this week: 2013/08/26 - 2013/09/01

2013/08/26 | sun ra arkestra under the direction of marshall allen | cafe oto | 8pm | £20 £25

2013/08/27 | sun ra arkestra under the direction of marshall allen | cafe oto | 8pm | £20 £25

Watch Space is the Place on UbuWeb 

2013/08/28 | project fukushima charity concerts day 1: evan parker solo - III人 – müllzimmer | cafe oto | 8pm | £5

2013/08/29 | project fukushima charity concerts day 2: ryan jordan – tancredi & keiko kitamura – organ octet | cafe oto | 8pm | £5

III人: "convulsing but controlled, reigned and railed, concentrated not opposing between the 3. Sound bending to include others. to be met and slightly connected. Semi-soothed in trilling galloping galactic space" KiO

2013/08/29 | actress | london st john at hackney church | 7:30pm | £14
2013/08/29 | afterparty with actress & eddie peake – moiré | the dance tunnel | 11pm | FREE 

2013/08/30 | dream states: john heckle – florian kupfer – dj sotofett – aaron fit siegel | corsica studios | 10pm | £8 £10

2013/08/31 | part wild horses mane on both sides – acrid lactations – dan scott – these feathers have plumes with films by carlos thomas and veronica Ibarra | cafe oto | 8pm | £7 £8

"Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides occupy the same liminal zone between free jazz and abstract sound as Flaherty/Corsano. The duo of drummer Pascal Nichols (recent stalwart of the UK underground scene as a member of  groups like Stuckometer, Uboat and Neon Tempal) and flautist Kelly Jones play a form of improvised music that references many totemic fire music sources -John Coltrane’s LSD-inspired masterpiece Om, the classic Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell Mu sessions or, more specifically, Cherry’s soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain -while subverting them with a punk primitive attack that owes as much to Leeds’s drone pioneers Vibracathedral Orchestra as it does to the Fluxus-inspired ritual of Japan’s Taj Mahal Travellers." David Keenan

2013/08/31 | talibam! – atlas | the shacklewell arms | 8pm | £7

this week: 2013/05/27 - 2013/06/02

2013/05/27 | john edwards, evan parker & eddie prevost | cafe oto | 18-22 ashwin street, dalston, london E8 3DL | 8pm | £10 £12 | www.cafeoto.co.uk

2013/05/28 | john edwards, evan parker & eddie prevost + alex von schlippenbach

2013/05/29 | john edwards, evan parker & eddie prevost + christoph thewes

"The trio of Evan Parker, Eddie Prevost and John Edwards return to Cafe OTO for an extended residency with two very esteemed guests from Germany - pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and trombone player Christof Thewes."

"Last year at Waterloo's Network Theatre free-jazz and improv percussionist Eddie Prévost began the series of encounters that gives this set its name – Jason Yarde and John Butcher are among the guests on upcoming volumes. But this May 2011 recording with Evan Parker and the latter's regular bass partner John Edwards marks a spectacular start. The first piece builds from breathy insinuations to a driving intensity. The second starts on a bass/drums gallop, briefly turns to a folksy improvised melody, then swells up over Prévost's cymbal-tingling groove almost into an orthodox jazz walk and a softly multiphonic close. Free-jazz doubters might well find a eureka moment here." - John Fordham, The Guardian 7th June 2012


2013/05/29 | terakaft | electrowerkz | 7 torrens street, islington, london EC1V 1NQ | 7:30pm | £12,5

2013/05/30 | noberto lobo - neel murgai ensemble | cafe oto | 18-22 ashwin street, dalston, london E8 3DL | 8pm | £7 £8 | www.cafeoto.co.uk

"Absolutely mindblowing and prodigious acoustic guitar player from Lisbon, who has just released his fourth straight classic, ‘Mel Azul’, on crucial Portuguese label Mbari Records. His 28 years of life have been completely immersed in the most joyous of relationships with music and sound. He’s done his profound reading of the most auspicious and melancholic melodies (a place where Steve Reich, Jim O’Rourke, Paulinho da Viola and Carlos Paredes all make sense together unto one existence), has been deeply enriched by the harmonic depth & richness of the samba/bossa heritage (which he knows by heart), and his composition in both short and longer-form is nothing short of remarkable – a sense of structure, narrative and storytelling complete by a total absence of any tics or theatrical antics, in which every turn is revised and remade for maximum fascination for both musician and audience. That and he has one of the best left-hands around - for a right-hand guitar player. Jack Rose and Ben Chasny said so. His fans include Gary Lucas, Naná Vasconcelos and the tragically defunct Llasa de Sela. We’re yet to meet a single human being who is less that astounded by this man’s music. Living proof that the boldest aesthetical moves are 100% compatible with complete social communion."

2013/05/31 | raime - mohammad | lso st luke's | 161 old street, london EC1V 9NG | 8pm | £15 | www.lso.co.uk

"MOHAMMAD is a chamber music trio consisting of Coti K (contrabass), ILIOS (oscillators) and Nikos Veliotis (cello). Based in Greece, Mohammad make long form work drone works that explore the lower end of the frequency spectrum whilst retaining an intense emotional capacity. The results are monumental slow moving physical blocks of sound, both daunting and musical. The sheer weight of these recordings is impressive, the interplay of the musicians and instruments staggering, this end result being an album rich with immense harmonious abstraction which highlights years of dedication to their unique path." Pan

Their last LP came out on Bill Kouligas’ label Pan earlier this year.

2013/05/31 | ondatropica | koko | 1a camden high street, london NW1 7JE | 7pm | £17,5 | www.koko.uk.com

Cumbia, porro, gaita and champeta! 

2013/06/01 | mauricio kagel: the piece of the compass rose performed by the london sinfonietta | queen elizabeth hall | southbank centre, belvedere road, london SE1 8XX | 8pm | £22 £15 £9 | www.southbankcentre.co.uk

"Discover The Pieces of the Compass Rose, an extraordinary musical travelogue taking you from the north east of Brazil to the Gulf of Finland via the South American Andes. This is a rare performance of all eight movements, inspired by places located at each point of the compass relative to Kagel's native Argentina.

The distinctive sound of the salon band orchestration is accompanied by a huge array of unusual percussion instruments: cushions, a conch, even an axe chopping wood. A composer whose cultural and musical outlook embraced a life lived crossing continents, The Pieces of the Compass Rose is Kagel's response to the diverse soundworlds evoked by geography, language and ethics."