Improvising in Liverpool

On Thursday evening I performed a couple of sets at Splash, a night of improvised music in Liverpool organised by Frakture. I used two modified turntables, some adapted records and a cymbal. As I’m more used to performing solo or as part of a duo, it was great to play with more people. The first session I played with Matt Hamlett (Bass guitar), Adrienne O’Toole (Guitar) and Harry Gallimore (iPhone). The piece was very minimal in parts, broken up with crackles, guitar bumps and clicks, and various pops and rumbles.

In the second session I played alongside Simon Jones (Violin, electronics) and Phil Lucking (Trumpets). This time the sound was a lot more full, with heavy drones, sub bass and low throbbing in parts. Other sections were more minimal with staccato sounds from the trumpet and short blasts of crackling static from a glass disk I played on the turntable. The drones provided my me and Simon contrasted with the acoustic sound of the brass instruments.

As the final image shows I also tried for the first time using springs attached to the cymbal I was playing through the stylus, inspired by researching Keith Rowe’s tabletop guitar techniques.

Many thanks to Ian Simpson for the photos.