Author Archives: cath

December gigs and AAO hcmf// project

December is upon us, and having just finished a big project (of which more later), it already feels like my 2022 is over – but in fact I have a few nice gigs in London this month. A quick rundown…

Sunday 4 December – with Christoph Gallio, Dominic Lash and Andrew Lisle at Hundred Years Gallery

Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio has spent a chunk of time based in London this year, and I was very happy to be asked to join him for this afternoon set at the gallery. With a heavyweight Lash/Lisle rhythm section! More info on the HYG website.

Friday 9 December – new live electronics duo with Bill Thompson at LUME

Also at HYG is the last LUME gig of 2022, next Friday. My set will be the debut performance of a new live electronics collaboration with sound artist Bill Thompson. I’ve just added a Lyra-8 analogue synthesiser to my live electronics setup (see above – the huge one), and this will be the first time I’ve taken it out on a gig. Bill and I had a great session together earlier this week so I’m looking forward to playing again.

Saturday 10 December – Jason Yarde benefit gig, Cafe Oto and The Vortex

Fantastic saxophone player Jason Yarde is recovering from a stroke. For this benefit gig, Orphy Robinson has assembled a cast of characters from across the London improv scene for an afternoon improvised music relay. Players will move between Cafe Oto and The Vortex in freeform ensembles. More info and link soon…

Saturday 17 December – BRÅK Christmas Special with Charles Hayward

My last gig of the year is the BRÅK festive special. We’ll be at waterintobeer for a festive night of improv, and my duo partner is formidable drummer Charles Hayward! Tom will be joined by Sam Andreae, and Matt Cargill of Sly & The Family Drone with play a duo set with Colin. It promises to be a special night!

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Australian Art Orchestra hcmf// ‘Fresh Water – Salt Water’ project in Melbourne and Huddersfield

Over the last few months I’ve had the privilege of being involved in a pretty amazing international collaborative project with the Australian Art Orchestra. Co-produced by AAO and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Fresh Water – Salt Water is a new work centred around the music of Yolŋu songmen Daniel and David Wilfred, with guest UK artists Mandhira De Saram and myself along with AAO musicians Martin Ng, Helen Svoboda, Aviva Endean and Peter Knight. In early November Mandhira and I travelled to Melbourne, where the ensemble worked together to devise the new music. We then performed the piece at Melbourne Recital Centre (above), before recovening in the UK later in the month to present it at Bates Mill in Huddersfield for hcmf//. It’s been an incredible and very creatively stimulating experience! There’s a lot to process. I loved working with everyone and hope it can lead to more collaboration in the future. In the mean time you can read more about the project and the artists on the AAO website.

It’s out!

Organising Space is out today. ‘A superbly conceived and executed release,’ said Andy Hamilton in the WIre magazine!

Organising Space by Sloth Racket available to pre-order today!

You can pre-order Organising Space starting today! Help me to know how many CD copies I need to make up by ordering yours right now, ready for the release day on 7th October. You can also listen to the first track from the album, ‘Not This Time’, in advance of the release day:

The sleeves were risograph-printed by Footprint Workers Co-op in Leeds, who also did our zines for the Dismantle Yourself album in 2019. I love the way they turned out!

New Sloth Racket album! Live dates in October!

The fifth studio album by Sloth Racket is out next month on Luminous! Recorded in April at Lightship 95 in London, then mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney, Organising Space will be available to pre-order from 23rd September as a digital album and CD. The physical format features a risograph-printed sleeve designed by me and printed up by Footprint Workers Co-op in Leeds. We’re all really happy with how the album has turned out, and I can’t wait to send it out into the world.

The band are out and about to celebrate the album with three live dates, including an album launch at Cafe Oto on 10th October. Tickets are on sale for all three dates: links can be found on the Sloths website. Join us…

September 2022 gigs

After some time off in August, I’ve got a relatively busy Autumn coming up – starting with a cluster of gigs this month.

Saturday 3rd September: solo electronics set at Mercury Over Maps
I’ve been invited by Bill Thompson to play at his series Mercury Over Maps at Hundred Years Gallery. I haven’t played a solo set for a few months, so it will be nice to get back into that headspace – especially with electronics which are very new to me. I’m hoping to bring the whole set of mini synths, sampler and possibly a new addition, and I’m joining some great artists on the bill too – it should be a very nice evening.

Thursday 8th September: Spinningwork album launch at Listen! Cambridge
The quartet of Johnny Hunter, Olie Brice, Tom Ward and me has an album coming out on the Newcastle label New Jazz And Improvised Music Recordings on Friday 9th, so we’re celebrating the release with an album launch in Cambridge the night before! Graham and Carol at Listen! are big supporters of all of us, so it’s the perfect place to do it. You can buy tickets for the gig over on their website.

Friday 9th September: duo with Sam Andreae at Hundred Years Gallery
To end the week I’m back in London for a duo set with Sam – our first in a few months! This is part of a double bill concert organised by Phil Durrant, with the other set by Phil and John Bissett. Sam and I will be bringing – and potentially expanding – our tabletop objects/electronics setup from the ‘Miaow Argument’ tape.

Saturday 10th/Sunday 11th September: Lancaster Jazz Festival
Over the weekend I’m up in Lancaster, playing duo sets at 2pm on both days! Saturday is with Dee Byrne, adding electronics to our two saxophone duo project, and then on Sunday Anton Hunter and I will play a Ripsaw Catfish set. Both gigs at at The Storey, and you can find more info on the festival website.

Tuesday 13th September: Olie Brice Octet album launch at Cafe Oto
Last year I was very happy to be invited to play on Olie’s large ensemble session, and this Cafe Oto date is the launch of that recording, part of a double album ‘Fire Hills’. You can grab tickets for the gig over on the Cafe Oto website. The band is packed full of really great players!

Saturday 24th September: duo with Blanca Regina at BRÅK
My last gig of the month is back in my local haunt waterintobeer for another BRÅK, playing with Blanca Regina for the first time. Also on the bill are guests Caroline Kraabel (playing with Tom Ward) and Sarah Gail Brand (playing with Colin Webster).

Looking forward to getting stuck into this playing after some time away from the instrument(s). See you out there…

Spinningwork album available to pre-order

Available to pre-order now is the Spinningwork album on New Jazz And Improvised Music Recordings! Recorded live in Newcastle last September, this is a collection of compositions by all the band members. We’re really happy that this music is out there! You can listen to a preview track and order your copy from the label’s Bandcamp site, and the album is properly out in September.

Two more Sloth Racket October dates announced

The cluster of gigs around the Sloth Racket album release in October is taking shape, with dates recently announced in Brighton and Glasgow! Tickets are on sale for both of those, along with the Cafe Oto date. So the current status is:

10 October – London: Cafe Oto (buy tickets)

11 October – Brighton: Safehouse @ The Rose Hill (buy tickets)

15 October – Glasgow: Pop Mutations Festival (buy tickets)

More tba all being well, but I’m already looking forward to this excellent trio of gigs! Brilliant poster for Pop Mutations below.

At some point there will be a Sloth Racket tour poster that pulls this thing together too!

 

Sloth Racket at Cafe Oto this October

A quick post to make you aware of the just-announced Sloth Racket album launch at Cafe Oto on 10th October! Tickets are on sale now for this special night – our first gig at Oto – where we’ll celebrate the release of our next album. The as-yet-untitled album is currently in progress and I’m very happy with the direction it’s going…

(Also pleased with the new collage-y image above that I put together for this gig!)

Translucence out on New Wave Of Jazz / trio dates in July

Now available from Dirk Serries’ New Wave Of Jazz label is TRANSLUCENCE, a trio album from Tullis Rennie, Dirk and myself.


Recorded in Brussels in January 2020, the session followed our first trio performance at Sound In Motion’s 2019 Summer Bummer festival in Antwerp. Of course, soon after the recording it became impossible to travel or play live for a long while, but the trio now has some plans for live playing in the UK next month:

15 July – at LUME | Hundred Years Gallery, London

16 July – at Two Ship | The Nest, Hastings

I’ll add more info to this post soon, along with a link for UK physical orders of the CD.