nada is an invitation to meditate with the sounds of the five elements, to heal body and mind with the songs from streams and rivers, from wind and trees, with harmonies that we intuitively relate to. this meditation practice highlights the relation between elements and emotions and our close connection to nature.
sculpted from the sounds of natural elements, these listening meditations are electroacoustic performances that draw from many years of practice as a composer and improviser, from qi gong, buddhist practice and meditation.
with the practice of mindfulness of listening, one is invited to reflect on perceptions, thoughts and reactions, on our connection to the elements internally and externally, as we delve deep into the observation of subtle sensations. all key aspects of buddhist meditation are integrated into this one practice, so there is no multiplicity of approaches.
the narratives that unfold, following the natural movements of the recordings, and the changes in mood during the performance keep the listener engaged while the live processing that playfully reshape known sounds may incite close attention conducive to meditative states of concentration.
another important aspect of the work is the use of resonant frequencies found in natural sounds, especially selecting and sculpting tonalities used in sound and vibrational therapy. it is like a gong bath, but using healing frequencies from nature: the harmonies are specific to a time and place, and the element recorded.
each performance is unique as i intuitively select the aesthetic, atmosphere and tonalities i use moment to moment. improvisation as approach and method allows me to adapt what sounds i use, what resonance to focus on, so the music flows and connects with the audience.
i offer these performances as livestreams on the bandcamp platform in a series called nada, so that people can meditate in the comfort of their home.
i am also available to travel to buddhist, meditation, yoga centres, etc. who are willing to accommodate such events for groups of experienced meditators.
technical details:
i use 1 performance laptop + usb audio interface optional x2 microphones and mike stands [when using a collection of meditation bowls and bells, etc.] 1 streaming laptop + usb mixer h5 zoom recorder multiplug extension cable, misc connectivity
required from venue power or extension cable to the performance area low table and meditation seat amplification – high quality stereo speakers, able to reproduce a high range of frequencies and wide stereo image [i can bring suitable speakers if needed, tbc]. possible multichannel diffusion via ADAT additional – table or support for streaming laptop stable wi-fi internet access for live stream
contact:
nexttimerv_at_hotmail_dot_com
reviews:
“I found this work intriguing and at times beguiling […] and I realised that by having more to pay attention to, my meditation sessions could be sustained for a longer time by Hervé’s listening meditations”
It’s been a magical experience, following you in this sound journey, deeply listening with open heart and ears. Lukas M – audience member
* Hervé’s live improvisations transport you onto a journey which is at once sensorially relaxing and awakening. Through his unique use of texture, rhythm and space he is able to keep the audience on their toes whilst grounding them into an uninterrupted state of flow from start to finish. A powerful sonic experience! Lorenzo P – audience member
*
Thoroughly enjoyed falling back into the really clear three dimensional soundscape. Dave P – audience member
*
These are absolutely magic journeys for drifting off… Thanks for the calming moments. Phil I – audience member
Maria Kalnars: piano
Ian Robinson: double bass
Hervé Perez: alto saxophone
contact:
Maria – mariakalnarsart’at’gmail.com
Hervé – sndsukinspook’at’live.com
A recently formed trio of improvising musicians, double bass, sax, piano. The music ranges from intense sparsity to blasting phrases and ethereal noise. Long, haunting melodic material is developed with interplay amongst the musicians, who gently push each other to extend their expression. The trio move together in the musical journey, which crosses from abstraction to rhythmic episodes and develops jazz-influenced rhythms and harmony. Each player’s long experience of improvising allows for deep listening, and more exploratory soundscapes involving extended techniques, vocals and electronic treatment.
biography
Maria Kalnars
Piano, melodica, viola, voice. Maria had a classical training, including post-graduate study and musicological analysis. She plays jazz and improvised music, and also has long experience of working in community and educational projects in London and elsewhere. She has a broad and varied range of influences from Theolonius Monk to Morton Feldman. Maria also develops graphic scores for tri_an_gle and ifitisn’t – an improvising electronic duo with Ian Robinson. She has also produced the artwork for the mini CD cover of ifitisn’t: colophon (focused silence records), and for several other artists’ recordings.
Double-bass, Eurorack modular, guitars, sonic sundries. Works in jazz, improvised and experimental electronic music (ifitisn’t). A self-taught player, his influences include electronic pioneers such as Henri Pousseur and Luc Ferrari, as well as the many great jazz bass players (Wilbur Ware to Henry Grimes and Charlie Haden) and the improvising guitarist Roger Smith (SME), long-time mentor. Current practice influenced by the philosophy and methods of the late John Stevens.
Gigs – London: fringe theatre, (Finborough Arms, Portlands). Regular performances in jazz quartet/quintet. City Lit band. Sheffield: improvised music work with Adam Woolf (as, cl), John Jasnoch (gtr), Derek Saw (tpt). Jazz and improvising duo with Maria Kalnars.
Airplay (ifitisn’t): Resonance FM, A Duck in a Tree, FSK 93.00 Hamburg, Zoviet France
improviser, sound and visual artist, hervé performs spontaneous compositions with saxophones and laptop, using processed field recordings. his work is influenced by practices such as jazz, electro-acoustic, contemporary music, experimental electronics, free improvisation, immersive sound art and techniques of sound therapy.
This bass drums and sax trio of experienced jazz improvisers play free flowing contemporary jazz with a distinctly reflective European feel. Each musician brings in a range of influences: Hervé’s work as a site specific, electroacoustic sound artist, underpinned with Gus’ concentrations on improvisation and contemporary composition and by Johnny’s accomplished jazz technique. They veer between fluid free play to more contemplative material, blending melody with extended techniques, an elaborate sense of harmony and rhythm that feeds the demands of both jazz enthusiasts and contemporary music lovers.
contact: hervé
nexttimerv[at]hotmail[dot]com
Biography
Gus Garside – double bass
I have worked in a variety of musical settings – jazz, contemporary music, rock, cabaret, dance, theatre and, most importantly, improvised music.
I perform in a number of regular groups and one off projects as well as occasionally performing solo. I often use electronics and occasionally voice. I have enjoyed working with dancers, visual artists and films.
I also create structured improvisational compositions including The Star Field, The Sleepwalkers (featuring 10 of the leading improvising string players in the UK) and Collective Stories (a commission in Quebec with Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée).
I am part of the Brighton Safehouse collective, a collective of local improvising performers, which is now in its 13th year.
I’m also the national coordinator for Creative Minds, a project led by learning disabled artists and performers who wish to take their rightful place in the wider arts world.
gusgarside.wordpress.com
“… where he differs from the average jazz bassist is in the range of sonorities he conjures from his instrument” Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD.
“… a cornerstone of the Brighton’s improvised music scene” Jazz on BBC Radio 3
“… the audience were mesmerised by Garside’s dexterous flair, humble mastery and radical subversion” Kyle McAllum, Extra normal
Johnny Hunter – drums
Johnny Hunter is a northern UK-based drummer and composer who comes from a background of both the Avant-Garde and the more mainstream Jazz.
His own “chordless” quartet, set up to explore the freedom and limitations of having no chordal instrument, have been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, and have performed across the country in notable venues such as London’s Ronnie Scott’s, the Manchester Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazzlines at Symphony Hall, Liverpool International Jazz Festival, among many others.
He also leads the piano trio Fragments, formed to research and develop new approaches to improvising and composing for improvisers, has written works for various other ensembles (Pale Blue Dot, Backlash, Manchester Jazz Collective).
Artist, composer and improvising musician from France who now lives in England.
He plays saxophones, shakuhachi and laptop in various groups and produces music inspired by jazz, contemporary and electroacoustic music, experimental, sound art and sound therapy.
He has released three albums with Inclusion Principle (Discus label), many recordings in collaboration with artists from around the world, and also solo work on various netlabels.
Hervé has worked as sound recordist and sound designer on a number of short films, and is currently carrying out residencies doing location recordings and concerts with Maja Bugge’s Northern.
Live performances incl. Huddersfield Week of Speakers, Mantis festival Manchester, insubordinations microfestival in Switzerland, Sheffield festival of the Mind, mopomoso at the Vortex London, megapolis and dumbo arts festivals New York, Jazz à Luz, Manchester and Marsden Jazz festival, Full of Noises, etc.
is the practice of deep listening, a connection with the spirit of a place.
in a series of solo saxophone recordings, i connect with and explore outdoor acoustics and sacred sites, investigating the nature of space and architecture, natural topography.
drawing inspiration from the location, its environment and soundscape as well as its acoustics, the improvisations move freely between lyrical, harmonic and the more abstracted gestures of contemporary music.
both melody and extended techniques explore the way sounds resonate the space. in turn, the character of the space itself becomes instrumental in shaping the music.
more importantly, the space affects the musical content, as it were, whispering its history into the spontaneous compositions, expressing itself through my instrument.
the recordings made in-situ are documents of a point in time. they are not meant to be perfect studio recordings. they incorporate external sonic events, location sounds, interventions both outside and within the performance. the focus of this project is more on a spiritual connection with a location, and using this deep experience as a very rich catalyst for creativity.
while the music will appeal on the emotional level, the concept of the project offers many levels that will stand up to analysis. acoustics, soundscape, musical contents, the nature of the performance, the voice of the space made manifest and various interactions between all the elements make these recordings a deeply interesting and touching listening experience.
the practice of meditation has become an integral part of the process. it is a means to strengthen the connection to a sense of place, through deep listening. but also, exploring those very creative psychological dimensions, the use of meditative state, becomes an approach to performance.
links:
you will find short extracts that give a survey of the varied acoustics of many locations, where i have recorded, on soundcloud:
if you would like to listen to full tracks, this wordpress site has a section called sounding out. here, the recordings are compiled together in posts relating to specific locations or areas visited over a period of time.
Hervé Perez is a sound artist/composer from France, now based in Sheffield, UK.
Hervé has been composing music and performing live around Europe for over 20 years. Playing solo and in various groups, he draws from jazz, electro-acoustic, contemporary music, experimental electronics, free improvisation, immersive sound art and ancient techniques of sound therapy alike.
Hervé plays the saxophones, shakuhachi and laptop in several groups and many collaborations.
Live performances incl. Huddersfield Week of Speakers, Mantis festival in Manchester, insubordinations microfestival in Switzerland, Sheffield festival of the Mind, Mopomoso at the Vortex London, Megapolis and Dumbo Arts Festivals in New York, Jazz à Luz, Manchester Jazz festival, Marsden Jazz Festival, Out Front, etc.
Following training as a professional photographer, he completed a fine arts degree (Sheffield Hallam University) where he worked on video and sound installations.
Hervé’s research approaches sound as vibration, the relation between sound and objects or spaces, architecture and the body.
His use of field recordings and sound design is concerned with frequencies and harmonic relationships found in nature, how they relate to the physical world, and how the sounds of natural elements connect to our own resonances.
He has developed a very personal way to process and sculpt location recordings to reveal their musical features and maximise resonance with the listener and their experience of sound.
With a focus on collaboration and the immediacy of live work, Hervé has performed with artists whose practice is immersed in free improvisation and jazz, closely working with Mick Beck (sax, bassoon), Martin Archer (winds, el.), Peter Fairclough (drums), Philip Thomas (piano), Jez Riley-French (el.), Ian Simpson (el.), Charlie Collins (drums), Walt Shaw (el, perc), Constantin Popp (live processing, diffusion), Shaun Blezzard (electro), etc. in the UK
And also Michel Doneda (sop sax), Jonas Kocher (accordion), Simon Berz (dr, el.), Rodolphe Loubatiere (dr), d’Incise (el, objects), Cyril Bondi (dr), Heddy Boubaker (sax), Cia Barbet (dance), Joe Formanek (dr, el), Roger Mills (trumpet, el), Henri Herteman (p, trombone), Guy Bayssac (dr), Marin Beranger (p), Mark Alban Lotz (fl) etc. in Europe.
On acoustic instruments, hervé moves freely between abstract sounds and harmonic work, influenced by contemporary music, minimalism, noise, jazz and the practice of free improvisation.
He currently practices creative ways to develop musical narratives in improvisation. looking at both theoretical and practical approaches to music and performance, he has developed a method to weave melodic or harmonic paths in order to navigate outside of established structures, while maintaining a sense of evolving melody.
A gripping new trio, Beck Woolf Perez are improvising musicians with broad interest in jazz and contemporary music.
This group epitomises deep listening, fast musical exchanges, and intriguing harmonic structures. They play with spontaneous communication with high energy, and commitment to communal creation.
Top players in their fields, the trio aspires to creating music that is both engaging and challenging to audiences, alternating fiery melodic delivery with deep merging of soundscapes.
The music is rich with structures and intricate interactions; and yet free as birds, the players engage in fast and soulful movements, flexible and innovative interpretations, through evolving narratives that will transport the listener.
the band made their first public appearance at No Bounds Festival 2018.
listen to an extract here:
Biography
Adam Woolf (piano, keys)
Adam Woolf has been performing since the early 70’s, forming an experimental outfit with Cellist/Composer and Author Thomas Gardner. Throughout the 80’s he was a session musician, mainly on Piano and Reeds. In the 90’s he began collaboration with hip hop artists, particularly London based Kenneth Marx and presently, New York MC Frawstakwa.
He has been collaborating with Sheffield’s finest improvisors (present company included) John Jasnoch, Charlie Collins, Derek Saw, Beatrix Fernandez Ward, Nathan Bettany, Linda Kemp, Martin Archer and Neil Carver. Also with musicians from further afield such as Neil Brand, Graham Clark and Jim Denley.
He is also a composer and producer of several CD’s published under the name Tantric Doctors.
Influential in GB since the early 1980s as a powerful thought-provoking tenor player, and from the late 80s a pioneering improvising big band leader (Feet packets). In 1998 he took up the bassoon. He is one of the few to explore its contribution to experimental music using extended techniques with extraordinary results.
His solo album, Life Echoes (Discus 36 CD), is one of the best explorations of the scope of all his major instruments.
In 2013 a documentary film by Jonny Drury about his music, Mick Beck, Rather Different was released, and that is now available as a DVD. Since then he has released 2 further CDs – Beck Hunters (The Hunt is On, Discus 46CD), and Weavels (The Living Puzzle, Discus51CD), both well reviewed.
He is a brilliant soloist, has a variety of small groups with personnel drawn from all over the country. He is also a member of Martin Archer’s free jazz group Engine room Favourites, and the anti-choir Juxtavoices. In all his work he combines musicality with a quirky sense of humour.
Based in Sheffield, he has performed in several European countries, Canada and Australia, and continues to be an influential player on the UK scene.
Hervé Perez is a composer and improvising musician from France who now lives in England.
He plays saxophones, shakuhachi and laptop in various groups and produces unique music inspired by jazz, contemporary and electroacoustic music, experimental, sound art and sound therapy.
He has released three albums with Inclusion Principle (Discus label) and many recordings in collaboration with artists from around the world, as well as solo work on various netlabels.
Live performances incl. Huddersfield Week of Speakers, Mantis festival Manchester, insubordinations microfestival in Switzerland, Sheffield festival of the Mind, mopomoso at the Vortex London, megapolis and dumbo arts festivals New York, Jazz à Luz, Manchester and Marsden Jazz festival etc.
Multi-instrumentistes, ils sculptent des idiomes imaginaires de forme acoustique et électronique, à la croisée du jazz et de l’expérimental.
Ecart de Sons
Le duo Ecart de Sons offre un dialogue d’affinités musicales et poétiques de deux personnalités expérimentées dont la vocation est l’expressivité concertée.
Le désir de parfaire ce duo prend corps au cours des années, et évolue selon la recherche de chaque musicien. Cette rencontre s’illustre dans la pratique de l’improvisation libre et des musiques intuitives et nouvelles, dont les bases convoquent: des développement jazz ou free, des idiomes imaginaires, des échos de la musique contemporaine et de l’électro-acoustique.
Nous continuons cette collaboration en adaptant notre discours selon les changements imposés par la distance. Ce projet vois le jour en prenant la marque de la technologie. Echange de fichiers, sculpture numérique et arrangements d’instruments acoustiques et électroniques qui se fondent dans la texture de prises de sons.
L’échange musical spontané, toujours present, prends une ampleur autre, et plonge dans l’abstractions de bruits élementaires, des excursions bucoliques et jouant d’une l’harmonie étendue de la modalité contemporaine.
Nous sommes à la recherche de labels aventureux, qui seraient ouverts au marriage de styles:
du jazz à l’improvisation, de l’électroacoustique au bruitisme experimental
Le duo Ecart de Sons offre un dialogue d’affinités musicales et poétiques de deux personnalités expérimentées dont la vocation est l’expressivité concertée.
Le parcours individuel de chaque musicien, riche de collaborations diverses est ponctué de nombreux concerts, d’enregistrements et compositions.
Le désir de parfaire ce duo prend corps au cours des années, et évolue selon la recherche de chaque musicien. Cette rencontre s’illustre dans la pratique de l’improvisation libre et des musiques intuitives et nouvelles, dont les bases convoquent: des développement jazz ou free, des idiomes imaginaires, des échos de la musique contemporaine et de l’electro-acoustique.
Musicien autodidacte, auteur de texte, il est attiré par la maîtrise du langage de divers instruments: piano, clavier, trombone, mélodica, percussion, Valiha Malgache.
Une orientation marquée par les rencontres d’improvisation avec lecteurs, poètes, musiciens, danseurs, peintres, performeurs. Engagé dans les courants d’échanges spontanés, de rencontres croisées. Il revendique le développement des arts et de la culture en tant que valeurs aidant la personne à mieux comprendre le monde, choisir leurs mode de pensée et de vie en toute connaissance et liberté.
Il participe et organise de nombreux événements sur les scènes régionales de la musique improvisée. Participe aux ateliers de l’IREA, aux Sonofages, intervient aux «Nuits de Lauzerte» dans une performance «Passages croisés». Concepteur des journées de musique intuitives, des concerts rue des fleurs.
Il sort en mai 2015 un CD solo, Roule ta Salive chez Improvising Beings. Un travail qu’il présente au théâtre du pavé.
Sur son trajet, il croise nombreux musiciens:
Didier Laserre , Nuch Werchowska, Le Fil, Grand Piac, Zoubooo, Synapsis, Gilles Dalbis, Naoto Yamagishi, Laurent Rodriguez, Heddy Boubaker
Participant actif sur la scène Européenne depuis 2000, en collaboration avec d’autres formes artistiques tel la danse, l’art visuel et l’écriture, il s’intéresse principalement aux modalités d’improvisation et aux relations entre musiciens, audience et environnement.
Travaille dans différentes formations de free jazz et d’improvisation libre, électroacoustique et musique contemporaine, ainsi qu’en performances solo. Il présente aussi son travail audio-visuel en installations in situ.
Il poursuis une recherche du son et sciences vibratoires d’une part, et aussi développe une approche très contemporaine de l’harmonie et de la mélodie. Inspiré de techniques anciennes de guérison et par la pratique de la méditation, il intègre science et spiritualité au sein de modalités de performance de la composition spontanée.
Le travail sur la résonance, la relation des formes vibratoires à l’architecture et au corps, la pratique du deep listening font alors partie intégrante du processus créatif qu’il chemine hors des enceintes stylistiques.
the duo live on opposite sides of the world and started working together through the networked music ensemble ethernet orchestra.
roger and hervé developed a strong working rapport based on common aesthetic and approach. they have become nada as a realisation of their unique collaboration.
the duo explores an area between jazz and electroacoustic music, taking influences from scandinavian new jazz, ethnic musics from asia, and acoustic ecology… both rooted in the use of technology and in traditional forms, the music has a deep respect for space and silence.
central to nada’s improvisations are ideas of deep listening, the japanese concept of Ma and meditations on silence from buddhist traditions which gave rise to the group’s name.
while on tour in Germany in November 2014 the duo documented performance and residency research with both roger and hervé playing acoustic instruments, in the same room, for the first time. these recordings have been issued as nada’s first release ‘mirror image’, by netlabel Linear Obsessional.
audio documents:
01 [07’38]
02 [11’34]
03 [05’28]
04 [04’36]
05 [04’06]
06 [08’40]
edits from networked improvisations recorded ‘live’ over the internet.
biography:
roger mills
Internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer and sound artist working in the field of experimental and improvised music and sound.
He is founder of the tele-improvisatory ensemble Ethernet Orchestra who perform to co-located and networked audiences through the Internet.
While he is now based in Sydney, Australia, Roger spent most of the 1990s in the UK recording and performing with Bristol trip hoppers Statik Sound System, and the free jazz ensemble Spaceways.
His methodology focuses on breath and extended techniques with an attention to timbre in slow evolutionary loops and drones.
Sound artist/composer/performer from France, now based in Sheffield, UK.
Hervé has been composing music and performing live around europe for 20 years. Playing solo and in various groups, he draws from jazz, electro-acoustic, contemporary music, experimental electronics, free improvisation, immersive sound art and ancient techniques of sound therapy alike.
His research approaches sound as vibration, the relation between sound and objects or spaces, architecture and the body.
On the soprano saxophone, Hervé focuses on extended techniques and abstract peripheral sounds structural to the instrument as a physical resonant object. His work on alto merges traditional and jazz harmonic approaches with extended techniques and multiphonics.
Inclusion Principle operates in a space between electronics, nu-jazz, contemporary electroacoustic music and free improvisation tending towards a minimalist approach.
Formed in 2006, the group released its first eponymous CD ‘the Inclusion Principle‘ that year, with a second release ‘The Leaf Factory Fallback‘ in March 2010. ‘Third Opening‘ was a radical change in sound; the double cd released in 2015 was constructed in the studio with extensive sound design and arrangements of improvised material. It featured Peter Fairclough, who joined the group between 2014 and 2019. The fourth album ‘The 4, the 8, the 10’ was designed in studio during a period of lockdown and released in 2021.
The arkiv documents all live performances of the group, now available to stream and download.
For the first performance that started off the project, Martin and Hervé play a similar set up of laptop and woodwinds and yet have a different approach to their instruments. Put together, there is a chemistry that inspire and drive their improvisations towards a wide range of soundscapes.
The choice of instruments and sounds on their palette allows them to dramatically change their music between beat driven electro, minimal and microtonal improvisation via electroacoustic experimentation and nu-jazz.
There is something for all in their music. First and foremost, they share an enjoyment of sound and performance which touches their audience, no matter what style they may adopt.
We decided to base the name on a theory of the research physicist Wolfgang Pauli. We found a correlation in that we both worked with a digital scalpel on fields of microsounds; a science which took both our instruments and processed field recordings a little closer to the chemistry of natural sounds, complete with harmonic DNA sequences and rhythmical fragments quantum-jumping from cell to cell. We were intrigued by the idea of the ‘exclusion principle’ and decided that Pauli was ‘not even wrong’ in his theory since Martin and Hervé successfully managed to sit together in the same room. In the end, our main source of inspiration will always be deep listening and a fascination for the science of the natural world. Sometimes, sitting in silence for hours in the crest of birdsongs or in wafts of windy harmony is more profitable than practicing scales. And to a certain extent, each of our improvised performances plays itself as an unspoken intense inner excitement. And we leave it to rest, a little calmer, as if something had happened in the space between thoughts…
Inclusion Principle have released three albums and an archive of live documents, available via the discus website or their bandcamp page.
For a while, Inclusion Principle has been inviting guests to join the duo. These included:
Rosie Brown (vocals), Mark Hadman (electronics), Stephen Chase (strings, objects and mini amplifiers), Chris Bywater (electronics), Tarana (violin, voice and fx), Peter Fairclough (drums and percussions), Mark Sanders (drum set).
The group has been touring as ambassador artists for Jazz North in 2016-2017.
fizzle, Birmingham 09 april 2019 (with Mark Sanders)
samuel worth chapel, Sheffield 10 dec 2017 (with Peter Fairclough)
nether edge social centre, Sheffield 20 june 2006 (the day Inclusion Principle was born)
reviews:
” ‘The 4, The 8, The 10’ is an accomplished, meditative listening experience.”
Phil Jackson, ACID DRAGON
“That a variety of moods are conjured so effectively speaks volumes about how both artists are in synch with their objectives, so clearly vested in the realization of their ideas, so highly attuned to their birthing of new musics that to accompany them on their magical mystery tour is an experience not soon forgotten.”
Darren Bergstein, DMG
“The cover art for this album, of mist-wrapped trees which are gradually emerging is perfect for the ways in which Archer and Perez develop the pieces here – and, of course, I mean develop as a photographic metaphor of the ways in which an image gradually forms when the prepared sheet is placed in its bath of chemicals. There is so much creativity in the management of sounds on this recording that it can be easy to miss the ‘background’ and focus on the instruments duelling in the ‘foreground’. But this is, I think, to miss both the process of the music’s creation and the ways in which these fine musicians work. The ‘background’ is the structure of the piece. The texture of the sounds and the ways in which they merge and split creates the rhythmic, harmonic and emotional core.”
Chris Baber, Jazzviews
“Perhaps most crucial to Inclusion Principle’s sound but unmentioned in the credits is silence. For as layered, dense, and exciting this album is, it is equally patient and restful, a glorious tribute to space and sound.”
Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective
“This strange hybrid produces a world where the space is as important as what fills it. Oddly hypnotic, but far from meditative, Third Opening maintains the Discus tradition of sprawling double albums where time ceases to have meaning. The oft used electric piano and the nature of the beats puts this album firmly in a nu-jazz bracket, a pigeonhole that seems to me to have no boundaries, and is therefore more than fitting in this case.”
Roger Trenwith, Astounded By Sound
“The first (factor of place) to the last track (not looking for another now) is impressive how unstable atmospheres, is vague and nebulous and imposes itself – in the simplicity of a crystalline musical logic – a powerful and inexorable, rhythmic groove, who decided then leaves space, just as logically, in more reflective moments. A masterpiece.”
KATHODIK
“Ces disques révèlent sans arrêt des surprises à chaque écoute, ne serait-ce que par l’ajout des percussions et par un fourmillement de sons qui jaillissent de sous la couche de surface déjà particulièrement riche.
Philippe Renaud, Improjazz
“Third Opening is all about technology interfacing with three human beings seamlessly… the performances captured live in the studio are exemplary. Recommended.”
Paul Khimasia Morgan, Sound Projector
“What you are hearing are the results of initial meeting between the two. First hour, first day. Improvised. Minimal, detailed, immaculately recorded.
Not so much a sound installation as a room in which you finally get to hear the sound that were already there, but the very elements are broken down to their basic particles forming into glitch electrics where electrons reveal themselves from within the whole.
There’s something of the alchemical about it as nature’s music forms these things.
It’s a productive and worthwhile collaboration between two heavily experienced instrumentalists with an impressive sense of awareness.”
Hassni Malik, Irrational Arts
“I have not heard a better album from Martin Archer yet.”
Petr Ferenc, hisVOICE
“The sense of considered, focused interplay between the participants is undeniable. An hour or so of abstract noise passes imperceptibly, then, suddenly, everything feels shockingly different.”
Stuart Lee, Sunday Times
“A CD of intricate moments, steering away quite nicely from many of the clichés associated with the vague beast that is the improv genre. Both (players) do indeed seem to be on an extended nature trip, albeit a microscopic one…..It’s an album of abstract micro-events, none of which help pin the improvisation down, and it feels at times that we’re moving along with the musicians on a cellular level of sound…..What I hear is the deep thinking of stones and the beating hearts of young trees, the dying wishes of leaves falling to the ground and the absurdist symphony of a gently running stream…..Guaranteed to make even the most hardened sceptics want to smell new spring flowers and run naked through the fields.”
Aaron Robertson, Sound Projector
“The sound-construction/deconstruction works to a truly great effect here.”
Chuck Rosenberg, Aural Innovations #43
“This electroacoustic set retains the spontaneous qualities of a live recording, mashing up abstract textures, field recordings and extended techniques.”
Jazzwise
biography:
martin archer
Following an early career with 1980s jazz punk pell mellers Bass Tone Trap, followed by the fondly remembered and widely gigged Hornweb Sax Quartet, Martin disappeared into the recording studio for 15 years in 1994, from where he produced a series of highly acclaimed albums for his own Discus imprint. In recent years, as well as forging a three album creative partnership with veteran vocalist Julie Tippetts, Martin currently works with avant rock groups Orchestra of the Upper Atmosphere and Combat Astronomy, 35 voice experimental music choir Juxtavoices, minimalist improv to nu-jazz laptop duo Inclusion Principle, and most recently Engine Room Favourites, in which Martin revisits his AACM roots.
hervé perez
Sound artist/composer from France, now based in Sheffield, UK.
He works across genres, drawing from many influences in jazz, electro-acoustic, contemporary music, experimental electronics, free improvisation, immersive sound art and ancient techniques of sound therapy alike.
Hervé’s research approaches sound as vibration, the relation between sound and objects or spaces, architecture and the body.
His use of field recordings and sound design is concerned with frequencies and harmonic relationships found in nature, how they relate to the physical world, and how the sounds of natural elements connect to our own resonances.
He has developed a very personal way to process and sculpt location recordings to reveal their musical features and maximise resonance with the listener and their experience of sound.
technical details:
IP usually travels completely self contained including small venue monitor system. Your house PA however may enable us to travel lightly, which is preferred. Two tables are required for laptops and associated electronics. Atmospheric lighting is appreciated.
martin – stereo out from laptop/DI box + mike + stand for woodwinds
hervé – stereo out from laptop/DI box + mike + stand for woodwinds
PA with speaker arrangement for true stereo output
joe formanek – drums, laptop
hervé perez – alto saxophone
contact:
sndsukinspook_at_live.com
info_at_latermusic.com
Mirror Shards is the project of Joe Formanek, multi-tasking on drums, live processing, electroacoustic techniques and DJing to perform a fluent orchestration of improvisation and composition.
Hervé Perez features on alto saxophone bringing a highly individualised style of jazz melody, extended techniques and contemporary harmonic rhythms in a single honed voice.
The group balances the use of technology and interfaces into the exciting movements of live spontaneous composition. The two strong voices of multidisciplinary artists and powerful improvisers performing with laptops keep alive the performative aspect of playing acoustic instruments.
Drawing from both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds, and a long experience of both composition and performance, Mirror Shards is an exciting reflection of new directions in jazz.
Mirror Shards started with Hawaiian composer / improviser Joe Formanek’s creation of two unique innovations: What he calls “Percussionist 2.0” and improvising with history using a database. Percussionist 2.0 was the result of an attempt to create an instrument in which a percussionist could fluently express himself acoustically and digitally via DSP. However, while doing the acoustic input and the digital output is usually done by two as common practice, the Mirror Shards apparatus is an attempt to do both actions simultaneously. This new instrument proved to be more than just an instrument but a new way to play percussion. It now seems like the natural step in the evolution of percussion, as doing these functions at the same time -instrumental and digital manipulation – feels percussive. After several layered improvisations a database of recordings came about, and within it an organized recorded history of all the improvisations which have been all based on older improvisations. With it a sense of time, mood, and a progression of wisdom seem to all mix and blend with each new play, resulting in a constantly improving richness of the myriad of the Self.
Biography:
Joe Formanek
Improviser and composer, Joe Formanek employs an electro-acoustic apparatus, Mirror Shards, which is at once a drumset-laptop using digital signal processing and a history-database DJ station.
A large collection of recorded material are at a fingers touch during a performance. Central to the concept of Mirror Shards is a layering of samples and digital processing which confront the live sound with past events.
The experience of “driving” the apparatus is a surreal encounter with one’s previous stages of artistic development, forcing a critical reflection and interaction with one’s past.
Joe Formanek has been involved with Francisco Lopez (composer), Chris Formanek (composer), François Ducat (film director), Kouta (composer), and Hervé Perez (sax, composer).
Hervé Perez
sound artist/composer/performer from France, now based in Sheffield, UK.
Hervé has been composing music and performing live around europe for 20 years. Playing solo and in various groups, he draws from jazz, electro-acoustic, contemporary music, experimental electronics, free improvisation, immersive sound art and ancient techniques of sound therapy alike.
His research approaches sound as vibration, the relation between sound and objects or spaces, architecture and the body.
On the soprano saxophone, Hervé focuses on extended techniques and abstract peripheral sounds structural to the instrument as a physical resonant object. His work on alto merges traditional and jazz harmonic approaches with extended techniques and multiphonics.
Sounding out, one of his current projects, is an exploration of architecture, outdoor acoustics and sacred sites. Documents of in situ improvisations, inspired by the spirit and the special characteristics of a location.
With a focus on collaboration and interaction, Hervé has performed with artists whose practice is immersed in free improvisation, closely working with Mick Beck (sax, bassoon), Martin Archer (winds, el.), Philip Thomas (piano), Jez Riley-French (el.), Ian Simpson (el.), Charlie Collins (drums), Constantin Popp (live processing, diffusion), etc. in the UK and also Michel Doneda (sop sax), Jonas Kocher (accordion), Simon Berz (dr, el.), Rodolphe Loubatiere (dr), d’Incise (el, objects), Cyril Bondi (dr), Heddy Boubaker (sax), Cia Barbet (dance), Joe Formanek (dr, el) in Europe.
current projects:
sounding out – explorations of outdoor acoustics, sacred sites with the soprano saxophone, investigating the nature of space and architecture, natural topography.
room harmonics – experimental recording technique using sound to represent architecture and spatial relationships
”The quartet”, contemporary jazz improvisation
“inclusion principle”, duo with martin archer (discus label) – electroacoustic improvisations with laptops, winds, objects
“Mirror Shards” EAi to melodic jazz with Joe Formanek (drums and live processing)
“weave/unravel”, duo with constantin popp – soprano sax, processing, multi-speaker diffusion
“WHM” minimal improv/free jazz trio.
“kipple”, free jazz/improv sextet
“Ethernet Orchestra” networked improvisations by Roger Mills
“Graphic Ships” generative graphic score for networked improvisations by Jesse Ricke
technical details / requirements:
drums – 2/3 mikes+stands
electronics – 2 channels stereo out
sax – 1/2 mikes+stands
optional: feed from saxophone into electronic setup via 1/4 inch jack
nexttime studio 