Gannets (Fyfe Dangerfield)

Event information

Fyfe Dangerfield, Alex Ward, Chris Cundy, Dominic Lash, Steve Noble

Gannets emerged onto the UK’s improvised music scene several years ago, playing their initial gigs in around 2004 at Hugh Metcalfe’s legendary Klinker Club – home to alternative cabaret, DIY cinema and free jazz in North London. At around the same time, keyboardist and guitarist Fyfe Dangerfield also formed the pop band Guillemots who subsequently signed to Polydor (Universal Music). Guillemots shared Gannets' clarinet and sax section Chris Cundy and Alex Ward for the first few years, and although the two bands served entirely different functions for Dangerfield, a mutual coexistence of pop and experimental music became an important aspect to both projects in varying degrees. Cundy had met Dangerfield whilst working on a piano-bar job at a Cheltenham nightclub, and the pair soon recognised a shared passion for unconventional performance which manifested itself in a variety of guises, including their duo The Executive Caveman which served as an experimental hip hop outfit for a number of thankless open mic nights. After a short stint in LA trailing West Hollywood’s little known improvised music scene, the pair returned to the UK for a Jazz Services funded tour of an expanded outfit called Transmissions of Not, which featured bassist Aristazabal Hawkes who would later join Guillemots.

Gannets were featured in a full length live session recorded for BBC Radio 3 as part of Jez Nelson’s Jazz on 3 programme in 2008, selected as being one of their favourite sessions for that year. The band releases its debut album on the Babel Label in 2012.