Unpredictable Thursdays at The Vortex 2022 -17th March 2022

Steve Beresford has been a central figure in the British and international spontaneous music scenes for over forty years, freely improvising on the piano, electronics and other things with people like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink, John Zorn and Alterations (with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack). He has written songs, written for large and small ensembles, and scored short films, feature films, TV shows and commercials. He was part of the editorial teams of Musics and Collusion magazines, writes about music in various contexts and was a senior lecturer in music at the University of Westminster. With Blanca Regina, he is part of Unpredictable Series, which produces events and sound and video recordings of experimental music and art.

Steve has worked with Christian Marclay on numerous Marclay mixed media pieces. He has also worked with The Slits, Najma Akhtar, Stewart Lee, Ivor Cutler, Prince Far-I, Alan Hacker, Tania Chen, Ray Davies, Mandhira De Saram, The Flying Lizards, Zeena Parkins, The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Ilan Volkov, Rachel Musson, Vic Reeves, Lore Lixenberg and many others. Beresford has an extensive discography as performer, arranger, free-improviser, composer and producer, and was awarded a Paul Hamlyn award for composers in 2012.

In 2021, Bloomsbury published a book by Andy Hamilton: ‘Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise: Conversations with Steve Beresford’.  In 2022, Siglio published the book ‘Call and Response’, which partnered photographs by Christian Marclay with notated improvisations by Beresford.

Alex Ward is a composer, improviser and performing musician living in London. His work over the last 30-plus years has encompassed free improvisation with the likes of Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, John Edwards and Steve Noble; leading his own ensembles such as the Alex Ward Quintet, Item 4, Predicate and Forebrace; collaborative projects Camp Blackfoot, Dead Days Beyond Help (with Jem Doulton), Noonward (with Sean Noonan) and his duo with Dominic Lash; and diverse sideman work including tenure with This Is Not This Heat, The Flying Luttenbachers, the Duck Baker Trio/Quartet and Eugene Chadbourne’s Hellington Country. His primary instruments throughout this activity have been clarinet and guitar; but he has also performed on a variety of other instruments, and his multi-instrumental leanings were employed to their fullest capacity on his 2021 solo album “Gated”, his most ambitious and wide-ranging work to date.

Cath Roberts’ work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. Her primary outlet as a composer and improviser on baritone saxophone is the band Sloth Racket, which has toured widely and released several albums. As bandmate, Cath is a member of several groups including Madwort Sax Quartet, Article XI and MoonMot. She has a long-standing duo with guitarist Anton Hunter (Ripsaw Catfish), as well as regular collaborations with Tullis Rennie, Benedict Taylor, Otto Willberg, Seth Bennett and others. Cath co-runs LUME with Dee Byrne, producing concerts, tours and festivals since 2013 and releasing music on their offshoot label Luminous. With Tom Ward and Colin Webster she organises BRÅK, an improvised music series taking place in Brockley, South East London.

Usually found playing saxophones in Sloth Racket, Cath Roberts and Sam Andreae started experimenting with lots of tabletop noise-making at their shared studio space in Lewisham in 2020. Once it was possible to play live again, they played a set at Hundred Years Gallery for LUME in July 2021, and a set at waterintobeer for BRÅK that August. Their tape ‘Miaow Argument’ (December 2021) is available on the Sound Holes label.

Sam Andreae has been active across Europe over the last decade as a saxophonist, composer and organiser. Through improvisation and composition he explores a music of colliding sound gestures and aural detritus, built up from an intentionally fractured instrumental language and playful spontaneity. His compositions place a focus on gestural processes which in their unraveling reveal a trail of sound artefacts to be picked through. “what Sam Andreae does is liminal music, he shows you the clicks, the noises, the breaths, the rattle and hum” – John Doran, Quietus, 2017 on BBC 3 Late Junction

Blanca Regina is an interdisciplinary artist that creates sound works with voice , toys and electronics, audiovisual installations, visual art, and films. In her last releases, ‘What Blue’, a duo with Steve Beresford (2020), and ‘Duets with Blanca Regina, Spontaneous Music’ (2018) she uses voice, electronics, and various instruments.

She has created music and films with artists, including Peter Cusack, John Butcher, Leafcutter John, Matt Black (Coldcut), Hyelim Kim, Jack Goldstein, David Toop, Sharon Gal, Karel Doing, and Matthias Kispert. Blanca is also an independent curator and tutor and has produced events and workshops internationally.

Co-founder of Unpredictable Series, she is completing a documentary film about the free improviser and artist Terry Day. Her work has been supported by Arts Council England, Sound & Music, BMC, Amexcid, Photo-España, and Garage Cube.

Reuben Sutherland is an artist, musician and designer.  He is part of Sculpture, replying to his sonic counterpart Dan Hayhurst with his collection of picture discs. He creates mesmerising animations in real-time, playing with bpm, shutter speed, designs, and lights. He plays with Fear of Fluffing, and Hot Dog Girlll. He has created performances, installations, films, videoclips and soundtracks including numerous collaborations with artists from New Zealand, UK, Spain and Germany.

Gina Southgate is a live painter, best known on the UK’s international jazz scene where she produces spectacular, qualitative, real time paintings. For three decades she’s painted at gigs and festivals capturing the vitality and nuance in her unique portraits of world class musicians

​Her original paintings and limited-edition prints hang in public and private collections worldwide. She has collaborated with, been resident artist for and exhibited at (among others); EFG London Jazz Festival, Gateshead International Jazz festival, All Tomorrows Parties, Jazz Leeds, Jazz North East, Jazz in the Round, Jazz on 3, Vortex Jazz, UK. Jazzahead!, Konfrontationen, and Kaleidophon Festivals, Europe. Vision Festival, USA.