MONKEY PUZZLE TRIO [Charles Hayward, Viv Corringham, Nick Doyne-Ditmas]

Event information

MONKEY PUZZLE TRIO features This Heat lynchpin Charles Hayward on drums, keys and melodica, bassist Nick Doyne-Ditmas and the words, voice and textures of avant-vocalist Viv Corringham, whose music walks a tightrope between song, improvisation and sound-as-sound.

Their music is driven by the restless energy, invention and power of Hayward's drumming and underpinned by the languid and exploratory double bass playing of Doyne-Ditmas, to which Corringham adds, with the aid of a loop pedal, her unique collage of words and sounds.... Together they create a distinctive sound world which is exhilarating and immersive and relies on the sensitivity and experience of all three musicians.

The band has recently released their second album 'The Pattern Familiar' on Slowfoot Records.

"Their second album The Pattern Familiar is an improvised song cycle that pushes the very notion of the song to the extreme. Hayward hooks into motorik rhythms that are relaxed yet deliberate and Nick Doyne-Ditmas lays out reverberant, drifting moans, with overdubbed horns hinting at structure, over which Corringham's pursues a range of techniques, from cool Brion Gysin-esque wordplay to looped and multilayered operatic wails." [The Wire]

"Edgy and distinctive, the music of Monkey Puzzle Trio is hard to pin down... ...Good stuff indeed." [Terrascope]

"On The Pattern Familiar they set about subverting the spontaneous, overdubbing tightly constructed horn lines on to open-ended improvisations and fashioning fully formed songs from Corringham's abstract narrative. An edgy listen, the album is made all the more engaging by its clever use of contradiction." [Mercury Recommends]

"...a treasure chest of everything musically imaginable" [Flipside]

"...a wild mix of avant rock and, out-there vocal improvisation and free jazz. Hayward and Doyne-Ditmas play hard and heavy, while Corringham samples and loops vocal fragments to create a dense vocal collage.... recalling a Band of Gypsies era cosmic jam fronted by an army of ghosts." [We Need No Swords]

"An utterly impressive début, 'White World' is the exciting sound of three
musicians tuned perfectly to each other's sonic free-thinking." [Rock A Rolla]

"...fascinating and hypnotic music." [The Wire]

ROSHI

Born in Wales to Iranian parents, Roshi Nasehi is a singer-songwriter who presents her own evocative songs alongside sometimes quite radical interpretations of some of the Iranian songs she was brought up listening to. Her songs reflect her origins, influences and experiences in a personal and unique way accompanied by unusual piano or keyboard arrangements - they are reflective, melodic and quirky - her voice airy and tender but possessed of an inner power. When she interprets Iranian song it is in a personal style bringing a contemporary twist combined with an authentic understanding of context and language.

Mixmag described Roshi as "One of the most singular voices working at the moment".