Field Concert Series

We are very delighted to welcome pioneering US saxophonist Bhob Rainey to Bristol, alongside London based legend Phil Durrant playing analogue synths and trumpeter Matt Davis. Bhob has been active in creative and improvised music for decades - see below for more info.

Joined here by the fantastic trio of Kay Grant (voice), Daniel Thompson (guitar) and Ian McLachlan (trombone).

PWYC

Bhob Rainey is a saxophonist, composer, and improviser. On the saxophone he has developed a distinctive, hallucinatory vocabulary that often sounds electronic, interspersed with an uncanny mastery of multiphonics. In 1998 he co-founded the duo nmperign with trumpeter Greg Kelley, touring extensively while upending a host of improvisational givens. Seeking to bring rigor to improvisation at a larger scale, he later formed The BSC, an eight-piece ensemble that navigated the challenges of group improvisation without relying on predetermined structures or cues. Their work and practices were explored in the 2011 book and album, Manual. Rainey additionally has a long list of collaborators and an especially refined solo saxophone style. He was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2013 for his work in this field.

In the realm of composition, Rainey focuses heavily on heterogenous electroacoustic work, combining sometimes extreme digital synthesis and processing with field recordings, live instruments, and other acoustic sources. He often explores the idea that a "human" is much more than just the idea of "human", and much stranger. A SuperCollider "power user", he is known for his contributions of plugins, algorithmic works such as Peev and These are They, and digital instruments like xynthii and Dumber from Another Mother.

Rainey has long-running, multidisciplinary collaborations, especially in theater and dance. He has worked closely with Whit MacLaughlin / New Paradise Laboratories since 2012, integrating often unsettling music and sound design into their uniquely generative process of developing plays. In 2014, he began working with dancer / choreographer JungWoong Kim, collaborating on both large-scale, site-specific pieces and fully improvised events. Rainey has additionally made music for films and Chinese puppetry.
https://bhobrainey.com

Phil Durrant. Born near London in 1957, Phil Durrant is a multi-instrumentalist improviser/composer/sound artist who currently performs solo and group concerts. As a violinist (and member of the Butcher/Russell/Durrant trio), he was 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.

In recent years as an electric mandolinist, he has been performing in a trio with Mark Wastell and John Butcher. As a semi-modular synthesist, Phil Durrant continues to perform with Bertrand Denzler and Burkhard Beins in Trio Sowari, as well as a duo with drummer Mark Sanders. 

Durrant is also a member of the  international electronic ensemble MIMEO with Keith Rowe, Kaffe Matthews, Thomas Lehn, Rafael Toral a.o. His recent project Gentle Fire Reimagined performed to a sell out audience at London’s Cafe Oto. 

Kay Grant is a vocal improviser, singer and composer. Her work is informed by an open-eared and open-armed path through musical styles, with a commitment to the joy of ensemble playing. Considering the voice as an instrumental component, her free explorations support a tangle of textures and timbres, melodies and meanderings, rhythms and randomness, structure and spontaneity. Her many collaborators include Jim Dvorak, Ntshuks Bonga, Hannah Marshall, Alex Ward, Tim Hodgkinson and Pat Thomas, as well as local musical heroes Neil Smith, Luke Annesley, Mark Langford, Paul Anstey, Rich Hughes, Tina Hitchens, Matthew Grigg, Matt Davis, Yvonna Magda, Raph Clarkson, Aidan Searle, Nigel Bryant and Nick Moore. 

Daniel Thompson is a London based guitarist and free improviser. During his time studying with the late John Russell his musical direction was solidified. Daniel has (is) slowly developed (ing) his music which is about the guitar, about history and about music and the future possibilities held in the moment. You can hear and see Daniel performing solo, with other musicians in many ad-hoc improvising situations and in long-term collaborations or ‘working groups’. Daniel has performed and/or recorded with Steve Noble, Caroline Kraabel, Max Reed, Evan Parker, John Edwards, Benedict Taylor, Tom Jackson, Vid Drašler, Eddie Prevost, John Butcher, Neil Metcalfe, Ian McLachlan, Kay Grant, Marcello Magliocchi and Alan Wilkinson to name only a few. As well as being a musician Daniel is the founder and artistic director of ‘Empty Birdcage Records’, a label dedicated to releasing documents of free improvisation.

Ian Mclachlan has been operating in the field of free improvisation for over 40 years..His instruments include Trombone, Euphonium, Recorders and a renaissance instrument called a Cornamuse (bagpipe family). He has collaborated with many musicians and his ongoing projects are a trio with Marcio Mattos and Marilsa Gouvea, a trio with Kay Grant and Daniel Thompson and a recorder quartet led by Teresa Haeckel.