GRAIN presents: Steve Noble | Theodora Laird | Downgraded | Caius Williams

Event information

The GRAIN residency and label for improvised music comes to The Horse Hospital. With four solo sets from Steve Noble, Theodora Laird, Downgraded, and Caius Williams.

GRAIN is a concert series, small label, and archive for experimental and improvised music, operating mainly out of Avalon Cafe, South Bermondsey.

GRAIN is curated and produced by Caius Williams and Theodora Laird. The series is focussed on programming new and adventurous music and nurturing a growing community with cross-scene and cross-generational collaboration. The residency also documents music made in and around South Bermondsey, and gives occasional workshops aiming to widen access, interest, and explore processes for improvising and collective music-making.
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Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more. In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book Improvisation; its nature and practise. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins). 

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Theodora Laird is a vocalist and multidisciplinary artist. Releases under her solo project feeo have received critical acclaim. Theodora's practice has involved in tandem with an interest in situating narratives within freely improvised music, specifically through frequent involvement in the GRAIN residency.

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Downgraded is the ongoing sonic-sculptural-artistic project of Lene De Montaigu, a French/American artist based in London and fresh out of Glasgow’s DIY music scene. Their solo performances saw their debut with Piano Sketches where they played their reconstructed piano built from found and newly built piano parts. Recent projects include the improv trio Lene Otis Finn centred around found and home-made instruments with their latest album released by the Glasgow label GLARC.

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Caius Williams is a musician from London who plays the double bass, guitar, and bass guitar. He works in collaboration with others, alongside an ongoing solo project, and often works with improvisation.

Some projects include Crosspiece (with Theodora Laird), a duo with guitarist Tara Cunningham, alongside recent performances or collaborations with Lifetones (Charles Bullen of This Heat), Steve Noble, feeo, Daniel O’Sullivan, Mark Sanders, Sachiko M, Tom Challenger, Maggie Nicols, Mark Wastell, amongst others.

Caius has been running the GRAIN series at Avalon Cafe in Bermondsey for the last 3 years, which is focussed on programming new and adventurous music and nurturing a growing community with cross-scene and cross-generational collaboration.