One Thousand Boats + Vole

Event information

One Thousand Boats
One Thousand Boats is the inaugural project led by acclaimed bass player Liran Donin. Setting sail just six months ago in its current incarnation, the group plays simple songs which explore the fragile balance between structure and improvisation.

The group comprises Donin alongside Led Bib alumni Chris Williams (alto) and Mark Holub (drums), plus relative new comer to these shores the USA's Robert Stillman, now based in swinging Broadstairs (tenor).

Donin brings the bass to the forefront and directs the music from there. The familiar abstract grooving continues from Donin, but also, more often it features melodic folk-like music, casting these four musicians in an intriguing new light.

Together they draw influences from across Sub Saharan Africa, the Middle East and travel back to 1930's folk and Country Americana, and revisiting Japanese film and animation soundtracks once in a while.

Vole
By turns floating, funking and punking out, Vole stuff a range of influences and compositional devices into an improvised funnel and let them splatter all over the audience.

The quartet - Roland Ramanan (trumpet), Roberto Sassi (guitar and electronics) Alex Hawkins (keyboards) and Tom Greenhalgh (drums) - are all mainstays of the London improv/jazz scene (having played with the likes of Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker and Pat Thomas, Andrew Plummer, Joe McPhee).

Improvisation lies at the heart of the music but always framed within compositions that bring to bear their experiences of playing art-rock, groove-improv, punk, funk and jazz.

This gig will launch Vole's new album Hillside Mechanisms on Babel