Lovely bit of video capturing a gig we did at ReNTReC in Beppu on our AIDF supported trip to Japan in April has surfaced here. Really shows some of the mix close detailed listening, movement/actions based things and listening in space that we dug into working with on that trip! If you ever find yourself in Beppu (and I’d totally recommend the seaside vibes combined with incredible 43 degree hot mineral water Onsen baths that are all over the town) do visit ReNTReC, its a great little shop packed full of stuff hidden away down an arcade under railway arches into the town’s station.
Also a thoughtful review of our ‘A Hair in the Chimney’ record featured in this months jazz column in the Quietus ‘Complete Communion’ written by Stewart Smith. Really nice to be featured among such excellent artists!
http://thequietus.com/articles/22660-william-parker-tomeka-reid-lol-coxhill-jazz-review
“Top-notch weirdo jams from the north of England. Featuring Sloth Racket’s Sam Andreae on saxophone, David Birchall on guitar, and Otto Willberg on double bass, Hair In The Chimney brings an underground sensibility to free improvisation, with the musicians using unconventional techniques to defamiliarise their instruments. On ‘Endless Blue Meander’ (nice Eno reference!) Birchall’s guitar is effectively a percussion instrument, as he taps the amplified body with drumsticks, strikes the strings behind the neck, and rubs objects into the pick-ups. Tap, ping, crackle. Andrae emits a few mouthpiece sputters, but much of his playing is textural or percussive, as he taps the bell with a coin, and removes the neck altogether, treating it as a high-end tin whistle. Willberg occasionally frames these abstractions with free jazz bass runs, but he’s by no means the straight man, as his outré vocabulary of snapped strings and growling arco effects attests. ‘Sockets Filled Up With Eyes’ offers Whammy pedal pitch wobbles and all manner of Cage-ian bass preparations, concluding with an insect ballet set to ghostly drones.”
Record is here::
David Birchall 