Unpredictable series at Cafe OTO, June 1st

– Terry Day, Blanca Regina, Art Terry and visuals by Pierre Bouvier Patron ( drums, voice and electronics, voice and piano)

– Xenada – Rosey Chan & Gregg Wilson ( piano, guitar, electronics and visuals )

– Steve Beresford and Wade Matthews ( piano, electronics and laptop )

Terry Day is a first-generation pioneer improviser from the 1960s: an improviser, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, songwriter, visual artist and poet.
A self-taught musician in a family of musicians, he began improvising on the drums with his brother in 1955. In the early ‘60s he formed the Hardy Holman Day trio, focusing on free improvisation. Later he became part of the band Kilburn & the Highroads, with Ian Dury. Sharing their interest in visual art and painting they both studied at Walthamstow School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art, London. As an art student in the ‘60s he was also a pioneer of free improvisation, free jazz & experimental music.
He formed a duo with guitarist Derek Bailey in the late ´60s and was a regular member of The Continuous Music Ensemble,The People Band and, later on, Alterations with David Toop, Steve Beresford & Peter Cusack.
Terry has collaborated with many musical luminaries, groups, dancers, painters, poets and performed in theatre. He now plays bamboo reed flutes, drums, recorders, balloons & improvises with his lyrics, prose and verse. Since 2000 he has been part of London Improvisers Orchestra. In recent years he has toured twice in both Japan and Brazil, and has performed with improvising orchestras in Malaga, Tokyo and Madrid.
http://www.terryday.co.uk/

Blanca Regina is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and educator based in London currently involved in creating audio-visual performances, sound works, installations, films, and book arts.

She is co-founder of Unpredictable Series focused on spontaneous music and experimentation, visual arts, and archives. With Steve Beresford, she has produced three albums, mixed and mastered by Dave Hunt in London. ‘What Blue’ (2020) Duets with Beresford; ‘Duets with Blanca Regina, Spontaneous Music’ featuring duets with Leafcutter John, Jack Goldstein, John Butcher, Benedict Taylor, Matthias Kispert, Aneek Thapar, Steve Beresford, Sharon Gal, and Hyelim Kim and ‘Art of Improvisers’ (2017) a collection album with several artists concentrating on women improvisers. With long-time collaborator and artist Leafcutter John capturing their live performances in 2017, they created ‘Miga’ limited-edition pen drive and digital release. Other collaborations include performances and projects with Matthias Kispert, David Toop, Matt Black (Coldcut), Art Terry, and Peter Cusack.
She is currently working on Terry Day’s archives and finishing a documentary film about him.
www.blancaregina.art

PIERRE BOUVIER PATRON
Pierre Bouvier Patron is a filmmaker and visual artist based in London. He is currently working with different media, such as digital video and film, exploring the boundaries between them and creating moving image works, performances and installations. He has developed various practices and skills in experimental and expanded cinema, documentary films, music videos, etc.

He is involved in video screenings and video performances, solo or in collaboration, with musicians such as Syd Kemp, Steve Beresford, Neil Charles and artist Blanca Regina, among others. His work has been shown in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, etc.

He is currently developing a light installation and a number of light-based videos. Some of his latest works include Unpredictable: Conversations with Improvisers, a series of 12 videos about improvisers in the UK, and music videos for Ben Marc. His work also includes extensive participation with collectives such as Unpredictable Series, Strange Umbrellas, and several festivals such as Sonic Waterloo, Art of Improvisers, and Alterations Festivals.
https://www.studiopierre.art/

Art Terry is a conceptual Black artist from Los Angeles. His primary practice is as a composer/musician. His songs explore Black politics, sexuality and religion, through a lyrical fusion [gumbo] of African American folklore and avant garde orchestrated funk. A singer and pianist, Art underpins deeply personal lyrics with dense melodic textures to create conceptual Black music.
Brought up in the gospel tradition, Art evokes the sacred figure of the robed and commanding preacher alongside the profane swagger and bravado of the street-hustling savant in his live performances. Whether playing solo or with his ensemble of talented musicians, The Black Bohemians, Art’s live performances are theatrical and compelling.
Art collaborates with Stew, who created the musical Passing Strange, exploring his and Art’s youthful experiences on the seamy streets of downtown Los Angeles and in Europe, living in squats and art collectives and surviving on a diet of shoplifted food, hashish and freaky music. Passing Strange was made into a film by Spike Lee. Art has been a keyboardist with Stew & the Negro Problem at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, Redcat in Los Angeles, the Harlem Stage and many other venues. The New York Times described Art’s playing as ‘terrific’.
https://www.artterry.co.uk/

XENADA is a collaboration between pianist/ composer Rosey Chan and filmmaker / electronic musician Gregg Wilson. Weaving together classical instrumentation with lush ambient sound design, their immersive soundscapes transport you to epic cinematic otherworlds.

The Classical-Electronic Duo will premiere a new Sound Installation at Apple Music, Milan, in collaboration with Piano City Milano and to celebrate World Meditation Day (21 May)
http://platoon.lnk.to/XENADA

Rosey Chan is a multimedia artist, pianist and composer who’s solo concerts often incorporate cinematic visuals and cutting edge audio technologies.
Her music is an amalgamation of her own compositions, musical improvisations and selected classical repertoire along with electronic and genre-bending sonic influences.
She has collaborated with architects, designers and fashion brands to create products, performances and sonic installations.
Earlier this year, she launched Sonic Apothecary (a space for well-being) which develops Audio and Multimedia concepts for live events.
Early on in her own self-isolation experience, Rosey began Mindful Piano Music, a playlist, including new piano compositions, designed to audibly stimulate creativity, work and study while confined in the home or studio. Initially created for family and friends, the playlist is now available to the public.

Gregg Wilson is an electronic musician, composer, and film producer. He first met Rosey when they were Juniors at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied Classical Guitar. He went on to study physics and music composition at Stanford before embarking on a career in the film industry. He worked as a composer’s assistant and independent sound designer for films and videogames before focusing on producing. Most recently, he was Associate Producer on the James Bond film No Time to Die. As an electronic musician he is most known for his video performances on large and elaborate modular synths in his studio. Recently he has been creating AI-assisted art and interactive visuals for live performances.

Modular Synth performances: https://vimeo.com/user12209688
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1921196/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

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.

WADE MATTHEWS
Spanish and U.S. musician and sound artist Wade Matthews was born in France to U.S. parents, He moved from New York to Madrid thirty years ago after completing a doctorate in composition at Columbia University, where he wrote his thesis on electro-acoustic improvisation at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center,
Since then, Matthews dedicates his available time to musical creation, including free improvisation and sound portraits as well as writing.

He travels constantly, reads everything he can and collaborates with other musicians, dancers, visual artists and sonic explorers. Matthews has presented his work in festivals and concert series in twenty countries, recorded for national radios such as the BBC, France Culture, RTVE, Sodre, and various international record labels.

Besides his concerts, Matthews is interested in sharing ideas about music and his activity as a lecturer and visiting professor has taken him to the Paris Conservatory, the University of California, San Diego; the California Art Institute, Columbia University, the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico; the American University of Beirut, Limerick University in Ireland, and many, many other institutions, as well as artists’ collectives and other less-official organizations. He has published essays in numerous magazines specialized in aesthetics and music, as well as Improvisando. La libre creación musical, the leading Spanish-language book on free improvisation.
http://wadematthews.info/