MouthWind is based around the duo of extraordinary Belgian vocalist Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg and the real time signal processing of Lawrence Casserley – while they frequently appear as a duo, they often invite guest performers to work with them – one of their favourite partners is Japanese pianist Yoko Miura, who appears with them tonight.
“The end results have to be credited equally to both participants as, by turns, Casserley makes the singer sound like a wild beast roaring or snoring, a human in the throes of agony or ecstasy, a variety of cartoon characters, a deranged opera singer or a pod of dolphins communicating. If electronics can dehumanize music in some contexts, the opposite is true here; the electronics serve to emphasize the all-too-apparent humanity of Van Schouwburg’s voice.”
John Eyles, All About Jazz
Beam – Bruno Guastalla, cello; Martin Hackett, MS10; Paul Medley, clarinets and tenor sax – are all members of Oxford Improvisers who have become familiar with each others’ playing and thinking in large and small formations over many years. They first came together as a trio in 2009 and, while Beam’s performances have been at most occasional, each successive appearance displays the deepening understanding between these experienced and singular improvisers. At St Columba’s they will improvise freely and to structures devised for the trio by Martin Hackett.
