Dukes of Scuba

Dukes of Scuba is a web resource, podcast & record label for lovers of experimental & improvised music. Its mission is to shine a light on the contemporary 'no audience' Welsh music scene for listeners who may be interested in this type of music but find the lack of information available on the subject frustrating.

Some of you may be unfamiliar with the notion of the ‘no-audience underground’ as a collective term for the Welsh sonic arts scene and I therefore urge you to read the attached introduction to what is rapidly becoming the recognised term for challenging DIY music as written by the person who first conceived the idea – Rob Hayler

Improvisers' Networks Wales Closed Facebook Group

Bore Da a Croeso .
Hello and welcome to Improvisers' Networks Wales Facebook Group.

We are a group set up to promote discussion around arrangements , ideas , concepts ,plans etc. concerning the practice of free improvisation in performance in Wales .

Should you wish to join our mailing list , or please consult the files section of this Facebook Group where information can be found on our work, including "How to join the Mailing List" for Improvisers' Networks Wales.

We hope you enjoy networking
Diolch Yn Fawr

OscilloScope - Bangor

OscilloScope is monthly event based in Bangor (North Wales) focusing on electronic experimental music.

The Gathering - Carmarthenshire

The Gathering is a floating population of improvisers in various media but mostly music which is spontaneously created in the moment.

Gatherings are unstructured and non-conceptual, about collective interplay. It is open to go anywhere, depending on who is actually present at the time. It is an open-ended, free-form happening.

The Gathering was founded about 25 years ago by Maggie Nicols, dancer and vocalising performer extraordinaire to allow for a creative space to play and explore without limits or judgement. Musicians, vocalists, dancers are all welcome. We also enjoy the presence of visual and spontaneous performance artists. EVERYONE IS WELCOME and admission is free (donations welcome).

Hope you'll join us soon.

IE improvising ensemble

IE - It is an expanding, evolving collective of improvisers, with the aim of exploring free and structured/conducted improvisation. The group is open to all, regardless of music-making experience.
The ensemble currently meets the first Monday of every month at 5:00pm, in Drefach Felindre, Carmarthenshire. If you would like to take part, contact us for more information.
Maggie: 01559 370081
Steve: 01559 418472
Steve: 01559 418472

Jigsaw series Bangor

Jigsaw is an open & public workshop/performance session exploring the nature and practice of free improvisation in music through a mixture of; the playing of the music, discussion and simple workshop routines.  Refer to link where you can register you name and interest with the project

Nawr events Swansea

Refer to web site

Accretion Entropy

Accretion Entropy is an experimental electro-acoustic trio consisting of Charles Gersholm Spendlove, Dr Ed Wright and Rob Spaull.

Beresford/Hammond

Charlie Beresford: Acoustic guitar/piano Sonia Hammond: Cello

Acoustic improvising duo Charlie Beresford (acoustic guitar/piano) and Sonia Hammond (cello) are both based in the Welsh Marches and they met whilst working with the Radnor Improvisers, an improvising group which they are founding members of. Their first album 'The Science of Snow' was born when the two found themselves at a loose end due to a cancelled studio session and used the opportunity to record some duo improvisations together just to see where it would go.

In 2016 they teamed up with pianist Carolyn Hume to form the Beresford Hammond Hume trio and released the also much lauded album 'The Lightning Bell' through 'The 52nd'.This CD contains performances by the singer Judie Tzuke who joined them on a couple of their laid back recording sessions. So they are now following all this with a new duo recording 'Each Edge of the Field'. This nine track CD, recorded in the same free spirited attitude as the first, sees them 'hone their craft as they carve out an increasingly distinctive niche in the world of improvised music' (Jazz Mann).

Anoikis

Anoikis is a contemporary dance company dedicated to choreographic and electroacoustic research.  We are committed to performing radical new works that seek to explore the sense of rhizomatic shadow-space that exists between the accepted boundaries (cultural, social, political, economical, historical and psychological) of traditional artistic practice and consumption.  The company has presented work internationally since 2002 and is currently based in North Wales, UK. 

Radnorshire Improvisers

Refer to web link

Electronic music Wales

Electronic Music Wales - Music blog promoting and helping artists reach ears all over the world. est 2008

CoDI Off Grid

Tŷ Cerdd is setting up a new network of off-grid artists based in Wales. We want to hear from experimental sound-artists and music creators working in free-improvisation, sound-art, noise, drone, no-input mixing or any other unconventional or avant-garde practice, to help us shape the network’s activity.

CoDi Off-grid will feature an online database of experimental artists, plus online events to support artists to connect each other, promote their work, share practice and ideas, and reach new audiences. The network is free to join and developed in collaboration with a steering group of artists and curators located in Wales: Alan Chamberlain, Ash Cooke, Avi Allen, Beck Edwards, Dafydd Roberts, Edward Wright, Louise Trehy Nêst Thomas

We want artists to help shape the network and tell us what kind of workshops, activities, and opportunities they would like to see developed.

Ash Cooke Music

Ash Cooke is an internationally recognised improvising guitarist and artist from North Wales.

With a career spanning nearly three decades Ash belongs to the current generation of eager and explorative experimental Welsh musicians who have carefully operated under the radar of the contemporary music scene for more years than they care to remember, steadfastly unafraid to swim against the tide and self-produce and self-release uncompromising music outside of the mainstream.

Initially making a name for himself in the late 90's with the angular art rock band Derrero and subsequently under the aliases of Pulco & Chow Mwng Ash's music fuses his work as a visual artist with a skilfully crafted approach to improvised guitar playing that he terms 'Gwrth-gitâr' (anti-guitar).

His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and has been released on labels such as Beartown, Independent Woman in New Zealand and Linear Obsessional.

​As well as session work and composition Ash has been involved in numerous projects and commissions for S4C, BBC and National Museum of Wales

​Ash's teaching work has included running song/lyric writing workshops for Torfean council with acclaimed Welsh poet Patrick Jones and delivering lectures for Bangor University on improvisation and DIY music production

​In order to support the burgeoning Welsh experimental scene Ash founded the Recordiau Prin record label in 2016 which has to date curated over 20 releases including new material from Datblygu’s David R Edward.

​Ash also runs Dukes of Scuba. DOS is a webzine, record label and workshop series which aims to increase participation & widen the audience for practicioners working within the field of free improvisation.

​ashcookemusic@gmail.com

Rhodri Davies

Rhodri Davies (born Aberystwyth, 1971) is a harp player working within the field of free improvisation. He was one of the most prominent members of the London reductionist school of improvised music that was active in the late 1990s and early 2000s[1] and which has been described as being "extremely influential over the last decade".[2]

Davies is also active in the field of contemporary composition where he has commissioned new works for the harp from leading avant-garde composers.[2] He has also worked as an orchestral player and as a session musician for Charlotte Church and Cinematic Orchestra amongst others.[3] He has appeared on over 60 commercially available recordings.

He has created a number of installations and performances which involve destroying or disassembling the harp.[3] In 2010 he was longlisted for the Northern Arts Prize[4] and in 2012 he received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award.[5]

He is a board member of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and a trustee of the AV Festival.[6]

Angharad Davies

Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist and composer, known for her work in the field of free improvisation, her use of prepared violin (using techniques similar to the prepared piano),[1] her extensive discography and collaborative work with other musicians.