Lost Property Arts Collective are delighted to present two pairings of world class improvisors. The duo of Limpe Fuchs and Evan Parker came about as they met at Fort Process festival and were playing in the same space; we’re very happy that this fortuitous encounter has resulted in the following concert.
Limpe Fuchs
Limpe Fuchs is a legend in the experimental music scene. In the late ’60s, this percussionist drummed on self-made instruments, together with her then-husband Paul Fuchs, in the Anima ensemble. During that time, Limpe and Paul Fuchs collaborated with the Austrian pianist Friedrich Gulda as well as jazz luminaries like Albert Mangelsdorff, and continually attracted the interest of their audiences in new constellations.
Limpe Fuchs’s solo performance with “variable wood and stone rows, ringing bronze in the pendulum strings, and a variety of skin and bronze drums” is a rare occasion to witness one of the early avant-gardists of the scene from the old Federal Republic of Germany. She attempts, while playing live, to develop her musical ideas from the “resonance of the location where the performance takes place” and to “make music in the flow of time, with simplicity and emotion.” Her main concern is to sensitise the process of hearing: “Every tone is a sensation. Listening instead of shutting one’s ears. Establishing silence.”
Evan Parker
Evan Parker has been a key figure in British free music since the 1960s. He played with John Stevens in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and held a long-standing partnership with guitarist Derek Bailey. Spreading his wings overseas he played on Peter Brötzmann’s legendary Machine Gun session, and toured with Globe Unity Orchestra and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath.
He is best known for his use of extended techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering, but never lets technique get in the way of an ultimately intuitive approach to playing, the aim of which is to create what he calls “a kind of trance-state” whilst playing.
“If you’ve ever been tempted by free improvisation, Parker is your gateway drug.” – Stewart Lee
John Butcher
John Butcher was born in Brighton, and has lived in London since the late 1970s. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics.
Originally a theoretical physicist, he published his Ph.D in 1982 and then left academia for music. He has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians, mostly involved with improvisation – including Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, Gerry Hemingway, Toshimaru Nakamura, Eddie Prevost, Paul Lovens, Christian Marclay and Andy Moor.
Compositions include “Penny Wands” for reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori, pieces for the Rova and Quasar saxophone quartets, “somethingtobesaid” for the John Butcher Group and “Tarab Cuts”. In 2011 he was one of three recipients of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Composers.
Ståle Liavik Solberg
Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums/percussion) has established a base for himself as a central part of Oslo’s thriving improvised music scene. Working with ensembles VCDC, Will it float? (with John Russell, Steve Beresford & John Edwards), Silva-Rasmussen-Solberg trio and in duos with Fred Lonberg-Holm and John Russell his open and attentive drumming has received many positive responses from musicians and audiences in both Europe and the USA. Solberg is also known as one of the driving forces behind the series Blow Out! in Oslo, and he curates the festival with the same name together with fellow drummer / percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love.