Monday 15 January 2018, 7.30pm
6ix consists of six musicians who are among the leading protagonists of the free-improvising scene in Europe. Urs Leimgruber has enriched and extend the saxophone sound with new playing techniques; on the piano, Jacques Demierre has developed a unique operating style, never ceasing to redraw new sound topographies, making us forget the physical weight of the instrument; on the cello, Hannah Marshall, collaborating also with theatre, dance, live art, film and story-telling, has been extracting and inventing new sounds and qualities from her instrument; Roger Turner is a musician who defies any categorisation, a great british drummer who is an exciting combination of volcanic power and finely-honed precision; on the voice and the singing saw, Dorothea Schürch incorporates a wide range of sound effects and noise, while her body becomes the receptacle of an amazing theatrical performance; and finally Thomas Lehn, who works deliberately with analog electronic sounds that allow a very direct and always inspiring response to the formal structure and process specific to the live improvised music.
With support from:
Jacques Demierre / piano
Thomas Lehn / analog synthesizer
Urs Leimgruber / saxophones
Hannah Marshall / cello
Dorothea Schürch / voice and singing saw
Roger Turner / percussion
Jacques Demierre is pianist, performer and composer, his musical and sound work develops itself in various directions : improvised music, contemporary music, sound poetry, sound installation. His compositions and sound realisations are concerned with the activity of listening and with sound space. On the piano, Jacques Demierre has developed a unique operating style, never ceasing to redraw new sound topographies, making us forget the physical weight of the instrument.
He collaborates with many improvising musicians – Okkyung Lee, Thomas Lehn, Martial Solal, Radu Malfatti, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, Fritz Hauser, Sainkho Namtchylak, Urs Blöchlinger, Irene Schweizer, Hans Koch, Isabelle Duthoit, Brandon Labelle, Jason Kahn, Butch Morris, Carlos Zingaro, Gunter Müller, Jaap Blonk, Barry Guy, Lucas Niggli, Sylvie Courvoisier, Hann Bennink, Rhodri Davis, Martin Schütz, Paul Lovens, Dorothea Schürch, Phil Minton, …-, regularly plays solo piano concerts, and works with Vincent Barras in the field of performance and language art.
Urs Leimgruber has been working since many years in the fields of Contemporary Improvisation, Jazz and New Music. He has enriched and expanded for decades the saxophone sound with new playing techniques in solo concerts and many different acclaimed groups he was touring in Europe, Canada, U.S.A. and Cuba. Among his many concerts and recordings are those with Joëlle Léandre, Marilyn Crispell, Fritz Hauser, Evan Parker, Fred Frith, Steve Lacy, Dorothea Schürch, Roger Turner, Thomas Lehn, Günter Müller… Together with Jacques Demierre he is leading the group 6ix. In the seventies, he was cofounder of the Electricjazz-Freemusic group OM. His music is to be found on CD on HatArt, Unit, FOR 4 EARS Victo and LEO.
Schooled both as a concert pianist playing contemporary repertoire and as a recording technician, Thomas Lehn deploys a huge musicality through his unique chosen outlet, the analogue synthesiser. This instrument allows him extremely close and immediate contact with all aspects of sound modification - a vast gamut of living electronic sound produced with unmatched speed and fluency. Thomas Lehn simply represents a coming-of-age of electronic sound production in the domain of concert performance that sets a standard for the entire medium. He is therefore unsurprisingly an essential member of many of the most active and significant projects in this international and dynamic scene.
Hannah Marshall is a cellist who is continuing to extract, invent, and exorcize as many sounds and emotional qualities from her instrument as she can. She has been a regular member of Alexander Hawkins’ Ensembles and has toured in Europe and South America with Luc Ex and Veryan Weston’s ensembles – SOL 6 & 12. She plays with ‘String Terrorists’ - Barrel (a trio with Violinist Alison Blunt & Violist/poet Ivor kallin). And has been invited by Fred Frith and Suichi Chino in their residencies at café Oto. She also plays with Terry Day, Tim Hodgkinson, Roger Turner, Paul May, Kay Grant, and the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Over decades Roger Turner has brought the renowned volcanic power and finely-honed precision of his drum work to ensembles that have forged substantial connections with musicians both sides of the Atlantic and more recently from Japan. In addition to pioneering an acoustic percussive language that can run in tandem with approaches to contemporary electronic instruments, he has worked extensively in the microscopic laboratory of the acoustic duo situation where he acquired a highly developed sense of detail and of dynamic control. One of that select group of world-class players who have collectively redefined the language of contemporary percussion, in Turner's hands minute inflections of tension can shape the group's musical direction and galvanise a new level of audience experience.
