F'REACTION FESTIVAL
"I appreciate everything you have done. Yes, see you in 2008."

Sonny

smiles!!
(Sonny Simmons)

"The (2007) festival was clearly an incrdedible event the likes of which Sheffield hasn't seen for some time."

"It was an awesome and magical experience and i loved it......."

"Freenoise has really surpassed itself this time!"

On Sonny Simmons Quartet set:
"Unbearably excellent!"
&
"The kind of gig where you can't believe that the musicians will be able
to find fresh and exciting ideas after the first few demented bars - but
the miracle repeats itself again and again until the end."


Photo-montage video with totally unsuitable music! Photos by Dan Sumption
Bar Abbey, Sheffield UK. Friday Dec 21st 2007 2-12pm. £10 adv.
On the longest, darkest night of the year... deep down in the basement of Sheffield's oldest and most characteristic, historic building we will celebrate our festival of NOISE.

SONNY SIMMONS TRIO

Like the poster? Me too! Download hi-res version for quality printing here (3.6mb) Why not bring one and get it signed! BUY TICKETS HERE

Huey "Sonny" Simmons grew up in Oakland, California and is one of the key figures to come out of the 1960s free jazz scene.
He has worked with John Coltrane’s rhythm section, McCoy Tyner, Gary Peacock, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Anthony Braxton, Frank Lowe, Sunny Murray, Don Cherry and Prince Lasha, even Jimi Hendrix... before recording his own stunning LPs for ESP-Disk, home of Alber Ayler and Sun Ra. Simmons was emblematic of how the free-jazz improviser could wed the sophisticated composer. Often reminiscent of John Coltrane but also inherently more complex, if a bit less emotional. He remains a brilliant composer and no matter what the setting, Simmons always managed to carve out a unique place in the history of jazz improvisation and composition. Flying over from his home in New York especially for F'reaction, Sonny will be accompanied by the UK's finest free improv musicians Charlie Collins (drums, cajon, frame drum), John Jasnoch (electric guitar, ud) and Derek Saw (trumpet, valve trombone).

Video
Sonny Simmons
Listen to Live in Paris 1994
Audio Interview

Z'EV

Conceptual artist, dancer, musician, scholar and poet, Z'EV (Stefan Weisser) began playing the drums at age 4. Moving to New York City from San Francisco in 1979, and adopting the name Z'EV, his work with performance/noise percussion broke new ground and drew the attention of rock symphonist Glenn Branca, dancer Simone Forti, guitarist Rudolph Grey and just about everybody related to the downtown scene. (Discogs)

Since the 1970's, the currently Uk -based text/sound artist Z'EV has been at the forefront of the movement that became known as "industrial".

A precursor even to Neubauten, his brand of scrap-metal/found object percussion originates in intense musical training and background. Beginning with his days at the California Institute of the Arts, Z'EV has studied techniques such as Balinese Gamelan, EWE (Ghana), Tala (south India), and Vou Dun (Hati).
Incorporating these traditional methods into his distinctly personal musical vision of sound, Z'EV has consistently produced vital examples of his craft for a host of noted labels including Soleilmoon, C.I.P, Touch and Die Stadt and a commissioned piece for John Zorn's "Radical Jewish Music" series on Zaddik. His record "Bust This" was chosen in 1988 by The Wire as one of the greatest 50 percussion albums of all time. Z'EV has graced the stage and created installations for an immense variety of venues in Europe, the US and Japan. The list of his collaborators over the years includes such luminaries as Keiji Haino, David Jackman, Francisco Lopez, KK Null, Stephen O'Malley, Charlemagne Palestine, Genesis P 'Orridge and Chris Watson. In 2007, Radon presents 'Bust This', the premiere full-on American tour by Z'EV. (Radon)

Z'ev straddles the nearly unbridgeable and highly volatile gulf between the art world and the music industry. Acclaimed as one of the world's best and most original percussionists, Weiser began recording in the late '60s in a handful of psych-out projects. By the late '70s, he took on the Z'ev moniker to explore the "spatial poetics" of the polyrhythmic clamor he had established with his hand-built percussive instruments. His dozens of collaborative projects expanded to include work with John Cage, Glenn Branca, The Hafler Trio, Psychic TV, and Rhythm & Noise

Translating Z'ev's kinetic performances onto sound-only recorded media does him a bit of an injustice, for it is an awesome sight to witness him heave a kinetic sculpture across a stage. These hulking percussive instruments, culled from the junkyards of the globe, consist of unwieldy pieces of sheet metal, giant coil springs, innumerable interconnected pipes, and several dozen 10-gallon plastic water bottles connected with heavy chains. Z'ev gracefully hurls the sculptures/instruments across the stage as a physical extension of his body, imbuing his crescendos of intense rhythmic crashing with a surprisingly calligraphic quality. (Epitonic)

Rhythmajik
myspace/z'ev
Brainwashed
Radon
Wiki

AUFGEHOBEN

Possibly only fifth gig ever for this mysterious ground breaking bunch we are well chuffed to be witnessing let alone putting on. "Aufgehoben are, hands down, one of Britain’s most exciting bands. Double drummer attack, scorching electronic shock therapy plus amazingly rhythmic guitar freak Gary Smith on guitar. This is only their fourth show in eight years. Momentous, clattering with that propulsive heavy live funk that can drive you mad. This is fearless, warped and uncaged beast music. - Venn Festival
"If you know what Francis Bacon did to Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X, then you'll have some idea of what Aufgehoben are doing to rock music." Peter Marsh, BBC Experimental Reviews
"Aufgehoben are voyaging fearlessly into the open spaces where rock improvisors thought they would fall from the edge of the world only to mark them "Here Be Monsters". - Wire

http://www.aufgehoben.org

THE OTHER ORCHESTRA

A wicked distillation made up from an ecclectic cross section of the renowned Sheffield improv scene. Charlie Collins (percussion), Beatrix Ward-Fernandez (electric violin / fx) , Mick Beck (tenor sax / bassoon / whisltes), Glynn Heppenstall (electronics) and Jonny Drury (percussion / vocals).
A giant in contemporary jazz and improv, Mick Beck (tenor sax, bassoon, whistles) has been working since 1980 in jazz, free music and as a composer and club/ festival organiser. As a composer he looks for structures that can diversify and strengthen the impact of improvisation; as an improvisor his aim is to mix compelling rhythms, zaney melodies, changes of mood and flexibility in playing techniques to explore new musical possibilities." Charlie Collins (waterphone, gongs, cymbals, metal, snare drum, frame drums, mbiras, cajon and balafon) has backgrounds in performance/improvisation and poetry/jazz led to his involvement in the nascent '70s Industrial movement. He was a founder member of ClockDVA and The Box, recording for cult labels Industrial, Fetish and Doublevision as well as Go Discs, and has worked with vocalist Peter Hope as both The Bone Orchestra and Flex 13. Since the 1980s he has played with numerous musicians, including Derek Bailey, Mick Beck, Gino Robair, LaDonna Smith, Milo Fine, Paul Hession, Julie Tippetts, Wally Shoup, Pat Thomas, Shock Headed Peters, Geraldine Monk, Outward Sound Ensemble, Philip Thomas, Jezriley-French and Music For One. Since 1994 he has been a member of industrial percussion group Left Hand Right Hand and his record production skills have seen himbecoming house producer for Martin Archer's Discus Records. He has also lectured on improvisation at Nottingham Trent University. He continues to play with The Beatrix Ward-Fernanez Trio (theremin/tuba/percussion) and Swift Are the Winds of Life (2violins/percussion) and has recently toured the live soundtrack to Teinosuke Kinugasa's 1920's masterpiece "Page of Madness". His long term working relationship with John Jasnoch continues with The Navigators, ASK, The Balkh Trio (live interpretations of poet Jalaluddin Rumi with vocalist Pete White) and the Para-Music Ensemble (with instrument builders Scott Hawkins and Richard Head) He remains one of a handful of musicians to have played both Company Week and Top of the Pops (with Moloko). Beatrix Ward-Fernandez (electric violin / fx) "I play a wide variety of music mainly concentrating on improvising.. The theremin is an important part of my musical expression, using it on its own but also expanding the range with the use of electronic effects.. I want to explore the outer limits for the use of music, sound and words. All my pieces are unique creations born of the space around me at the time. They are one with their environment seducing the listener to a world not visited by others. I transmit their voices through my playing giving them the freedom of that time and place.music. Glynn Heppenstall (electronics) is from the Sheffield tradition of electro-industrialists and an original member of Clock DVA (visual artist) and The Anti Group Conspiracy, who took Berlin's famous Atonal Festival by storm in 1985. Also previously known as 'Oskar M'. Presently Glynn is instrumental in the forming of various new collaborations (The Tajalli Vortex, Sunshine Panic and TOO, as well as working solo. Jonny Drury - (drums, percussion, guitar & fx, vocals) is an experimental musician and visual artist from Sheffield, England. Collaborations with Charlie Collins, Mick Beck, Martin Archer, Genesis P-Orridge, Damo Suzuki, John Hackett and others. Full time Contemporary Fine Art student and founder of Freenoise and Other Art. Founder member of The Tajalli Vortex, Sunshine Panic, Sub-Merged and The Other Orchestra.
Mick Beck
Charlie Collins
Beatrix Ward-Fernandez
Glynn Heppenstall
Jonny Drury

DR. ADRIAN MOORE & JESUS IS ANGRY

Adrian is a professor at Sheffield University, electroacoustic composer, ex-director of Sonic Arts Network and artistic director of Sheffield University Sound Studios. His works have been performed and broadcast around the world and have received prizes and mentions in numerous competitions. Having always held an interest in bringing the power of the tape medium into the live performance situation as well as to sound diffusion, Adrian Moore sees the technology of today as an ideal tool with which to work as a composer, teacher and performer. He is currently Lecturer in Music at University of Sheffield where he is the director of the University of Sheffield Sound Studios (USSS). His motivations remain ‘acousmatic’ and current work includes multichannel (5.1) composition, audiovisual, laptop improvisation, and large spatialisation concerts using software developed at USSS.
"In the world of composers like Adrian Moore things do not evolve around making CDs, but on playing concerts, preferable on multi-speaker systems for a seated audience (with an arty facial hair, thick glasses, sipping wine. I’m joking here, right?). Moore deals with electroacoustic music: from the power tools in Power Tools (not software, but let’s say real hardware such as a lawn mower) to field recordings of water, children, Venetian gondolas, horses and the piano.. All of the sounds are fed through a wondrous mirage of electronics and bounces back and forth, up and down." (ElectroCD)

Currently MA student of Adrian (how nice, our first ever- tutor-student duo!) Jesus, founder of I Knew Them (supported Lydia Lunch in Greece), creator of synthesisers, founder of The Dungeon and 52 Studios and general sonic renegade overturner of market-stalls.

Adrian Moore
Adrian Moore on ElectroCD
Jesus is Angry
I Knew Them

KREEPA

3rd visit to Sheffield via Freenoise. kREEPA are a group that perform electronic music and musical improvisation. Dr. John Richards (two professors in the show?!) and Hilary Jeffery founded the group in 2000. The music of kREEPA has been described as industrial jazz and electro-noise. The group began with recordings of extended instrumental improvisations with starkly contrasting electronic textures. Kreepa use essential elements to make complex forms through minimal means. Their improvised scenarios connect live performance with electronic systems and explore the dynamic interplay between acousmatic synthesis and instrumental approaches. Their sound is electronic and physical. Since October 2000, Kreepa have performed with various line-ups in Leicester, Ebenhofen, Gent, Barcelona, Alicante, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Norwich, London and Birmingham.
"Free Jazz for/from Aliens post Sun Ra?" Skug (Vienna) October 2002
"High levels of intuitive organisation run alongside the urge for discovery, as can be heard from the striking spontaneous arrangement on Kreepa of Walter Fabeck's piano and computer, Hilary Jeffery's tromboscillator, John Richards's kreepaback instrument and Cesar Villavicencio's e-recorder." Wire, June 2004
"Layered glacial sound slithered out of the stage's sound system, sometimes nauseatingly uncomfortable . . . other times staggeringly beautiful and very powerful." Zero Tolerance, issue #001, 2004

http://www.kreepa.com

BLACK CARROT

"F•••king great...you are inspired musicians, I like Black Carrot!" - Jean-Hervé Péron - Faust

“Black Carrot come from the sleepy provincial town of Market Harborough, where they have clearly evolved in splendid isolation. A trio with drums, bass and saxophones, they play a fierce, largely improvised set of what they themselves style krautrock-inspired space jazz folk. Certainly, if you have any fondness for Can or Faust, or perhaps more recently the American band Morphine, you are going to find something to love about Black Carrot.”
Pat Fish - The Masters Of Budvar/The Jazz Butcher

http://blackcarrot.net/

HONEY RIDE ME A GOAT

“If Jazz was one nipple and Punk were another, HRMAG would be hanging from both, unsure whether to swing from one erect firm mammary or the other, or maybe just tweak both hard at once and let go”
UNKLE B
"Mental break-laden Jazz-Punk, constantly flying off on 300 MPH tangents of ear-raping intensity"
FACTFANS
“HRMAG’s music shifts tectonic plates in milliseconds, and then returns them to their places quicker than before!"
DIRTY ZINE
"Muso and Wanky"
NORMAN RECORDS
"Too structured to be 'noise', but too exhilarating to be anything other than something of a hybrid style”
GINTRAMP
"A hot, wet cake-mix of a Free-Jazz skiddly-doo”
FREENOISE - full review
"It sounds rather like a mongoose might when trying to scratch fleas off its back and falling into a kettle cupboard in the process"
ALOUD FESTIVALS
“Best name for a band ever”
DAVID PAJO
“Dumb wave Math-Jazz chutney”
TATTY SEASIDE TOWN
“Ridiculously tight Curry obsessed chavs playing virtuosic hyper-complex Jazz Punk squawk”
FTSE100
"'Spazzed out super-tight Jazz-Rock genius...Their guitarist may well wear a strobe light on his head housed within a diver's mask. Awesome"
JOHN AMINO
"The fine proposition of skittering hella-drums, incredibly loud, fragmental sludge-riffing and outlandish onstage headwear; all born from a strict diet of curry, drugs and weather report"
STENCH OF MUSCLE

http://www.myspace.com/hrmag

IRON FIST OF THE SUN

Aahh..noise, noise and more awesome nasty noise! Fresh and steaming from the dirty 'Birmingham Nihilists' power electronics scene.

www.myspace.com/ironfistofthesun

DJs / Suprise acts / Giveaways...
£10 adv.
TICKETS ON SALE FROM NOV 1st

*Last year's Whitehouse gig alone sold out so early booking is advised!

Further Info

Your entry fee goes straight to the musicians and the Friends of Abbeydale Cinema, a charity who are campaigning to transform the magnificient building into what could certainly become Sheffield's first fully fledged arts centre!! So by coming and enjoying a gig you're also investing in the future of the Sheffield arts and music scene!

Support for Freenoise Monthly Live comes from Discus.

Bar Abbey is situated inside the beautiful Grade II listed building of the old Abbeydale Picture House

Back to 2007 lisintgs page

Main Page

© Freenoise 2007