Double-header for visiting Norwegian percussionist Ståle Liavik Solberg performing with Will it float?, his quartet alongside John Russell, Steve Beresford and John Edwards, plus the debut concert of a newly convened duo with Mark Wastell.
Will it float?
John Russell – guitar
Steve Beresford – electronics, objects, piano
John Edwards – bass
Ståle Liavik Solberg – drums, percussion
This is what All about Jazz wrote about their first record:
“Will It Float? features Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg in the company of three of London’s most esteemed improvisers, guitarist John Russell, bassist John Edwards and keyboardist Steve Beresford on objects and electronics. The genesis of this album can be traced back to the recording of the excellent No Step (Hispid, 2014) which paired Liavik Solberg and Russell. The success of that duo convinced the drummer to put together a quartet consisting of more musicians from the British improv scene. As he had already played in a trio with Beresford on keyboards and Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen on Three Babies (Peira, 2013), Beresford was an obvious choice. And given the well-established links that Edwards has with both Russell and Beresford, that choice must have been a no-brainer … Across four tracks, totalling just under forty minutes, the quartet’s music is classic improv spiced up by the inclusion of Beresford’s objects and electronics, which make it unmistakably of the twenty-first century. The balance between the players is even; with none of them dominating, all four can be judged as equally responsible for the final soundscape. Liavik Solberg makes his presence felt throughout, giving the music a rhythmic pulse that he does not allow to flag and which the other three all help maintain. In particular, the drummer combines well with Edwards, the two not functioning as a conventional rhythm section, but working in tandem and clearly being tuned into each other’s instincts. While the momentum is maintained, the pieces have more than enough surface detail to make them interesting beyond the rhythm; Beresford is the most obvious source of such detail but the others all contribute to it, reacting and responding to the rapidly evolving soundscape. The end results make stimulating listening time after time, each repeat hearing revealing more than the last. Will It Float? is available on heavy black vinyl in an edition limited to 300 copies. Unmissable.”
Ståle Liavik Solberg – drums, percussion
Mark Wastell – drums, percussion
Debut performance from this recently formed percussion duo which will see the pair present a piece constructed specifically for this concert entitled ‘John Stevens 3.4.5.’.
“Music is a chance for self development, it is another little life in which it is easier to develop the art of giving, an art which makes you more joyous the more you practice it. The thing that matters most in group music is the relationship between those taking part. The closer the relationship the greater the spiritual warmth it generates, and if the musicians manage to give wholly to each other and to the situation they’re in, then the sound of the music takes care of itself. Good and Bad become simply a question of how much the musicians are giving, that’s the music’s form.” (John Stevens)
