The Ship & Mitre, Dale Street, Liverpool
Tuesday, July 24th 8.00 pm £5.00
Blank Canvas
presents
Hedge & The Blank Canvas Octet
Two very different ensembles crossing the same field of improvised music.
The results? As yet unknown, as the music happens on the night, but one expects two very different worlds and atmospheres.
The Blank Canvas Octet is a project exploring free improvisation in music in a large ensemble context. It uses the ‘system 50:50` - where chess clocks are used to bring cohesion to the sound field which can often become cluttered. The result is a dynamic and shifting canvas of sound that allows small discreet sounds to be heard and deeper layers to be felt and expressed. An exciting project to participate in, to witness and to hear.
On system 50/50 “never experienced so much space in a large ensemble playing improv” - Charlie Collins Sheffield.
The Blank Canvas Octet will feature
Phil Morton, accidents and treatments
Julia Cadman, wind instruments
Ian Simpson, guitar
Pete Jones, guitar
Martin Hackett, electronics
Robin Hartwell, sound
Helon Conning, presence
Paul Pignon, woodwind and reeds - ”Paul Pignon has received travel support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committeé”
Hedge
The `Jigsaw` sessions in Bangor delivered by `improvisers' networks Wales` in 2016 was the fertile ground from which the duo `Hedge` grew. It features Andy Hodges (prophet 12) and Phil Morton (accidents & treatments), free improvisation is their musical process and the outcome is characterized by; the matching or clashing of the textural, the timbral. This
Hedge's music sits still but when you listen again it is somewhere else.
Phil Morton - accidents and treatment -
Nice tagline! but Mr. Morton is more likely to be found playing the guitar these days, a guitar: bought in 1970 for £16.00, that currently is rarely intentionally tuned, a magnetic pick-up and a contact-microphone deliver two differentiated outputs to one acoustic amplifier. The target appears to be; timbral rather than tonal, the voicing and spacing of chords rather than chasing and taking the notes down the straight alley. A guitar player who rejects the boxes, pedals, digital processing approach to extending the sound palette as the `acoustic` world is infinite and enough for him: or is it he's too poor to buy them! Except for one: the lexicon jamman, sampler, delay, loop has remained part of his set up for twenty years, and remains a key part of his performance, a performance forged in the air that it moves.
Chaparral Andrew Hodges, prophet 12
is an outsider having had no real music education. In 1980 he decided to reconstruct music theory from first principles, defining all the possible patterns of scales and chords available to contemporary instrumentalists. After a further decade working on timbre using FM Synthesis, he devoted the next 20 years to defining almost 9000 rhythm families and over 40 million polyrhythms.
In between theory work he has worked with artists ranging from Annie Lennox to Pat Thomas and Tim Turan. Among his solo creations are 3 CDs and the recent Pilgrimage Project; an experimental quadraphonic work, recorded in ancient churches (and one cathedral) resulting in over 50 hours of music.
Over 60 tracks are held in the Michael Gerzon collection at the British Sound Library including live recordings playing with a diverse variety of bands in Avant Garde Rock, Reggae, Psychedelic, Self-composed and freely improvised styles. He has self published a Dictionary of Rhythm and 6 books on polyrhythms, The Ho Ho Chi Rhythm Method.
Having spent the last two decades living on a remote peninsula, and the last 3 years programming some unique sounds into his new Prophet 12 synthesiser he was happy to form the improvising duo, Hedge with Phil Morton, recognising in Phil a kindred spirit, and a compatible approach, which Phil ingeniously describes as a timbral meld.
a timbral meld
Full bio and audio at this gigmit site: https://www.gigmit.com/hedge
