So the Unnamed Music Festival, its people, its places and its music. This may take more than one day to write about, but its 11PM right now as I begin and I will type until I am too tired to continue. That might not take too long however.

To begin with, there was a lovely, amusing moment yesterday afternoon before the Leeds show when, as I was having a late lunch with Patrick Farmer and Jez riley French one of the venue’s staff came over and asked if we could briefly describe he music that was to be performed, so she could explain to potential punters that might arrive for a drink in the venue’s bar and could wander through for the music. She said that she understood it was unnamed music, but what sort of unnamed music? The three of us looked blankly at each other, muttered something about improvisation, sound art, abstract music etc that made little sense until, resigned to the fact that we were all a bit strange and that she wasn’t going to get an easy answer she wandered off again. I was tempted to ask her to pop her head around the door during the concert, think up a name for herself and let us know later as we kind of need one, but as she looked a bit peeved I let her go. Still, a brilliantly named festival.

It began on Thursday in London at Café Oto. The day had begun badly as I had struggled for an hour and a half to get about 20 miles across London during a tube strike, but on arrival at my (shockingly excellent considering it is in Dalston) guest house the day brightened up quickly when I met up with Al Jones, and after watching him become the first person ever to iron a shirt to attend a gig at Oto, we set off early to the venue for a drink and to catch the soundcheck in what felt like the company of every really nice person I know.

Eventually, when a nice sized audience had arrived despite the transport chaos the music began. The festival began with the duo of Sebastian Lexer playing his piano+ set-up and Aleks Kolkowski, playing his stroh violin. Unfortunately the duo played quite quietly just as an opening party at the gallery next door to Oto started to make a lot of noise, mostly in the pavement outside, and for some reason included some kind of steel drummer (or a recording of steel drums) that every so often started up at quite a volume. This extra-curricular activity could be heard in the background right the way through this opening set, and because it was early in the evening as latecomers continued to arrive, every now and again the door to the venue was opened and the unwanted sounds were amplified.

Despite these intrusions the duo played on seemingly unperturbed. I have to say I struggled with much of this performance, and my issues were mainly with Kolkowski’s contributions, which consisted almost entirely of delicate, often rhythmic little patterns of dry, mostly noteless rubbing and scraping. I should say here that I liked the sounds he made, they were rather beautiful, but it felt like they did not change much throughout the set, and when Lexer made several dramatic attempts to radically alter the dynamic of the performance by suddenly changing gears, either attacking the piano, or quite the opposite, Kolkowski didn’t seem to respond with much more than small alterations in his approach. Maybe this was the point of the performance and I am missing the subtlety, but I think I needed to hear more of a response to the sudden events, a shift in direction or even a silence or two, but it felt like Lexer’s efforts were in vain. Sebastian’s playing was as finely crafted and thoroughly beautiful as ever, working with quiet tonal sounds, a little digital glitching and a few dramatic percussive assaults on the strings. Maybe I heard things wrong (others seemed to really like the set) but it did feel a bit of a bad pairing despite its several moments of real beauty.

There then followed the first of two sets on the night by the quartet of Tom Chant, (sax) Angharad Davies, (amplified violin) Benedict Drew (electronics) and John Edwards. (double bass) This first one was an improvisation. The quartet later performed a John Cage piece to close the night out, and the festival also saw the launch of Decentred, an Another Timbre disc by the group that also combines improvised and composed works. The line-up of this group actually represented well some of the themes that have reoccurred over the past year or two both in London concerts and on Another Timbre releases. Musicians supposedly linked to older schools of improvised music mixed with those linked to newer styles of playing, and they mixed improvisation with composition.

Again I don’t think this performance managed to be everything it could have been. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was very beautiful, softly played (The most restrained over a long period I have ever witnessed Edwards) and carefully, skillfully crafted, but it felt a little safe. There were some nice combinations of sounds swapped between Davies and Edwards, and Chant’s sax playing blended well, but there was little danger. Benedict Drew, the obvious wildcard in the group,  did throw a few fireworks onto the glowing fire here and there, sudden bursts of noise, changes in dynamic, a disruptive influence, but maybe there just wasn’t enough of them, or maybe they didn’t spark enough of a change in the other musicians. Drew did bring the set to a close wonderfully however, selecting a warbling tone from a synthsiser that he dropped quickly down through the scales, collapsing the other musician’s inputs along with it. A good set all round, but I can’t help feeling that there was more room in there for a little more risk.

The third set of the evening was my favourite. It came from the quartet of Rhodri Davies, (Electric harp) Louisa Martin, (laptop) Lee Patterson (amplified objects) and Lucio Capece (Sax) To get what I did not like so much about the set out of the way first, it was all a little flat, and could have done with a few more spikes and/or some room for silence, but perhaps the music was designed to be linear, as its charm came from the way sounds were vertically piled up rather than through any great drama as it progressed. There were some beautiful sounds to be heard at any one moment. Louisa Martin made good use of little patches of semi-abrasive texture here and there that worked well with some wonderful playing from Capece, combining sustained low tones with percussive rattling elements with all kinds of objects shoved into the bell of his instrument. Lee Patterson kept his contributions simple, making good use of a plastic tube, through which he blew onto something that I couldn’t see. Rhodri found some great warm deep notes from the thicker strings on his harp, and tapped at wooden pegs placed between the strings to add deep booming chimes. The end result was very beautiful, a rich, syrupy blend of textures and tones, the kind that might actually sound better again on a good recording rather than in a live situation. Again though there was a feeling of safety here, a certain linearity to proceedings that allowed for beautiful, detailed music but the boat wasn’t rocked very often.

The final set of the evening saw the first quartet return to perform a version of one of John cage’s last pieces, Four6. The piece asks the performers to select twelve sounds, which are then distributed throughout the score. So the placement of the sounds and their duration are determined by Cage, but the sounds themselves are selected by the musicians. Drew again provided the spice to the proceedings. As the others tapped, rubbed, chimed and hissed through their selections he unravelled a real of miked-up tape, threw metal objects at other metal items on the floor beside him, rubbed a balloon under his table (which he later popped) and generally offset the acoustic elements of the other three players nicely. Whether this was a “good” performance of the piece its hard to say, but it was interesting to watch, and in places things coalesced into some intriguing sections, but the nature of the score naturally took the music through as many failures as it did successful periods.

So there was something of a common theme throughout much of this first evening. There was no doubting the quality of the playing, or the ability for the musicians to carve out some very beautiful, nicely constructed music, but there wasn’t much of an edge to it all, Lexer and Drew notwithstanding. I wonder if, having attended quite a lot of gigs involving quite a lot of risky, disruptive playing recently that I was subconsciously expecting the same again here, which may well be a little unfair. Maybe the problem lies with my expectations rather than at the feet of any of the musicians, and I’d like to know what others thought.

Away from the actual music a great time was had by all. The weather was good, so it was nice to step outside before and after the sets for a beer and chat with what felt like a real who’s who of the UK improv scene. It was also great to be staying locally, so it felt good to be just about the last person to leave Oto at the end, rather than the first for once, and to guide Al at 1AM to what really must have been one of the finest eating establishments in London.

Too tired to write more now, I will be able to catch up on the last two days tomorrow evening. Sorry for the lack of photos by the way, I just didn’t take any of the performances this time. If anyone has any they’d like to share it would be appreciated.