This special event is a collaboration between the Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Free Range and world-renowned Hurdy-Gurdy maker Claire Dugue.
‘Living legend’ Valentin Clastrier is considered the inventor of the modern hurdy-gurdy which, in his hands, creates a magical and virtuoso universe. His playing is full of surprises, as is his career. Originally a guitarist alongside Jacques Brel he then discovered the hurdy-gurdy and, over the years, worked with instrument makers on prototypes of electroacoustic hurdy-gurdies leading to his current 27-string instrument.
‘deep sonorous drones supporting cascades of notes and sometimes discordant swashes of sound, with electronic effects feeding the serpentine melodies and creating hauntingly powerful, sometimes intoxicating sonic spirals’.
After winning several prestigious awards and much critical acclaim, Valentin is back in England for the first time in over 20 years and we’re very happy to have him in Canterbury!
There will be two workshops for hurdy-gurdy players earlier in the day, one with Valentin Clastrier and the other with Nigel Eaton. To book a place contact Claire at mail@claire-dugue.com
Evan Parker (soprano saxophone)
‘If you've ever been tempted by free improvisation, Parker is your gateway drug’
Stewart Lee, The Guardian‘There is, still, nothing else in music - jazz or otherwise - that remotely resembles an Evan Parker solo concert’
Steve Lake‘One of the music's greatest living instrumentalists’
The Times
For over 50 years Evan Parker has been widening the scope of what is possible on a saxophone. Using techniques such as circular breathing, Parker creates complex worlds of sound with vivid, intricate detail projected into polyphonic textures that slowly evolve and grow. It’s as if Parker dismantled all musical language associated with the saxophone and stripped it back to simply air passing through a column and, from this ground zero, created something new that is simultaneously primal, modern, hypnotic, intimate, vast and microscopic.
Information about tickets and booking
We have partnered with the Gulbenkian Arts Centre for this special event.
Tickets cost £15 (£10 students) and are available here:
Click here to book tickets
Links
Valentine Clastrier Links:
Evan Parker Links:
During lockdown the Spanish trumpeter Daniel Cano recorded a blistering duo album with the great jazz drummer Doug Sides (who has played with jazz icons such as Lionel Hampton, Chick Corea, Benny Golson and Hank Jones amongst many, many others).
Stripped right back to just rhythmic textures and a strong melodic line, the duo launched the album, Duplexity, at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.
Duplexity is a fine showcase for the evidently strong relationship between a trumpeter whose warm, bright open tone evokes the hard-bop masters of the ’50s and ’60s and a drummer with a light touch and a supple sense of swing. Restricted means, in terms of instrumentation, but the result is a rich experience with no sense of austerity — or of overplaying to fill the spaces. (Richard Williams)
Lumpen Nobleman will DJ before and after Daniel and Doug's set.
Lumpen Nobleman is an alias of Extra Normal label boss and Contra Pop Festival organiser Kyle McCallum. As well as organising what has since 2015 been one of the musical highlights of the summer, LN broadcasts excellent, eclectic shows monthly on Repeater, Tak Tent and Margate Radio.
Listen to Lumpen Nobleman's excellent 2020 Errors and Remedies EP - with remixes by Helena Celle, Don’t DJ, Mariam Rezaei (who knocked us out at Contrapop in August) and more, here: extranormalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/errors-and-remedies
Links:
Daniel Cano website
Doug Sides website
Lockdown sessions: Ronnie Scott's presents Duplexity 15/04/2021
February Live At Free Range. Work8hop Jazz feat. Daniel Cano and Frances Knight. Composed by Matt Miles
Extranormal Records website
“Dance to it, make love to it, stare at the clouds to it” - Iggy Pop
Formed by Bex Burch in 2015, Vula Viel’s music has shifted over the course of their three critically acclaimed albums, from Afro jazz-tinged adaptations of traditional Dagaare music towards a unique sound rooted in post punk.
Placing Bex's rawly delivered gyil (Ghanian xylophone) rhythms as the central element, the band’s scything rock dynamics have seen them championed by Iggy Pop. Bassist Ruth Goller (Skylla, Acoustic Ladyland, Melt Yourself Down) and drummer Jim Hart (Cloudmakers Trio) complete the line-up. They have gained further plaudits for their pulsating live shows at venues such as Café OTO and Total Refreshment Centre.
The trio are joined by NYC legend Peter Zummo. In addition to performing his own compositions and leading his own ensembles, he has worked with myriad bands, orchestras, composers and musicians.
Peter's celebrated trombone style is one of the most beloved features of Arthur Russell's sound, with whom he played and collaborated with in the recording studio.
★ ★ ★ ★ Evening Standard
★ ★ ★ ★ Jazzwise
★ ★ ★ ★ Financial Times
★ ★ ★ ★ Songlines
The Free Range Orchestra will be playing the opening set to launch their new album, Connections, recorded live with saxophonist Evan Parker in July 2021.
Links
Vula Viel website
Peter Zummo website
#5 Go Bang (Dinosaur L, produced by Arthur Russell, feat Peter Zummo)
Arthur Russell - In The Light of The Miracle (featuring Peter Zummo)
We finish our Spring season with a performance of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto like you’ve never heard it before.
The celebrated classical soloist, Chihiro Ono, will play the solo violin part completely straight, while an orchestra of improvising musicians, dancers and poets interpret Mendelssohn’s score with theremin, live electronics, oboe, flute, saxophones, trumpet, pianos, viola, violins, double bass, voices, guitars, bass clarinet, cutlery, musical saw and tap dancing.
Following on from their performance of the Beethoven violin concerto for BBC Radio 3, experimental music groups Squib-box and ARCO and the soloist Chihiro Ono join forces with the Free Range Orchestra for this extraordinary performance of this perennial classic.
The concert also features smaller sets by members of ARCO and Squib.
chihiroono.com Chihiro Ono (violin soloist)
neilluck.com Neil Luck (conductor?!)
squib-box.com/2018/05/baggage-beethoven-violin-concerto Beethoven violin concerto
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05zshht Beethoven violin concerto
Since 2015, Refugee Tales has organised large scale walks in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers and people who have been held in immigration detention. On each night of the walks the stories of these people are told, often in collaboration with major writers such as Ali Smith or Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Tonight Dragan Todorovic reads ‘The Migrant’s Tale’ in which the story of someone fleeing Syria is interspersed with a reimagining of ‘The Man of Law’s Tale’ from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The theatre maker, puppeteer and Feldenkrais practitioner, Kristin Fredricksson, experiments with elements of puppetry, light, gesture and music to connect with ancient storytelling traditions that often took the form of semi-improvised multimedia performances.
refugeetales.org
kent.ac.uk/english/people/117/todorovic-dragan
kristinfredricksson.com
Olie Brice (double bass, electronics)
Alexander Hawkins (keyboards, electronics)
Matt Wright (turntables, electronics)
Fusing influences from DJ Premier, Konono No.1 and the UK free improv scene, Spheric Totemic bring a ritual of splintered rhythm, bass and keys to Free Range. Featuring Olie Brice (Olie Brice Quintet, Somersaults) Alexander Hawkins (Alexander Hawkins Ensemble, Anthony Braxton Quartet) and Matt Wright (Trance Map, Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble).
oliebrice.com
www.alexanderhawkinsmusic.com
matt-wright.co.uk
*Please note - Neil Charles was originally slated to play as part of the Spheric Totemic trio, but can no longer make it. He has been replaced for this show by Olie Brice.
Skylla is the extraordinary new project from Ruth Goller. Best known for her work with jazz-rock bands like Acoustic Ladyland or Melt Yourself Down, Goller’s new music is more mysterious and subterranean. Using unusual tunings and harmonics on bass guitar, Goller unearths hidden, secret sounds that are literally given voice by singers Lauren Kinsella and Alice Grant.
It's kinda like a cross between Derek Bailey and Arthur Russell, and it's just really really beautiful (BBC 6 Music)
Very close, intimate sound.. so close and so tactile that you can feel the music stroking you on the shoulder (BBC Radio 3)[Goller] unravels an intimacy so deep it feels almost blasphemous to be privy to its wonders. (ECM reviews)
ruthgoller.bandcamp.com/album/skylla
This is the first screening of a rough cut of a new feature-length documentary about Henry Dagg, a musician and creator of new musical instruments who lives in Faversham. His many creations include:
The Sharpsichord: perhaps his best known instrument, a 2.5 -ton programmable automatic harp made from stainless steel, which was used by Bjork on her Biophilia album.
The Catastrophony: an organ of tuned miaowing cats that reduced Prince Charles to tears when Henry played it at Clarence House.
The Rochester Independent College Gate Harp: a 5-ton Stainless Steel Gates & Railings installation incorporating a 6-octave musical instrument.
The Hooty-Scooty: a combination of a hurdy-gurdy and a scooter.
The journalist and filmmaker Richard Fleury has been on a 10-year journey making this extraordinary film featuring Bob Geldof, Stewart Lee, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Jools Holland, Evan Parker, Tony Banks, and many more.
Henry Dagg links:
Henry Dagg performing with Bedford Handbell Ensemble at FR#156: youtube.com/watch?v=q-D_hdGbAKM
Bjork, 'Sacrifice', featuring the Sharsichord: youtube.com/watch?v=fjw3pt03CuA
Henry Dagg playing the Catastrophony at Jools Holland's Hootenanny, 2010 (with
Richard Louis Dray: youtube.com/watch?v=cHfBQCJaJoI
Henry Dagg at Free Range #120: soundcloud.com/free-range/fr-120-henry-dagg-full-set-2016-02-11
Black Top, the duo of multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson and pianist Pat Thomas, is a shape-shifting unit whose freely improvised performances combine twisted loops, samples and dub-effects, drawing on their Afro-Caribbean roots with a spontaneity and daring rooted in experimental free-jazz.
Returning to Free Range after their 2019 performance, they are joined by the gifted 24-year old saxophonist, flautist and composer, Xhosa Cole (BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2018).
[Black Top’s latest album, Some Good News,] vibrates with wild energy from start to finish … But what really lifts this above the average is the unit's ability to switch seamlessly into diasporic pan-global grooves … This 21st century melting pot is brimming over with thrills. (Jazzwise)
Links
Black Top (live at Free Range 2019)
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=black%20top%20free%20range
Xhosa Cole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5S8zWkNJpQ
We are pleased to present the drummer Roger Turner improvising as duo with the guitarist Pascal Marzan.
Pascal Marzan plays a microtonal 10 string guitar. After studying classical guitar in Paris in the 70's and 80's, playing music by Luciano Berio and Tristan Murail, Pascal became interested in improvisation and the music of eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. He was particularly drawn to central Asian music from Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, and Kyrghyztan.
The drummer Roger Turner has been described by The Wire as "one of the giants of free improvisation":
‘He has a virtuosity as astounding as it is inexplicably hilarious. i have rarely heard such an exquisite combination of volcanic power and finely- honed precision' (The Wire)
The opening set features the poet Kat Peddie reading from her own work alongside a collaboration with Walt Whitman, the Free Range Orchestra and the audience.
Pazcal Marzan duet with Phil Durrant (bandcamp)
Roger Turner with Chris Biscoe at FR#130
Kat Peddie conducting the Free Range Band for FR#166
turners-site.com
*The original line-up for this evening included Phil Minton, who was unable to play because of ill health.