Winds of Change nt002

Second release from the new nexTTime production output is a collaboration with multi instrumentalist Alexandru Hegyesi.

File sharing over the net, the starting point was a series of short recordings by alex featuring cymbalum, bowed & picked soprano psaltery and dulcimer.

This material was processed and sculpted to produce a range of samples that provide harmonic, textural and rhythmical contents. The compositions were then arranged, and finally, i added field recordings and saxophone improvisations.

 

 

First released by netlabel electronic musik as em124

 

Tête​-​à​-​tête

“each saxophonist works across divergent styles and genres, drawing down their own preferences to suit the individual structures of the moment and blending with each other and with the mood of the piece, such that one may be uncertain of the sound sources – free improv and folk or electro-experimental?  Each piece is a delight.“

Ken Cheetham, Jazzviews

 

Following a performance in Sheffield’s Over The Top in April 2019, the duo recorded a session with two alto saxophones. One take was captured at my nexttime studio and this is what you are hearing on this album.

Released by Emil’s label Noumenon, the music is pure energy between two sax improvisers who found themselves in a rather discursive mood. There is shear excitement at this first encounter as a duo that is felt in the music. One hour or so passed unnoticed, and we finished the session with a slower, sparse piece playing around single tones. it felt we were done. and in a single breath, we had an album.

We are delighted to share this with you. a document of a rare encounter. a slice in time of the playing of two compelling improvisers and saxophone wizards.

Thank you to Emil Karlsen for taking on this release. we sincerely hope you much enjoy listening.

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Dream Feathers

album released by Discus music, november 2019

 

I am very pleased to see the release of this album. It follows on the previous album with similar line up available on Discus – Les Oiseaux de Matisse.

This is the first work i did the day after i returned from my summer recording in Scotland. Martin called me in, and we did a session recording electronics with Gus Garside on bass, to add to existing material on a couple of tracks.

Later on, Martin gave me the stems and i took all this to my studio. It was such a pleasure to hear and work on this material. Ron’s playing is just marvelous and after Martin’s magic in the studio, all the instruments were coming together. I did some discrete processing of sax and drums mostly and added field recordings, some electronics etc.

This layer of electroacoustic sounds gave another dimention to the music which was mostly jazz instrumentation at that point. With the full soundscape, the album was then starting to feel closer to the original piece. The difference is that Les Oiseaux was recorded live in the studio, whereas Dream Feathers is more of a studio construct, with the addition of anton on guitar.

 

I could not tire of this music, and when the album was mixed, i did some further work listening through again and tweaking the sound for a last mastering. Everyone was pleased with the result and the files went straight to the factory. This album was just released on Discus label as Dream Feathers – 88CD.

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Milarepa and Rechungpa

The lastest performance by Suvarnagarbha and Hervé Perez continues on the theme and stories of milarepa. Here, we explore the turbulent relationship between guru and his main disciple through songs and narration that are full of wisdom, going deeper into the Dharma from the tibetan tradition.

This incredible text is translated and performed by suvarnagarbha.
The soundscapes are improvised using field recordings, alto saxophone, shakuhachi, meditation bowls and bells, objects, bodhran, live processing.

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Milarepa

this collaboration keeps developing and reaching new heights. the lastest performance is an epic journey through the stories and songs of milarepa, a key figure in tibetan buddhism. i hope it is only part one of a series, and this time we focused on the stories of milarepa taming demons and teaching the Dharma at every opportunity.
this is an amazing text, here translated and performed by my good friend suvarnagarbha.
the full performance is posted on mixcloud. it is 1h41mins long, but is well worth settling down for, and getting immersed in this fantastic world.

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Garside Hunter Perez Trio EPK

Gus Garside – double bass
Johnny Hunter – drums
Hervé Perez – saxophone

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 13^th 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).

Johnny performs across the UK in many other groups including with Misha Gray’s Prehistoric Jazz Quintet, Cath Roberts’s Sloth Racket; The Spirit Farm, John Pope Quintet, Nat Birchall, Engine Room Favourites, the Blind Monk Trio, Word of Moth, Beck Hunters, the Dub Jazz Soundsystem, Skamel.

johnnyhuntermusic.com

Hervé Perez – saxophone

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.

                   

http://www.spacers.lowtech.org/herve

nexttimestudio.wordpress.com

                                                                                                                                                                

Sukhavati Sutra

a reading of the Sukhavati Sutra

live performance with spoken word and electroacoustic improvisation

Suvarnagarbha (voice)
Hervé Perez (laptop – field recordings, sound design, live processing – shakuhachi, bowls and bells)

Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 23 feb 2019

Beck Woolf Perez trio EPK

contact:

sndsukinspook@live.com

mick.beck1@btinternet.com

[The Beck Woolf Perez Trio ]

adam woolf – keys

mick beck – tenor saxophone

hervé perez – alto saxophone

sounds:

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.

web – https://www.focusedsilence.com/artist/tantric-doctors/

http://dientedesierra.net/releases.htm#DDS003

Mick Beck (tenor saxophone, bassoon)

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.

web – https://mickbeckmusic.wordpress.com/

Hervé Perez (saxophones)

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.

web – http://www.spacers.lowtech.org/herve
sax – http://soundcloud.com/herveperez

collaboration with ayse

i met up with my friend ayse recently to talk about doing some more work together, and this got me reminiscing about our previous collaborations. so i thought i’d share some documents of this.

when i first contacted ayse, it was after coming across some of her performances around the theme of migration. her dance moves reminded me of energy practices like qi gong or tai chi and there was a definite vibe that i could relate to. very quickly, we found out that we had some common interests and that our practice of mindfulness, meditation as approach and creative output was highly compatible.

so merging the themes of our respective work, we spontaneously and very rapidly took this experimental work to the public.

the first instance, particularly, was visually stunning.

the communication during the performance, listening and close connection really worked.

and i was really amazed by the resulting painting created by ayse’s moves across the canvas.

the contents and ideas behind this project really work together on such an essential level, with the movement leaving a visible mark as metaphor for the deeply transforming experience of migrating to another country and culture.

the sounds, at times harsh and jarring, at time lyrical, converse closely with the other layers on the work. gradually, i started to introduce repetitive patterns played over time using circular breathing and this helped introduce a rhythm and pace for the movements, and allowed us to get deeper into the zone.

we had several practice sessions since then, and the underlying understanding and spiritual connection is of course very present.

this is something rather rare. and i am very keen on continuing this collaboration, whatever form it may take.

ayse has been writing about our project on her blog. check out her comments here.

below are a couple of videos taken of our performances. the recording is a bit rough, but still a good document of the very beginning of this collaboration.

dovecote tunnel [ged barry and hervé perez]

titled point line and surface, those three videos explore the architecture and resonance of Dovecote tunnel in a very impressionistic way. Using extended techniques and an architectural approach to harmony, the physics of sound waves inside a resonant chamber, the duo retains a great sense of melodic development while exploring structures at times abstract, and harmonic.

following on our exploration of a wet and drippy thor’s cave, we continued down the valley onto another of my favourite spots. i must say playing music in a tunnel is a bit weird, but this place has got the most amazing resonance. with a very strong character and pronounced resonant frequency, this tunnel will bend notes and blend overtones in the most surprising way.

expect beatings, saturating space and long tones…

 

this recording is the document of their very first encounter as a duo with the special acoustics of the tunnel.
01 august 2017

ged barry – tenor saxophone
hervé perez – alto saxophone

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full audio