealistic music-making’.
Mark Wastell has been active as a musician since 1995, making his initial concerts with the
trio IST featuring Rhodri Davies and Simon H. Fell. He has performed and recorded extensively and has collaborated with the likes of Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Evan Parker, Lasse Marhaug, Tony Conrad, Keith Rowe, John Zorn, Peter Kowald, Joachim Nordwall, Otomo Yoshihide, Burkhard Beins, Bernhard Gunter, Ed Jones and David Toop. Mark recently formed a new Quartet featuring Alan Wilkinson, Dominic Lash and Olie Brice. He also runs the Confront Recordings record label.
