October/November 2016 – upcoming gigs – a European tour for string trio improvisers In The Sea (25th October to 23rd November)

From late October to late November, improvising string trio In The Sea are out on a European tour taking in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

Comprising three French-Canadian musicians – veteran cellist and singer/ranter Tristan Honsinger, double bass player Nicolas Caloia and violinist Joshua Zubot – their music’s a raucous and brainy mashing and grinding of box-battering extended classical techniques, transmigrated hot jazz swing, jaunty folk dances and texts declaimed in conversational squawks. It’s full of both swarming bow torture and tunefulness, continually flickering over the line between impetuous noise and structured, harmonious discipline: something fostered and nurtured by the enthusiastic understanding running between all three players.

Information on the tour dates is variable (some of it’s only up in sketchy details right now) but here’s what I have at time of posting:

• Oorsprong @ Plantagedok, Dokzaal, Plantage Doklaan 8-12, 1018 CM Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday 24th October 2016, 7.00pm
• The Horse Improv Club @ IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, Waterloo, London, SE1 7LG, England, Tuesday 25th October 2016, 8.00pm (with Adam Bohman/Adrian Northover/Hutch Demouilpied/Sue Lynch) – information
• Safehouse @ The Verdict, 159 Edward Street, Brighton, BN2 0JB, England, Wednesday 26th October 2016, 8.00pm (with Gus Garside/James Parsons + The Wildcard Quartet)– information here and here
• Xposed Club @ Francis Close Hall, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, England, Friday 28th October 2016, 8.00pm (with Mike Adcock & Pete Robson) – information
• The Old Hairdressers, 23 Renfield Lane, Glasgow, G2 6PH, Scotland, Saturday 29th October 2016, 8.00pm (with Bravest Boat + Richard Youngs) – information
• Sproggits @ Wharf Chambers, 23-25 Wharf Street, Leeds, LS2 7EQ, England, Monday 31st October 2016, 8.00pm
• Fizzle @ The Lamp Tavern, Barford Street, Birmingham, B5 6AH, England, Tuesday 1st November 2016, 7.30pm
• Terminus, 7 Avenue Gare, 57200 Sarreguemines, France, Thursday 3rd November 2016
• Off-Bar, Offenburgerstrasse 59, Basel 4057, Switzerland, Friday 4th November 2016
• Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg, Badergasse 2, 4161 Ulrichsberg, Austria, Saturday 5th November 2016, 8.00pm
• Misterioso Jazz Club @ Das Institut, Elisabethenstrasse 14a, 3. Stock, 8004 Zürich, Switzerland, Tuesday 8th November 2016, 8.00pm
• La Nef, Rue Saint-Hubert 17, 2340 Le Noirmont, Switzerland, Thursday 10th November 2016
• Cafè des Arts di Coucourda Luca, Via Principe Amedeo 33, 10123 Torino, Italy, Saturday 12th November 2016
• Machito, Via Argentero 4/G Torino (piazza nizza), Torino, Italy, Sunday 13th November 2016
• Musique Rayonnante @ Centro di Ricerca Musicale @ Angelica, Via San Vitale 63-67,40125 Bologna, Italy, Tuesday 15th November 2016, 8.30pm
• Kulturforum Villach, Postgasse 6 9500 Villach, Austria, Thursday 17th November 2016
• Hybrida, Tarcento, Italy, Friday 18th November 2016
• Limmitationes @ Gasthaus Rudolf Pummer, 7561 Heiligenkreuz im Lafnitztal, Obere Hauptstraße 11, Lafnitztal, Austria, Saturday 19th November 2016, 7.00pm (with Trio 876 & Jean Demey) – information
• Fluc Praterstern 5, A-1020 Wien, Austria, Wednesday 23rd November 2016

There’s a little information about some of the support acts and bill sharers. In London and Brighton, there’ll be sets by what are effectively the house improv bands. At the Horse Improv Club, it’ll be the free array of Adam Bohman (amplified objects), Adrian Northover (sax/electronics), Hutch Demouilpied (trumpet/flute) and Sue Lynch (tenor sax/clarinet). At Safehouse, it’ll be the duo of Gus Garside (double bass and electronics) and drummer/percussionist James Parsons: there’ll also be a performance by The Wildcard Quartet, Safehouse’s usual four-piece of randomly selected names from the Brighton improv community. (For two Wildcard examples, see the murky video clip I’ve trawled up below, plus the rather more viewable one under that…)

 
At Cheltenham’s Xposed Club, In the Sea will be supported by the piano duo of Mike Adcock and Pete Robson. In Glasgow, they’re part of a three-act show – the other two acts being Glaswegian-Bradfordian exploratory collective Bravest Boat (longstanding guitar duo Stevie Jones and Jer Reid, plus viola player/singer Aby Vulliamy, trombonist George Murray and violinist Rafe Fitzpatrick) and the quixotic, master-of fuzzy-genre voyager Richard Youngs (whose list of collaborators and fellow-sparkers stretches from Jandek to Skullflower and Acid Mothers Temple, and whose work frequently features soft songs with avant-garde interruptions).

 
Later on in the tour – in the Austrian town of Lafnitztal, close to the Hungarian border – In The Sea will be playing on a bill with the “close, loose” trans-European Trio 876 (featuring Italian avant-jazz percussionist Marcello Magliocchi, Belgian total-voice artist Jean-Michel van Schouwburg and Swiss violin master Matthias Boss). For the latter, expect a quick, febrile and knowing shuffle of everything from structured tunes, mouth sputters, blind charges, yodelling, singing and elements from both “logic and fantasy”: in other words, a full gamut. Belgian double bassist Jean Demey will be guesting, rendering the trio a full quartet for this particular evening – but for original trio action, see below.

Tags: Aby Vulliamy, Adam Bohman, Adrian Northover, Amsterdam (Netherlands), Basel (Switzerland), Birmingham (England), Bologna (Italy), Bradford (England), Bravest Boat, Brighton (England), Brussels (Belgium), Cheltenham (England), Fizzle (event), George Murray, Glasgow (Scotland), Gus Garside, Hutch Demouilpied, In The Sea, James Parsons, Jean Demey, Jean-Michel van Schouwburg, Jer Reid, Joshua Zubot, Lafnitztal (Austria), Le Noirmont (Switzerland), Leeds (England), Limmitationes (event), London (England), Marcello Magliocchi, Matthias Boss, Mike Adcock, Misterioso Jazz Club (event), Musique Rayonnante (event), Nicolas Caloia, Pete Robson, Rafe Fitzpatrick, Richard Youngs, Safehouse (event), Sarreguemines (France), Stevie Jones, Sue Lynch, The Wildcard Quartet, The Xposed Club (event), Torino (Italy), Trio 876, trio music, Tristan Honsinger, Ulrichsberg (Austria), Wien (Austria), Zürich (Switzerland)