Category Archives: releases

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.

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.

New duo release with Olie Brice on Relative Pitch

Out on 25th March and available to pre-order today is Conduits. This duo recording with Olie took place over JackTrip during lockdown, and we’re super happy that Relative Pitch Records wanted to release it.


You can pre-order the CD or digital album from today. If you’re ordering a physical copy from the UK you can buy it from us on Olie’s Bandcamp site rather than from the label in the US, to avoid prohibitive shipping costs.

Thanks to Kevin Reilly from Relative Pitch for putting this out! The cover photo is by Olie.

New tape with Suren Seneviratne on Fractal Meat

In early January I made an improvised electronics piece for one side of this tape release on Graham Dunning’s label Fractal Meat Cuts. It was a really nice process and I’m very happy to be sharing the release with Suren Seneviratne. My piece uses a sample of Anton Hunter from a Ripsaw Catfish gig last year, plus the sound of the floppy disk drive on my old 2002 laptop…


Head to the Fractal Meat Bandcamp to get your hands on a tape or DL!

New tape with Sam Andreae: Miaow Argument

A duo tape of improvisations by Sam Andreae and me has been released on the Aberdeen-based Sound Holes label. Daniel from Sound Holes approached me in the depths of 2020 asking if I’d like to put something out on the label, and Sam and I had been holding in-person sessions between lockdowns working on duo music. It seemed like a perfect fit! Miaow Argument is two strings of cut-up tabletop improvisations: I used a whole bunch of objects, parts of my drum kit and a plastic pipe with alto saxophone mouthpiece. It’s super nice to get into a whole different soundworld together, separate from but related to our usual two saxophones setup.

You can buy the tape from the Sound Holes website, and I’ll have some copies at upcoming gigs too.

Update: the digital tracks are now up on my Bandcamp site…

 

Hold Music out today!

It’s out there! The cr-ow-tr-io album was released today on Luminous. I’m really pleased with how this has turned out. Available as a CD (with one-off hand-printed sleeves) and digital album…

cr-ow-tr-io – Hold Music available to pre-order

Ahead of our performance at hcmf// next week, the first album from cr-ow-tr-io is available to pre-order from Luminous today! It’s a collection of short tracks carved out of long improvisations that Tullis, Otto and I recorded in 2019. You can read more about the trio and the album on the Luminous website – and pre-order the album as a CD and/or digital album over on the label Bandcamp site. You’ll also find three tracks streaming there, so have a listen…


For the CD sleeves I’m experimenting with stencilling and a set of neon paints to create a few different colour options. Each sleeve has its own unique variation of the design and I’ll select one randomly when you order. Pre-ordered CDs will arrive in time for release day on 10th December.