Sheik Anorak / Colin Webster / Mark Holub - Tour

In March the new trio of Sheik Anorak, Mark Holub, and Colin Webster are on tour in the UK:

March 19th - Port Mahon, Oxford
March 20th - The Vortex, London
March 21st - Green Door Store, Brighton

Lyon-based guitar-shredder, and free jazz noisenik Sheik Anorak is known for collaborating with like-minded souls all over the world, including: Mario Rechtern, Weasel Walter (from the Flying Luttenbachers), Clement Edouard, Yoann Durant, and Matthieu Peyraud. He also moonlights as head-honcho of Gaffer Records, releasing amazing music by the likes of Mats Gustafsson, Talibam!, OffOnOff, Jazkamer, and many others. 
For this tour Sheik Anorak is joining forces with Led Bib sticksman Mark Holub, and saxophonist Colin Webster.
www.sheikanorak.com


For all three dates they are joined by Lyon-based power-jazz-trio Lunatic Toys, and for the Brighton gig by Bolide as well.


Also, on March 7th the trio of Sheik Anorak, Colin Webster, and Clement Edouard (from Lunatic Toys / Loup) are performing a special show at Buffet Froid in Lyon.

Solo recording session

A few weeks ago I did a solo saxophone recording session.  I did the recording at Shiftworks - a studio I've used a for my trio and duo recordings - and used the same engineer, Alex Bonney.  I took alto, tenor, and baritone for the session.  The idea was to record  a series of very quiet improvisations with as much emphasis on breath sounds, and mechanical key noise as on the naturally produced sounds of the saxophone.  We set up two close-mics, and also attached some very small DPA mics to the saxophone itself - on the crook, on the bell, and inside the bell.  I've posted a few photos from the session below.

Musically, I tried to explore breath sounds, percussive sounds, resonance, extreme quiet, mechanical sounds (key/pad noise), sub-tones, multiphonics, overtones, 'non-notes', and combinations of these elements.  The temptation to play a 'natural' note would usually lead to the termination of these short improvisations.  These ideas had been on my mind for a while after exploring them almost by accident during some very quiet practice sessions at my flat, and it was great to finally get them on tape.  I'm hoping the recordings will see the light of day sometime later in the year.

On The Edge

A few weeks ago I travelled down to Brighton with my trio (Webster/Holub/McLaren) to play at On The Edge - the night run by Brighton's Safehouse collective. It was the first time our trio had played outside London, and we had a great gig to a very enthusiastic listening audience. I mainly played Baritone for this gig, and Toby just brought his synth and effects instead of the usual Rhodes. This slight change to the usual format worked really well, with the synth bringing out more 'sounds' and the baritone sometime playing more of a support/rhythm section role.

Here's a clip of the first track from our set:
Webster/Holub/McLaren live in Brighton by colinwebster

Many thanks to Gus Garside and everyone at Safehouse for bringing us down there.
http://www.safehousebrighton.co.uk/

Raise The Hallows 2011

I'm co-promoting this night, and also playing Baritone in 'Asteroid' - large sci-fi, doom-improv, drone, noise ensemble.

BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI
http://www.myspace.com/bluesabbathblackfiji

ULTIMATE THRUSH

http://www.myspace.com/ultimatethrush

JUSSI BRIGHTMORE
http://www.myspace.com/gumtakestooth

ASTEROID
http://soundcloud.com/asteroid-ensemble

Dusk Til Dawn, Archway, N19 3TD

Solo improvisation

I'm working on some close-miked solo improvisations at the moment. There's still some technical issues to address, but here's a taster of a work in progess:

solo 1 by colinwebster

Spasm Band News

Lots going on in the world of The Spasm Band right now. The new album - Rubber Orchestras - has just been released in France a couple of weeks ago on CD, vinyl, and download. Reviews and reactions from DJs has been excellent, and the album has been in the top 10 of the soul/R&B album charts on iTunes. We've had a few gigs as well, the album launch was at New Morning in Paris - legendary venue that we've played a few times now. We also had a trip to Marseille, one of my favourite cities to play in, to play at the Marsatac Festival.

The album is due out in the UK and the rest of Europe on Oct 12th. We're having a UK album launch at Empowering Church in Hackney on Nov 11th.

During our summer tour in Western France we shot this video for 'She Is The Sea', on a particularly wet and windy day in St Nazaire:

Open Sound Group - Warehouse One

Back in August I participated in a 12-piece group improvisation session at a warehouse in North London. The session was curated by sound artist/improvisor Graham Dunning, and included musicians from several different improvising disciplines. The resulting recordings have been released as a free download on the Open Sound Group website:

http://www.archive.org/details/OpenSoundGroup-WarehouseOne