
Fjall & Geraldine Monk
Otherworldly improvisation on an array of unusual instrumentation
Presented by: Sonido Polifonico0 | SHEFFIELD: Bishops' House (info) |
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P | Saturday 8th November, 2025 |
N | Door time: 7:00pm Start time: 7:45pm |
. | All ages (under 16s must be accompanied by an adult) |
C | Music - General |
Event information
Fjall – the old Norse word for “rough hill”
https://fjall-music.org/
Martin Archer – concert flute, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, recorders, harmonicas, melodica, sopranino saxophone, Hulusi flute, harmonium, glockenspiel, percussion, iPad.
Jan Todd – baritone psaltery, electric Harp.E, cross strung harp, tagelharpa, waterphone, Hulusi flute, cello, electronics, looping, field recordings, voice.
Fran Comyn – frame drums, tablas, gongs, cymbals, bells, bowls, hand percussion, field recordings.
Richard Jackson – drums and percussion.
A quartet formed with a view to making improvisations and instant compositions which avoid the highly active language of free improvisation and tends more towards ritual or even contemporary classical music. The result is atmospheric and occasionally unsettling, as the music ripples between spacious, metallic and otherworldly soundscapes to earthy, rhythmic and strident, yet melodic tones. The use of unusual/ethnic instruments married with two percussionists gives a distinctive flavour of the unexpected.
“An inland journey for the head and for the heart.” – Mr Olivetti, FREQ
“The sound world is rich and beautiful, a wonderful sonic palette. The music of Fjall has an earthiness and a powerfully emotional quality which set it apart. Huge evolving structures of sound which slowly shift your ears’ focus, and touch something elemental and ancient. A feast for the ears and balm for the soul.” – Bandcamp UK Jazz And Improvised Music
“Instant compositions tending more towards ritual or contemporary cultivated music. Traditional instruments from various cultures add a rich, romantic feel.” – Jack Porcello, WAYO 104.3FM
“Eschews the noisy and chaotic free-improv jazz style, instead opting for a more subtle neo-classical improvisational idiom that is at once gentle and dreamy, at times even approaching a more minimalist, reflective musical palette. The feeling a listener can expect is contemplative and warm, very much atmospheric and layered. Fjall really sounds like nobody else, but at times some listeners might be reminded just a little of the Third Ear Band”. – Peter Thelen, EXPOSÉ
Geraldine Monk is a veteran of British poetry being first published in the 1970’s. The poet Ian Davidson wrote of her’ ‘When I see Geraldine read I always think she should have an audience of thousands. It feels like a big event’. She was a founding member of the antichoir Juxtavoices and is an affiliated poet to The Centre for Poetry and Poetics, University of Sheffield.