Eddie Prévost + Jennifer Allum + Ute Kanngiesser + Marjolaine Charbin

Event information

In April 2011 Eddie Prévost and Jennifer Allum released Penumbrae on Matchless Recordings. Penumbrae 'interrogates, employs and deploys a common system - the bow and its range of purchase'. Eddie Prévost is the percussionist who co-founded the seminal improvising music ensemble AMM in the 1960s. Jennifer Allum is a London-based violinist who focusses almost exclusively on improvised and experimental music. For this concert they will come together as part of a quartet with cellist Ute Kanngiesser and French pianist Marjolaine Charbin.

This treat of a quartet, balancing yin, yang, youth and maturity so nicely, makes me want to leap in the air. Its musicians know each other well through frequent collaboration and the nexus of Eddie Prevost's weekly improv lab: Prevost's incredible percussion work probably needs no introduction; Kanngiesser combines serene, deep engagement, powerful sound and delicate balance; Allum has been described as 'free of mannerism and flourish,' a 'rigorous scrutineer'; while Charbin's impressively heterodox mastery of the piano, utilises straight, prepared, harmonic and pure sound. Together, their music will - I've no doubt - be a practical demonstration of the huge contribution these women are currently making to contemporary improvisation in London.
(Ross Lambert)

"In lesser hands, limiting the music to bowed surfaces could easily come off as a contrivance. Here, the two approach their improvisations with conviction and bracing detail. Control is the key, with both musicians using attack and decay, resonance and a honed attention to the qualities of string and metal to create mercurial striations across a precise trajectory. This is a release which continues to reveal itself with concentrated listening over a number of plays and is one that I've found myself returning to often." - Michael Rosenstein, PARIS Transatlantic, Summer 2011