Fringe in the Round presents Smiodair

Smiodair — from the Irish for fragments or small broken pieces — captures something true about three musicians whose paths have diverged and reconnected across London, Paris, Dublin, New York and Berlin.

Smiodair is an international quartet with roots that go back over twenty years. Drummer Dave Smith and saxophonist Robin Fincker first played together at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, going on to co-found the Loop Collective in London in 2005 — a venue, festival and record label that became a hub for the UK and European creative music scene. Their long creative partnership continued through Outhouse, the Ruhabi project and Splice, accumulating a body of work that spans jazz, improvised music and West African rhythm traditions.

Bassist Simon Jermyn came into the fold through a collaboration between Dublin's Bottlenote Collective and the Loop Collective in 2006, before a decade in New York and a move to Berlin that took his playing to new places.

For their UK tour in Autumn 2026, the trio expands to a quartet with the addition of trumpeter Laura Jurd — one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British jazz. The new lineup deepens the band's sonic palette while staying true to the collective, compositional spirit at its heart.

Playing original music composed by all four members, the quartet constantly weaves between composition and improvisation — thunderous grooves colliding with dreamlike sonic landscapes. Without a harmony instrument, the music is raw and direct, rich in melody and rhythm.