Shih-Yang Lee & Klaus Bru / Daniel Ross / Guillaume Viltard / Mark Sanders – Wednesday 25 May 7.30pm- £8/6

Acclaimed Pianist Shih-Yang Lee from Taiwan comes to London and teams up with a group of London-based improvisers: C-Saxophonist Klaus Bru (who co-leads the world music improv group Ka Dao Yin with Lee), live music software code performer Daniel James Ross, powerful and earthy French bassist Guillaume Viltard, and the ever-present Mark Sanders on drums.

> Shih-Yang Lee – Piano <

Shih-Yang Lee is one of the greatest musical talents in Taiwan. Together with Klaus Bru, he leads the world music improvisation ensemble Ka Dao Yin. The group has released 2 CDs, which both won prestigious awards in Taiwan, and Lee himself was named “Best Musician of the Year” in 2015 at the Taiwan Golden Indie Music Award 2015. He is one of the driving forces behind the Taiwan International Improvised Music Festival, which had its premiere in 2015.

Shih-Yang Lee has played with the main bulk of Classical and Avant-garde musicians in Taiwan. His international collaborators include drummer legend Sabu Toyozumi from Japan, pioneer of European Free Jazz, pianist Fred van Hove from Belgium, and many others including Sainkho Namtchylak, Jaap Blonk, Luc Houtkamp, Hans Koch, Thomas Peter, Gene Coleman, Erik R. Lund, Hans Fjellestad, Tobias Delius, Carlos Zingaro, Philip Zoubek, Chino Shuichi, Umezu Kazutoki, Chie Mukai, Nobunaga Ken, Motoki Yoshinori, Darren Morre, Fung Chern Hwei, Ng Chor Guan, Audrey Chen, Hugues Vincent, Li Tieqiao, Luo Chao-Yun, Li Zenghui, Dickson Dee, Hui-Chun Lin.

> Klaus Bru – Electric & Acoustic C-saxophones <

Klaus Bru plays the rare C-melody sax and the even rarer C-soprano sax exclusively, often combining them with electronics. His artistic output is characterised by its variety, and his musical concepts are not exactly the “out-of-the-box” type. Klaus Bru rather uses odd combinations of “boxes” that differ in size, contrast in contents, and clash in colour: He brings in the folk music of the world (Eastern Europe, Turkey, Arab Countries, China), avant-garde ridden improv, cold blooded electronic noises and feedbacks, sounds of breath and saliva, pitches smaller than the distance between two keys on the piano, strange meters and odd tempos, plus – when the time is right – simple, singable melodies that stir the heart and soul.

[Namedropping has been skipped.]

> Daniel James Ross – Live Electronics <

Daniel is a composer of algorithmic electro-instrumental music based in London. He is a PhD candidate in composition at Goldsmiths University studying with Patricia Alessandrini and Roger Redgate. He has recently had work premièred at the National Museum of Wales and the Brighton Fringe. Daniel’s music has been released on Classwar Karaoke, Noizemaschin!!, and NX Records. He improvises with custom built software with Some Some Unicorn, Mega Trio and Roddart, the latter having reached the finals of the Engine Room International Sound Art Competition 2015. Daniel presents Beethoven Was Wrong on Resonance FM and lectures at Morley College.

> Guillaume Viltard – Double Bass <

Born in 1975 in the North of Ivory Coast, Viltard grew up in the wild countryside with almost no music. Back in France, he played with many artists of the French underground improv scene, including dancers and poets as well as musicians.

After moving to London in late 2007, Viltard has worked with many of London’s best improvisers, forming strong associations with the circle of musicians centred on Eddie Prevost’s experimental workshop, becoming a mainstay of the London Improvisers Orchestra, and playing in a great free jazz trio with Tony Marsh and Shabaka Hutchings that was sadly curtailed by Marsh’s untimely death.

It is this eclectic appetite for collaboration across the whole spectrum of improvised music as well as his resolutely unamplified and powerfully physical playing that marks Viltard out as one of the most interesting musicians to emerge from London’s fertile improvised and experimental scene in the last few years.

> Mark Sanders – Drums <

Mark has played with many renowned musicians including Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Henry Grimes, Roswell Rudd, Sylvie Courvoursier, Sirone, Peter Brotzmann, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Sidsel Endresen , Charles Gayle, Peter Evans and William Parker. With John Edwards, they work in a duo and with groups including Evan Parker, electro acoustic composer John Wall, `Foils` with Frank Paul Schubert and Matthius Muller and groups with Veryan Weston, John Tilbury, Agusti Fernandez and Mathew Shipp.

Mark works in a regular improvising duo with John Butcher and also performing John`s composition `Tarab Cuts` which has played festivals in Rio de Janiero, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Glasgow, Bristol and London.

In situations using composition in one form or another Mark works in various projects including the large ensembles of Brian Irvine, Alex Hawkins, Simon Fell, Sid Peacock , `The Langston Project` with Hasse Poulsen, Luc Ex and Debbie Cameron, and has played in the groups of Shabaka Hutchins including`Sons of Kemet`and `The Blue Notes Project`

Mark also works in the groups of Paul Dunmall including Deep Whole Trio with Paul Rogers, in a duo with Rhodri Davies, trios with Lotte Anker & Adam Pultz Melbye, Toby Delius & Olie Brice, and the ensembles of Mikolaj Trzaska, Uwe Oberg and Peter Jaquemyn.