ABOUT
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 skillfully 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.
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As well as session work and composition Ash has been involved in numerous projects and commissions for S4C, BBC and National Museum of Wales
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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
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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 Edwards.
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Ash also runs Dukes of Scuba. DOS is a webzine, record label and workshop series which aims to increase participation & widen the audience for practitioners working within the field of free improvisation.
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