Tonight we are proud to present the Free Range Orchestra performing in two very different ways.
The first half will feature duos, trios and quartets with performers names drawn from a hat by the audience. This format is used by Brighton's Safehouse collective and has inspired a series of nights in Dover's Vintoeq and produces unexpected combinations that can be absurd, entertaining and beautiful.
For the second half, the Free Range Orchestra reach into the coming ice of Winter and slowly thaw frozen Christmas songs, the ghostly breath of these familiar melodies expiring as they reach room temperature.
Unfortunately, we have had to reschedule Phil Minton and his Feral Choir's performance to May 2026.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. The events begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Right Here, Right Now is a stunning free jazz quartet led by the prodigiously gifted trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe aided by Ashley Long (double bass), Ben Handysides (drums) and Moss Freed (guitar).
The radical spirit of offhand precarity which radiates throughout this session frequently bubbles over into an effervescent sense of the imperative to explore. In a word? Fearless. (PRESTO MUSIC)
A messy emporium of raw, raucous realness. Alive. Keeffe and her quartet nailed it. (FREE JAZZ BLOG)
Nutters Corner are a vaguely groove based improvising duo comprising Nick Wyver on various saxophones and Les Wilson on drums. They formed the duo during the second lockdown, taking advantage of the "support bubble" idea at that time because "our bands couldn't play, and we saw this an opportunity to learn about improvising together and see what was possible - also to explore ideas that could not happen in our respective bands.
Doors for this event open at 7pm. The events begins at 8pm. A wide range of refreshment are available throughout the evening from the cafe.
Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell & Hannah White) will be performing their piece ‘Kinetic Resonance’ on a new instrument called the Orbit they designed and made in collaboration with local luthier Kai Tönjes. Inspired by the work of Walter Smetak and an instrument called a torre (tower) made by his students in the Brazilian band Uakti, the Orbit is a ten-sided instrument played by two musicians. The body is spun by one performer while the other holds a bow to ten rotating strings, creating trance-inducing drones and ethereal harmonics. Blanc Sceol are an artist duo who work in the expanded field of listening, sound, and performance.
Learn about the instrument: www.blancsceol.co.uk/Orbit-the-instrument
The opening set features the violinist and producer Agathe Max.
‘With an elegant command of melody and a strident use of rhythm, Max … bridges the gaps between minimalism, post-classicism, the avant garde, krautrock, and plain old-fashioned pop’ (Boomkat)
Workshop Collective is an octet formed by saxophonist Matt Miles to provide a platform for collaboration and experimentation. Some of the region's best jazz performer-composers meet regularly to workshop each other's pieces and develop personal approaches to writing for a chamber jazz orchestra.
The Leon String Quartet play repertoire, write their own music and collaborate with a wide range of artists. Previously at Free Range they have played Shostakovich, collaborated with adventurous folk group Arlet and played the polytemporal music of experimental rock composer and guitarist Joe Inkpen.
Members of these two groups combine to perform two new collaborative pieces commissioned by Free Range especially for this performance.
Léonore Boulanger: voice, harmonium, toy piano, casio SA-46, jew's harp, megaphone
Jean-Daniel Botta: voice, guitar, double bass, piano, music box, casio SA-46, balafon, trumpet
Laurent Sériès: percussions, toy piano, flute chinese hulusi, toy box
Singer Léonore Boulanger & multi-instrumentalist Jean-Daniel Botta are joined by percussionist Laurent Sériès to make music described by their label as ‘atomised French song, disfigured jazz, Kandinsky-esque primitive music in an ultra-violet hopscotch’. They are touring in support of their fifth album, Un lièvre était un très cher baiser (A Hare Was A Very Small Kiss) based around poems by ‘naive’ Austrian poet Ernst Herbeck, whose totem animal was a hare.
They return to Free Range after an extraordinary performance in 2019. Their previous album, Practice Chanter, was likened to ‘a mosaic, due to the sheer quantity and variety of sonic fragments that is somehow made to cohere in these 16 wild, wonderful tracks. Songs that are constantly alive and unpredictable’ (The Quietus)
Joining them on their UK tour is Glaswegian songwriter and bassist, Howie Reeve. Poised somewhere between the prog-rock outlandishness of Frank Zappa and the earthy avant-folk of Richard Dawson, Howie has been described as:
"A unique and singular figure in the current British underground … performing solo on acoustic bass guitar, delivering a fragmented and dexterous music that takes in post-punk, avant-folk "(Chris Joynes)
Links
Le Nouveau from the album Practice Chanter (2019) by Léonore Boulanger
Minuit from the album Feigen Feigen (2016) by Léonore Boulanger
Extract from Petites Planètes (2013) by Léonore Boulanger
Bloodlines (2019) by Howie Reeve
Double Rainbow (2019-2020) Howie Reeve with NoMeansNo guitarist Andy Kerr and French saxophonist Cathy Heyden
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