Safe Operating Space is about the beauty of unrepeatable moments. Composer, electronic musician, improviser and field recordist Tullis Rennie with mixes recorded and live music with the extraordinary line-up of Tara Franks (cello), Cath Roberts (baritone sax) and Dee Byrne (alto sax).
Their recent self titled album explores new aspects of Rennie’s practice while reflecting thoughts on themes such as global heating, AI-generated deepfakes, family life, and Kate Bush. Working live with the album as a departure point, the ensemble play alongside, against and around fragments of the recordings, Rennie using analogue drum machines and synthesisers.
"Blending string improvisations and outré brass with expertly deployed electronics and samples...equal parts tender and affronting, slaloming gracefully around conventional approaches to rhythm, melody and harmony with a lexicon that’s unmistakably his own" – Electronic Sound
"Free improv sessions get warped into booming, boundary-pushing electronica... as if we were listening to an intergalactic visitor’s attempt at appropriating the dancefloor" – the Quietus
Listen here: https://efpirecords.bandcamp.com/album/safe-operating-space
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
A cult 70’s sci-fi novel set in a post-apocalyptic East Kent is used to bring together hoddening, puppetry, foraging and primitive music. This unique event is part of an exploration of the possibility of a stage adaptation of Russell Hoban's novel, Riddley Walker. The theatre maker Greg McClaren is collaborating with a community of artists to create a daytime walk (more details of this announced on social media) and an evening event.
We can't tell you anymore because we don't know what this one will it be until it happens! It may involve reimagining culture after a collapse and it will involve Sarah Trillo (artist), Kristin Fredricksson (puppetry, movement), Kat Peddie (text), Thomas Gavriel (Seadog books), Billie M Vigne (artist, metalsmith), Miles Irving (forager), Tim Fletcher (hoodener, archivist).
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Steered by William Burroughs, The Faversham Motorway Intersection Enthusiasts Club is an ongoing multimedia rhythm band formed in 2018. Rooted in repetition, the act draws from the rhythms of both motorway travel and dance music, finding a shared pulse between mechanical monotony and the endless flow of traffic.
Through live performance and visual extensions, it examines the overlooked mundanity, the rigid structures of concrete landscapes, and the spaces in between. The band has taken on various forms over the years, shifting and evolving while always maintaining a sense of curiosity. The club invites listeners and viewers to engage with their surroundings in new ways, encouraging a practice of contemplation, questioning, and interaction with the familiar yet unnoticed.
Casbah is a film that attempts to reconstruct – from memory – an experimental film noir monster movie that was never made.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Matt Wright’s ‘Spheric Totemic’ brings DJ culture and free improv together with splintered beats and immersive sound design. with Alexander Hawkins (keyboards), Neil Charles (bass), Mandhira de Saram (violin/fx), Stephen Davis (drums) and Matt Wright (turntables and live sampling).
Spheric Totemic is the project of Matt Wright a composer, producer and sound designer based in Kent, UK. is diverse output across improvised music, chamber composition and collaborations with dance, theatre and film.
He has collaborated with some of the most dynamic artists in the contemporary sphere, including Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Ikue Mori, Claron McFadden, B’Rock Orchestra, Spring Heel Jack, Ensemble Klang, Neil Charles, Alexander Hawkins and Elaine Mitchener.
Preview: https://www.matt-wright.co.uk/spheric-totemic
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
When you’ve lived such a rich musical life as 80-year old saxophone legend Evan Parker the stories pour out. But what happens if you blur the boundary between anecdote and musical improvisation?
Evan Parker and Matthew Wright (Trance Map) join forces with long-time collaborator and sonic storyteller Filipe Gomes. Evan and Matt have recently released ‘Transatlantic Trance Map’ with False Walls and ‘Horizons Held Close’ with Relative Pitch. Evan and Filipe (Arco Barco, Ramsgate Radio) have recently collaborated on Daniel Blumberg’s Oscar-winning score for the hit film The Brutalist.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Reserve your ticket here: canterbury.ac.uk/events/2025/yapada-trance-map
YAPADA: Duo and trio improvisations.
7pm - 8pm
Dan Herbert: Unrealtime and electronics
Yannis Patoukas: electric guitar and electronics
Panos Ghikas: electric viola, transducer feedback and Unrealtime
TRANCE MAP+ 8.30pm - 9.30pm
Evan Parker: soprano saxophone
Matt Wright: turntable, live sample and sound design
Milana Zarić: harps
Richard Barrett: electronics
Evan Parker and Matt Wright met in 2008 and out of their first studio sessions developed Trance Map, a project that mixes field recordings, samples from cassettes, turntable scratching and the live processing of Evan's relentlessly evolving saxophone lines. For this very special event, they are joined by the duo of harpist Milana Zarić and composer/electronics pioneer Richard Barrett.
Milana Zarić and Richard Barrett have been working together since 2013 in a wide variety of contexts from duo performances to collaboration with ensembles on several continents, and ranging from free improvisation to the performance of intricately notated compositions.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Wintersound is a festival of new music involving Canterbury Christ Church University, North Western University (Illinois) and Free Range.
The Six Tones combine traditional Vietnamese instruments and musical traditions with experimental Western music. Way back in 2015 this extraordinary trio gave a memorable performance inside glass boxes at a Free Range event in the Sidney Cooper Gallery. The Six Tones are Nguyễn Thanh Thủy (who plays đàn tranh) and Ngô Trà My (who plays đàn bầu) and the Swedish guitarist Stefan Östersjö.
For this special Free Range performance, we present two members of the group: Nguyễn Thanh Thủy and Stefan Österjö.
Wintersound continues on 17/01/25 with a series of talks and performances addressing the topic of ‘Musical glocalities and their influence: sound, geography, community’. Events are free but booking is required.
More info on WinterSound here: www.canterbury.ac.uk/events/2024/wintersound-2025
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Since the first Feral Choir about 35 years ago, singer and vocal experimenter Phil Minton, has led them in Japan, Brazil, France, Belgium, Germany, United States, Netherlands and Poland. Using the full range of sounds that the human voice is capable of, a Feral Choir is formed just a few days before each performance. If you are interested in exploring the totality of your voice, get in touch. Participation is free, no previous experience is necessary.
Email sam@freerangecanterbury.org if you’re interested.
Think of this as a wild, adventurous continuation of Canterbury’s ancient choral tradition, celebrating the approaching Winter Solstice with howls, groans, croaks and laughter.
Feedback from previous Feral Choir participants:
“You have let the sun enter into my head”
“After singing with the feral choir I felt elated and alive. My voice felt bigger afterwards, and I find myself still appreciating how much it can do.”
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
On Thursday 21st November, we present a collaboration between the Free Range Orchestra and Brighton's Safehouse collective. For 20 years Safehouse has been a hub for improvising musicians in Brighton, running regular performances and workshops featuring some of the UK's finest musicians making music alongside a local community of players.
Thanks to the Outlands Network Exchange Programme, which aims to foster connections between grassroots experimental music organisations in the UK, we are able to do something extraordinary in the current UK arts and bring two large improvising ensembles together to play John Zorn's game piece, Cobra.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. Music begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
‘Through The Eyes’ is an immersive performance offering a deep dive into the sensory experiences of neurodivergent individuals, shedding light on their unique encounters with the world. Exploring the performers' personal narratives, the work hones in on their intricate relationships with sight, sound, touch, and more. The audience is guided through literal sensory encounters, such as walking on textured objects or heightened auditory experiences.
The strengths and challenges experienced by the audience is the primary focus of the work creating a supportive environment, one that recognises beauty in the architecture of every brain. The event also showcases a new speaker-like object, crafted in collaboration with Henry Dagg, called the ‘Timpanator’.
‘una’ is a group of neurodivergent artists, performers, and creators that transcend the disconnected nature of arts education and advocacy, creating community centred performances for participants of every age, creative experience and walk of life.