Caroline Kraabel / John Edwards / Richard Harrison (TRIO) + Charles Hayward (SOLO)

Event information

Trio set from saxophonist Caroline Kraabel with John Edwards and Richard Harrison on bass/drums. The evening will open with a solo acoustic set from legendary This Heat/Camberwell Now drummer and musical iconoclast Charles Hayward.

CAROLINE KRAABEL / saxophones

Caroline Kraabel is a London-based American saxophonist, improviser and composer. She has written texts and compositions about the interactions of electricity and music: recording, reproduction, synthesis, acoustics and amplification.

A native of Seattle, Kraabel moved to London while in her teenage years, at the end of the punk era.There she took up the saxophone and became active in London's improvised music scene, developing a style based on the physicality of the instrument, extended techniques and exploration of acoustics. She has performed solo and collaborated with Susan Alcorn, Annie Lewandowski, John Edwards, Veryan Weston, Charlotte Hug, Maggie Nicols and the London Improvisers Orchestra among others. She composes for and directs Mass Producers, a 20-piece, all-female saxophone/voice orchestra, and created Saxophone Experiments in Space for a 55-piece group of young saxophonists, as well as doing radio work, including Taking a Life for a Walk (through the streets of London with her saxophone and children), which was broadcast live on Resonance FM each week for five years.

Recordings include In The Garden City with Annie Lewandowski, Giving Out with Susan Alcorn, Playtime with Veryan Weston and Mark Sanders, Transitions with Maggie Nichols and Charlotte Hug, Five Shadows with Veryan Weston, Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 1 and 2 and Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 3 and 4 with Mass Producers, and a solo work Now We Are One Two.

JOHN EDWARDS / double bass

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, and many others.

RICHARD HARRISON / drums

Manchester drummer Richard Harrison's playing encompasses both rhythmic metre and intricate free playing using a kit supplemented with an array of percussive pots and pans and sheets of metal. He performs regularly with the groups Spaceheads, Toolshed and Homelife.

CHARLES HAYWARD / drums, vocals, electronics

Charles Hayward is known as the pioneering drummer with This Heat and Camberwell Now. In 1976, Hayward and fellow Radar Favourites and Dolphin Logic member, Charles Bullen began practising with bassist Gareth Williams under the name This Heat. They began to experiment with tape loops, found sounds and keyboards on several sessions (recorded from 1976 to 1978, but not released until 1979). Finally, in 1979, This Heat released their self-titled debut album. 1981's Deceit marked the final new album from This Heat, Williams leaving just after its release.

While Bullen began working as a studio engineer, Hayward did sessions for Lora Logic, the Raincoats and Everything But the Girl before forming Camberwell Now with bassist Trefor GORONWY and tape manipulator Stephen RICKARD. The trio released several albums through the Swiss Recommended label.

When Camberwell Now disbanded in 1987 Hayward embarked on a solo career which has continued to the present day. He debuted with Survive the Gesture (1987), Skew-whiff (1989) Switch on War (1991) and My Secret Alphabet (with Nick DOYNE-DITMAS) in 1993. Committed to song 'but the shapes have to change', the current incarnation of his one-man show is an intoxicating mix of percussive attack, swirling electronics and lyrical fragment collage.