Bill Orcutt is an American guitarist and composer known for his raw, highly individual approach to improvisation. A co-founder of the 1990s noise-rock duo Harry Pussy, he helped shape a fiercely abrasive aesthetic that drew from no wave, hardcore punk, and free jazz. Often playing a four-string guitar in unconventional tunings, he combines shards of melody, sudden silences, and surging rhythmic bursts, creating music that feels both primitive and structurally intricate. In parallel with his work as a guitarist, he runs the Palilalia and Fake Estates imprints and develops his own audio software, continuing to blur lines between avant-garde experimentation, song form, and DIY practice.

2025 saw Orcutt release ‘Another Perfect Day’, his first solo electric guitar record since 2017’s eponymous Bill Orcutt. While that eight-year gap might not seem like a ton of time on the cosmic scale, it nonetheless represents a busy half-decade plus for Orcutt projects: a raft of improv collaborations, an acclaimed run of chopped and looped albums on Fake Estates, and the collision of Orcutt’s computer and guitar music on Music For Four Guitars and last year’s How to Rescue Things, both on Palilalia. The undeniable alchemy of those latter mashups inspired not only a wider appreciation of Orcutt-as-composer, but also the resurrection of Orcutt-as-bandleader, as the Bill Orcutt Quartet hit the road in support of Four Guitars, Orcutt’s first work with a proper score. ‘Another Perfect Day’ sees Orcutt building tension with short phrases, repeated with slight variability until it seems like they’ll never stop, finally slamming into a fresh line like the dawning valley at the crest of the mountain pass. It’s an affirmation that Orcutt is above all a lead player - angular runs scaling the heavens, ricocheting back to ground zero before climbing again.

YOKE - comprised of Rebecca Sneddon (sax), Jo Kelly (double bass), Robin Foster (percussion), Matthew Grigg (guitar) - some of Bristol's wildest, most scrambled free music makers. Explosive, exhilarating and deserving of the hype.