Sloth Racket are heading out for a geographically-challenging weekend next month, playing two gigs before we go into the studio. Buy tickets now to catch us in Glasgow or Brighton – and nowhere in between!
***Glasgow tickets and info***
***Brighton tickets and info***
This summer Dee and I are playing a cluster of gigs as a duo, in London, Bristol and Antwerp! We’re working on acoustic saxophone improvisations as well as a new electronic version of the duo with me on Lyra-8 synthesiser and Dee processing her sax with effects pedals, which we’ll do at BRÅK for the first time and then record.
24th June – BRÅK at waterintobeer, Brockley, London
26th June – Cafe Kino, Bristol with Clarkson/Grigg/Hill and Carnivorous Plants
28th June – Flim Flam at Ryan’s Bar, Stoke Newington, London
25th August – Summer Bummer Festival in Antwerp, Belgium
To mark the occasion, our 2020 duo album Disembark! is now available as a cassette….you can grab one from Luminous, or from the merch table at one of the gigs. I’m very happy with how these prints came out – most of them are the product of a very hot day in the studio, when my printing got slightly freeform and chaotic, and it’s led to some rad results. Every individual case is different and will be shipped randomly!
Another gig for the duo of Graham Dunning and me is coming up this month, at the squelchily-named TREAD INTO MULCH series, run by Paul Margree. The gig is happening at Hundred Years Gallery on Friday 26th May; we’re sharing the bill with two solo sets from Paul (as Ivy Nostrum) and John Macedo. I’m really enjoying the way the duo is developing, and looking forward to another outing!
A new season of BRÅK is upon us once again! This month I’ll be collaborating with Khabat Abas (cello) for the first time, on baritone. In February it’s the return of my long-running duo with Benedict Taylor, but we’re going to try it out with me on live electronics. And then I’ll be taking the electronics back there again for the April gig, with Graham Dunning. Should be a nice cluster of gigs: lots of lovely guests. Join us in the shop…
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…
It’s been five years (!) since the release of the second Ripsaw Catfish album Namazu, so Anton and I are pretty excited that our third one will be coming out later this month! Recorded last September in Manchester, then mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney, Carapace sees us add my electronics to the mix and take the duo in a new direction. We’re very happy that it will be released on Raw Tonk again too. You can pre-order the album from Friday 10th June and it’s out on Friday 24th June. My flyer for this features Colin Webster’s awesome linocut album artwork, which will appear on the sleeves in hand-printed form.
To coincide with the release we’re going out on a mini-tour, with three live dates in the UK:
18th June – BRÅK @ waterintobeer, Brockley, London | 19:00, £5 or more
We’re launching the album in the beer shop! It seemed fitting considering that the label boss and 50% of the band are involved in running the gig. Info about BRÅK is on our website, and you can find out how to get to the shop on the wib site.
26th June – Soundhunt @ Thrive, Cambridge | 19:00, £5
Another new series here run by Dominic Lash and N.O Moore, who we’ll be sharing the bill with. The gig is happening at Thrive, a great vegan cafe within walking distance of the station. More venue info on the Thrive site.
19th July – Chance Meeting @ NIAMOS, Hulme, Manchester | 19:30, £9/£6 unwaged
In our other home city we’ll be playing at this brand new night, sharing the bill with THRAA. All the info you need can be found on the Chance Meeting site, where you can also follow a link to buy tickets for the gig.
Looking forward to getting out there with this band again!
cr-ow-tr-io will be out and about late this month, with dates in Manchester and London. In Manchester we’re playing at the fantastic Curious Ear series on Saturday 21st May. The workshop and gig are happening at the Ascension Church, Hulme: you can find all the details on the Curious Ear site, and on their gorgeous poster below…
Then on Thursday 26th May the trio will play at City, University of London, for an exciting occasion: the first London performance of my piece And then the next thing you know. We will be hanging my giant, fragmented graphic score in the performance space at City and responding to it in this new setting. Tickets are free for this, but you need to reserve a place as there are limited spots available. It will be great to take this project out for a second performance: I’m expecting the shape of the score, the atmosphere and the music to all be totally different to the original hcmf// gig (photo below). I’m looking forward to revisiting it all with Tullis and Otto.
I have also printed up a new batch of our trio release ‘Hold Music’ for these gigs, so it’s a good chance to grab a copy in the neon paint colour of your choice!
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Also…
Between those two gigs I’m playing a trio set with Chris Corsano and Alan Wilkinson at Cafe Oto! Our set on Monday 23rd May is part of Chris’ four-day residency, which I was super happy to be invited to be a part of.
After an epic admin session, Dee and I have just announced a new batch of LUME dates at Hundred Years Gallery, starting next month. All the info is on the LUME site, but the season looks like this:
20th May 2022
Caroline Kraabel & Khabat Abas
Dee Byrne solo
Alex Bonney & Cath Roberts
17th June 2022
Lara Jones & Dee Byrne
Suren Seneviratne solo
Gina Southgate & Cath Roberts
15th July 2022
Rebecca Nash & Dee Byrne
Andrew Lisle solo
Dirk Serries/Tullis Rennie/Cath Roberts
My sets are all the re-starting of projects that have been dormant since the pre-pandemic times, so I’m looking forward to playing with Alex, Gina, and the Dirk/Tullis trio again – it’s been too long!
We made some nice new flyers for the online promo too, using parts of photos from last season’s gigs…
Sloth Racket are playing three gigs in April before we go into the studio to record a new album. You can catch us in Newcastle, Sheffield and Nottingham.
Jazz North East are organising the Newcastle gig, and tickets are on sale here.
More info about the Sheffield gig organised by Jazz At The Lescar here.
Tickets are on sale for the Nottingham gig from Jazz Steps here.
Looking forward to this mini-tour – our first gigs with the full lineup since September 2019!
BRÅK is back at our Brockley beer shop haunt waterintobeer with a winter season of gigs. Join us in November, December and January for more improvised duos in South East London. Hosts Colin Webster, Tom Ward and me are joined each month by guest artists. More info can be found at brakbrakbrak.co.uk
