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Predicate is led by Alex Ward, described as "a compulsively creative polymath" by Stewart Lee and "one of those musicians who seems to get interesting music out of anything he touches", by Nate Dorward. Ward writes the compositions for the group and plays electric guitar. He is also known in other contexts as a clarinetist. The music, while often taking a high-energy free-jazz approach as its starting point, also incorporates the electric aggression of rock, the abstract interplay of non-idiomatic improvisation and a diverse range of compositional tactics into an intense and unclassifiable whole. Predicate played their first show in February 2010, and since then have performed regularly around London and Oxford. Their debut album is out now on FMR records. Alex Ward has been active in free improvisation since being given his first gig by Derek Bailey in 1987. He has gone on to work with a wide range of musicians as a clarinetist (sometimes also on alto sax) and increasingly since 2000 as a guitarist. In addition to his continued involvement in a number of regular and semi-regular improvising combinations, he has played in bands led by Simon H. Fell, Eugene Chadbourne, Duck Baker and Luke Barlow (with whom he runs the label Copepod). He also co-led the rock band Camp Blackfoot with Benjamin Hervé, and in 2005 released a solo album of songs entitled "Hapless Days", which led to the formation of Alex Ward & The Dead Ends to perform these songs and more. Besides Predicate, his current main project is Dead Days Beyond Help, a collaboration with drummer Jem Doulton in which Ward plays guitar, sings and co-writes the material. Tim Hill is a musician, composer, performer and artist who has specialised in outdoor celebration and performance for over twenty years. He has been musical director for shows with Welfare State International, Desperate Men, Liverpool Lantern Company, Walk the Plank, Macnas, Manchester International Arts, Once Celebratory Arts and many others. He runs the bands Tongues of Fire, The Albion Horns, Twittering Machine and the Worlds Unknown trio (with Dominic Lash and Steve Noble). Tim has worked as an improviser and experimental musician in a wide variety of settings since the 1980s, playing with such musicians as Mike Cooper, Paul Burwell, John Edwards, Derek Bailey, Max Eastley, Pat Thomas, Roger Turner and Geoff Hawkins. He also plays, makes and researches period wind instruments and plays in the Mellstock Band, recreating and researching the English rural music making of the 18th and 19th centuries. Dominic Lash is largely self-taught on double bass, which he took up in 2001, although he had played and studied bass guitar since 1994. Formerly an active member of the Oxford Improvisers Collective, Lash relocated to New York in March 2011, and is now based in Bristol. He has performed on the international stage with musicians as varied as Tony Conrad, Evan Parker and the late Steve Reid. In 2009 he toured in a quartet with Joe Morris, Tony Buck and Tony Bevan. He has performed with The London Improvisers Orchestra, Karl Berger's Stone Workshop Orchestra, various collaborations with the Swiss duo Diatribes, and in a trio with John Butcher and John Russell. He is also a member of the experimental music group The Set Ensemble and the transatlantic Convergence Quartet (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt and Alexander Hawkins). Mark Sanders entered the London jazz scene in the 1980s, playing with Dudu Pukwana, Tim Richards, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Peter Nu. In the 1990s, he performed regularly with Paul Rogers and subsequently formed durable musical associations with two other bassists, Jah Wobble and John Edwards. He has recorded extensively and collaborated with many distinguished musicians including Elton Dean, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Howard Riley, Lol Coxhill, Barry Guy, Keith Tippett, Charles Gayle, William Parker, Johannes Bauer, Peter Evans, Myra Melford and Roswell Rudd. He has been a member of numerous improvising groups, including the ZFP quartet (with Carlos Zingaro, Simon Fell and Marcio Mattos) and SPEEQ (with Hasse Poulsen, Luc Ex and Phil Minton), while his interest in electronic music has been reflected in his work with DJ Sniff, Pat Thomas, Phil Durrant and electroacoustic composer John Wall.

 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

01865 790106