Location and meeting point

The performance space: is not being described or given here, but the meeting point is

The meeting point: The obelisk, inside Princess Park,  as accessed via the `Sunburst Gates` located at the entranced hereby described as: The roundabout, at one end of Princes Avenue.

Meet up time

• 14.00 - 14.10 BST for the open session
• 15.00 - 15.10 BST for the concert Graculus

Top Tips,  arrive early at the meeting point early and you may need something to sit on: no chairs provided at the performance site..

Bus routes that stop at princes Park gates: 26,27, 75, 80. The 204 stops near princes park gates

Graculus

Graculus – a biography, click the image to visit a bandcamp account and listen to Graculus

PHIL HARGREAVES, soprano and flute
RICHARD HARDING, guitar

Phil Hargreaves: Graculus started pretty much byaccident. A lot of the best things seem to work that way. I was organising a performance at Tate Liverpool in 2008, to tie in with their current exhibition, and I had this idea of doing a series of guitar & flute/soprano sax duets in the gallery, specifically with Neil Campbell’s guitar, who had played with me in the Frakture Big Band a few years earlier. 

Neil consented to this arrangement, and i emailed him back with some rehearsal arrangements. Two minutes later he was on the phone - he hadn’t read the email properly, and hadn’t realised what he was volunteering for - he didn’t have the time just then, but knew someone who might be interested, an MA student by the name of Richard Harding.

And so it began.

Richard became an ongoing member of the CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) group that i was involved in. Like me, he was the main carer for his offspring (him, one daughter, me a daughter and a son). We were also both composers, although it has to be said that his tastes run more to the tonal than mine do. As One of the parts from the 2008 Tate well as supporting each others’ projects, performance both within and without CoMA, the North West branch of which folded in 2009. Meanwhile we fell into the habit of meeting up every Wednesday to play together. 

By 2009 we had adopted the name ‘Graculus’ (the odd-looking bird in Noggin the Nog, in case you were wondering), and started gigging as a functioning duo. In 2010 we released an eponymous first CD, consisting entirely of improvisations, some recorded live and others in my home studio. Titles were all derived from Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace.

Various performances followed, and in 2012 we recorded another album, entitled ‘Small Things’. Still all improvised, the inspiration for this came from albums i’d loved as a younger man, specifically Wire’s ‘Pink Flag’ and theResidents ‘Commercial Album’, both of which had a large number of short tracks on (in fact the Residents’ album has 40 one-minute tracks); for Richard, it was Howard Skempton’s miniature piano pieces. Improvised music often tends towards the broader canvas; in fact when i was recording the first (and only) Bonehouse album with Phil Morton, we did a track that lasted 30 minutes. The aim for this recording was to do minia-tures, tracks that ended fairly near the start. We were to make our point, and then leave.

In the event, we arrived at 34 tracks, the longest of which was 2’52”, and several under a minute. The image on the cover was ‘Portrait of a Young Girl’ by Petrus Christus. All the titles are anagrams of those letters.

I’ve always played flute and soprano sax with Graculus - partly because of ranges, i think; the guitar is quite a low instrument, and tenor sax would be fighting for space in the low-mid area, while the straight horns float above what Richard is doing, and partly because of timbre. The tenor and the classical guitar just seem to speak different dialects.

In 2014 i became ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and was unable to play for the next seven years, so Graculus as a playing unit had to be put into cold storage. Me and Richard continued to meet up on Wednesdays, but during that period it was tea-drinking and chat.

But all things come to an end, not just Good Things, and in 2021 i felt well enough to approach my horns again. The Wednesday playing sessions recommenced, And we felt that what we were doing was worth recording.

This time we were unconstrained with regards to the length of the tracks, so they sit in the three-to-six minute range. The longer canvas does allow time for a more composerly development of ideas and themes. 

Titles this time were derived from the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky, and the artworks were by Richard himself. Why call it asteroid with a picture of a starfish? Well, a quick Google will tell you that one…

Open session 2.00 pm

The schedule is that there will be a session of free improvisation in music every weekend during the month of July 2022.
The sessions will happen on either the Saturday or the Sunday.
The Saturday is the default day of the week on which this event happens. however this is subject to change due to the diary conflicts with other events.
The details are confirmed on the Friday before the event.
This translates as the following, and at the following times.

• 02.07.2022 at 14.00 BST - Session confirmed
• 09.07.2022 at 14.00 BST - No session.
  • There is a gathering session on Monday 11.07.2022 - info here
• 16.07.2022 at 14.00 BST -

• 23.07.2022 at 14.00 BST -

Host : Phil Morton

Duration 40 minutes

You can attend as

1. A participating player / improviser
   1. All levels of ability and experience welcome
2. As a member of an audience
3. A passer by who takes no notice.

This is currently, a free to attend event. Later in the year a fee of £3 per month will be requested..

Music content

The current plan is that the session will be delivered using one or more of the following formats.

1. Metered free improvisation - that is a piece of free improvisation in music with a time limit for when the piece ends.
2. System 50:50 for improvisers.
3. Un-metered free improvisation. that is a piece of free improvisation in music with a no preset time limit.

All levels of experience is music, free improvisation are welcome.

Weather warning

This is an outdoor event.
it maybe subject to cancellation due to the weather.
How this is notified is being researched, however there is a back-up, plan B

Alternative  venue if the weather is poor?

Yes! There is a local space, with piano, as back up. It is Phil Morton kitchen!

Contacts

Contact : Phil Morton email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.