DMC: Abyssal Trio/Jer Reid and Raymond McDonald/Cable Snake

Event information

DMC with its second gig in a fortnight (you lot are spoiled)

ABYSSAL TRIO:
Experimental Trio based in Birmingham/Southampton.

Exploring improvised sound.

Played in venues such as The MAC Birmingham, Centrala, The Noise Upstairs Manchester, and Whiskey Blue in Southampton.

JER REID AND RAYMOND MCDONALD

Raymond MacDonald is a saxophonist, composer and psychologist who has released over 60 CDs, toured and broadcast worldwide and has composed music for film, television, theatre, radio and art installations. He is a founding member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and his unique approach of combining music and psychology and incorporating other artistic disciplines has been used to develop collaborative projects and ongoing working relationships around the world, collaborating with musicians across the spectrum of international contemporary music, such as David Byrne, Jim O’Rourke, Damo Suzuki, Satoko Fujii, Evan Parker, Gunter Baby Sommer and Marilyn Crispell.

Jer Reid is a freelance musician, sound engineer and dramaturge based in Glasgow. He has and does play in bands (dawson, sumshapes, Painted X-Ray, God Is My co-Pilot etc) and improvising ensembles (he has played a lot with Una MacGlone, Luke Sutherland, Raymond MacDonald, Rafe Fitzpatrick, Tony Bevan etc and with Lisa Fannen in their spoken word and guitar duo Claquer) organises gigs and tours; runs Gruff Wit Records; for 6 years has run the open (now twice) monthly improvising sessions for the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra called GIOdynamics; founded the music/dance group Collective Endeavours with Solène Weinachter in 2010 who’s performances have included Tectonics Glasgow and Dance International Glasgow. His dramaturgy work has included working with long time dancer collaborator Rosalind Masson. He has toured in 30 countries and has had his music played on BBC Radios 1, 3, 4 and 6. In March 2025 he releases his second book of writing, a haiku every day or a year, called For A Year.

Raymond and Jer met when Jer joined the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra in 2015. Although they had been at a lot of the same gigs in the early 1990’s when they were both playing in bands in Glasgow. Since 2015 they have played and recorded as a duo, in a quartet with Stu Brown and Una MacGlone callled Drawn to Water and performed with VJ wizard Jamie Wardrop. In 2023 Raymond joined the band Jer had with Ali Begbie and Richie Dempsey, sumshapes, to record their cassette The Last After Epiphany.


CABLE SNAKE:

New collaboration between Abs Cassidy and James Abel

Abs is a composer, singer, bassist, and producer from Dundee, Scotland. She mostly writes classical hyperpop and takes inspiration from artists like Anna Meredith, Imogen Heap, Emily Hall, and Johnny Greenwood. Abs is currently exploring the role of the human body in electronic music and is trying her best.

James is a composer/producer based in Birmingham and Shropshire and is now in his final year of his master’s in music technology at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. James finished his undergraduate degree in composition also at RBC. While studying he was awarded the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Audience prize in (2018) and was the joint winner of the Philip Bates prize for Composers and Song writers (2018).
James has a multifaceted approach to composition wearing ‘’many hats’’ in his approach to being a composer. His styles range from live electronics to Contemporary Classical with several stops in between. James has written and performed music for Games, Film, Theatre, Art Installations and Concerts.

Donation based entry - £10 suggested
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