Invisible City + Albert Ayler Project + Coma

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Fri 20 February 2009 // 19:00

(Fri 20th / 7pm / £6 advance)

Brought in via Qu Junktions

A starry night of music that criss-crosses the globe for inspiration and draws on a full spectrum of sound sources to concoct something truly
special. These three acts, that all fire of from vastly different points of inspiration (Arabian desert music, modern contemporary, a incendiary jazz pioneer and psychedelic film scores), but share a belief in the power of music.

The* INVISIBLE CITY *project promise a beautifully deep well of music. It involves Justin Adams (the guitar hero, who also produces Tinarwin) in full collaboration with two of his cohorts from Robert Plant's Strange Sensation, Bristolians John Baggot and Billy Fuller. The Invisible City trio will put Adams' guitar in a denser electronic context, in the spirit of his late 80's work with Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart. Loops of trance like
percussion will be set against shifting textures and pulsing bass, with Adams' Afro/Arab guitar tracing above the thick soundscape beneath.

John Baggott is one of the unsung heroes of the Bristol scene, he has
recorded and toured regularly with Massive Attack and Portishead,as well as contributing to many soundtracks with the Startled Insects he coaxes an array of sounds from vintage Moogs, tape echoes and Wurlitzer pianos, pushing computers to their limits with warped loops and distorted filters. Billy Fuller has collaborated with Can's Damo Suzuki, John Parish and cult Bristol band Fuzz Against Junk, his Bass referencing Dub and psychedelia. Billy also provided bass for the Adams/Camara album 'Soul Science' album. Something wicked comes our way.

A band inspired by the free and spiritual music of one of the most
charismatic and mythologised jazz musicians of them all. In the era of Vietnam, civil rights, and hippy culture, Ayler rewrote the saxophone
rulebook with his unhinged, free form, holy other kind of blues. Drawing on spirituals, folk song, marches and, as he saw it, the word of God Himself, he had become the catalytic force in free jazz by his death in 1970. Tonight we are treared to a rare apperance of the *THE ALBERT AYLER PROJECT*, a loose knit pool of creative musicians from the South West and London,
bringing reworkings, improvisations and a little of their own cosmic
transcendence to this full nigh of music.

The Albert Ayler Project was put together by Roger Skerman in 1991, and has performed Ayler's music off and on since then, mostly in the South West and London.

*CoMA* under its music director Neal Farwell, plays all sorts of music from works by new & established composers ( Tom Wilson, Steve Reich, Colin
Matthews ) to graphic scores, electronics & improvisations. This session will include a cross section of what we play & hopefully also highlight the similarities & differences between the three groups playing tonight.

Many composers write music forcing performers to push their technique to the limit which excludes many musicians from playing their works. Since its foundation in 1993 CoMA, which is a UK wide organisation, has aimed to redress the balance, commissioning nearly 100 works from eminent composers & brining together over 1000 works in its contemporary music library. It won the Prudential Award for the Arts in 1997 & in 1993 was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society music award for education.

Three Bristol music groups get together to provide music of a special kind. Close encounters.