Caroline Kraabel + Khabat Abas // Tara Franks + Tullis Rennie

Event information

Caroline Kraabel + Khabat Abas

Caroline Kraabel is a saxophonist, artist, conductor, and composer who has been a key part of London’s improv scene for at least 25 years. She founded a large improvising group ONe_Orchestra New, made up of all sorts of women, non-binary, and transgender improvisers.

She regularly plays live in duos and trios with John Edwards, Zhuyang Liu, Bex Burch, Charlotte Hug, Maggie Nicols and Pat Thomas among many others. Over the years she has also recorded with the likes of Robert Wyatt , Louis Moholo, Cleveland Watkiss, Hyelim Kim, Annie Lewandowski, Susan Alcorn, Mark Sanders, Veryan Weston , Mariá Portugal, Neil Metcalfe, Charlotte Keeffe, Alex Ward, Cath Roberts, Dee Byrne, Damsel Elysium and Chris Corsano.

Kraabel’s soundfilm, London 26 and 28 March 2020: imitation: inversion won the 2021 Ivor Novello Award for Best Sound Art Composer.

Khabat Abas is a cellist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist from Kurdistan-Iraq. Her work explores time, space, and memory through music, everyday sounds, and noises. She delves deeply into how we experience sound, particularly in various geopolitical contexts. Abas uses her instrument beyond traditional norms—improvising, composing, creating videos and sound installations, crafting cellos from diverse materials, and incorporating her body into performances. Through this approach, her work merges politics with personal expression, challenging conventional values and control.

Khabat has performed with various ensembles, including the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, Sulaymaniyah string orchestra, Gothenburg Academic Symphony Orchestra, and the Non-Ensemble for experimental music in Sweden, London Improvisation Orchestra and ONe_Orchestra New, Noise women.

Tara Franks + Tullis Rennie

Tara Franks

Tara is a performing cellist, composer, curator and creative project leader working across genres and art forms. Her work centres around collaboration, both with other professional artists and within the community.
As co-founder of acclaimed string duo Balladeste, she has been interviewed on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 3, Soho Radio and NTS. She has worked with renowned artists including: Kae Tempest, Akala, Jocelyn Pook, Sam Lee, Jasdeep Singh Degun and is a core member/composer of contemporary trio Quest Ensemble.

She also collaborates on cross-arts projects with theatre, dance and visual artists, including creating the sound score for the acclaimed show ‘Foreign Body’ by Imogen Butler-Cole.

Tullis Rennie

Tullis is an electronic musician, field recordist, composer, improvising trombonist, whose work “foregrounds the act of listening as an active component in the creation of musical experience” – The Wire Magazine.
His latest album Safe Operating Space (2024, Efpi Records) is a hybrid of club music and acoustic free improvisation, described as “boundary-pushing electronica… as if we were listening to an intergalactic visitor’s attempt at appropriating the dancefloor” – theQuietus.

Other work encompasses sound installation, community-engaged participative projects, mixed media and live/improvised performances – presented across 20 countries, alongside broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, NTS and ResonanceFM. He is also released by Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Jnr label, Moving Furniture Records, Flaming Pines, Luminous, a new wave of jazz and ZeroWave.

https://www.instagram.com/tara_soundscreative/
https://www.instagram.com/tullisrennie/

+ Wildcard Quartet
+ DJ Fiery Biscuits