Grew, Blezard and Simpson live at Open Circuit March 14

Here’s a lovley short film shot by Phil Powell of a performance I did with Shaun Blezard and Stephen Grew at Open Circuit in Ulverston in March 2014.

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Update and recent history – Noise Research / Ian Simpson

Here’s an update on my activities in the last couple of months.

Been a busy time hence slow on the recent blog posts !

Perhaps the most significant recent event was my performance with the Rhys Chatham Ensemble in Birmingham Town Hall Symphony Hall on the 7th June. The piece was his ‘A Secret Rose’ scored for 100 electric guitars. It involed 3 lengthy intense rehearsal sessions folowed by the perfomance on Saturday evening. The experience and performance were nothing short of amazing and Rhys Chathams ability to bring 100 musicians from all over the country (and abroad) and create a cohesive unit in 3 days demonstrates his ability as both a composer and facilitator.

I got together with Charlie Collins and Anthony Donovan for a trio performance in Sheffield in May. Held at The Audatious Art Experiments performance space we gave a 50 minute improvised performance with 2 prepared guitars (me and Anthony) and metal objects (Charlie). The resultant industrial metallic drones combined with almost pastoral interludes will be released on Anthonys Classwar Karaoke label in the next few months. There will be future gigs including one at The Vortex Mopomoso night early next year. The trio has been christened Kourozu and we’re very excited at the potential of the unit.

Yeah Yeah Industrial, joint project with Barrow based artist Shaun Blezard, has finally done its debut performance at Manchester’s Noise Above Noise night (The Penthouse Studios) in April. The much talked about Noise Above Noise nights couldn’t have made a better launch, seeing us perform at either end of the studio’s long gallery with the audience able to wander through us. Really great spacial experience we were told ! Many thanks to Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp for having us on and great to be on the bill with Sophie Cooper, Graham Dunning and Colin Webster. YYI also featured in the most recent Metanast night at their 1 Primrose St venue in Ancoats (a converted abbatoir I’m told and an amazing space to perform in). A real pleasure to play with some great friends including Rosanne Robertson, Coryn Smethhurst and Richard Knight. Many thanks to Manoli Moriarty for asking us to perform and the hard work he put into the night. Look out for the next one (they have a FB page).

I played (guitar) as part of the ‘Eternal Return Arkestra of Gizeh’ a four hour continuous improvised performance on the 5th floor loft space at Islington Mill in Salford as part of FatOutFest 2014. It was hosted by Gizeh Records and featured legendary This Heat man Charles Hayward, Manchester’s Horrid and Toronto’s Nadja as section leaders. Another incredibly positive experience for me and many thanks to the guys from Gizeh for the massive efforts they put into it.

Wire Assembly played Mopomoso at the Vortex Jazz Club to launch our CD in February to a very appreciative audience. A nice quality video is on Mopomoso’s You Tube page so check it out. Thanks to John Russell for putting us on us. We also played the Red Deer in Sheffield (June) hosted by Notes and Sounds with a set of compositions (one from each of us) and a set of improvisations. A live recording was made which will hopefully be released at some point.

Along with all this have been the usual Noise Upstairs nights and a couple of Centrifuge nights at Fuel Cafe bar in Withington. Always great fun to play free improvisation on my archtop guitar and a great networking / social scene for like minded players. Check them both out through Facebook. As always its thanks to Phil Morton , Anton Hunter and Rodrigo Contanso for their efforts with these nights.

Thats all for now, gig news coming soon !

Kourozu performimg at The Audacious Art Experiment in May 2014 (pic Annie Dee)

New CD from Wire Assembly on Found Property Label FP14

Wire Assembly the free improvising guitar trio based in Sheffield have a new CD out on Found Property as of February 2014.

A recent Review of the last Wire Assembly release said:

The playing is a pleasure to listen to. The improvisations never lose focus or momentum—all three guitarists are adept at throwing out and accepting gambits, and often finishing each other’s phrases while doing so. The tasks of comping, playing single note lines and even hinting at a bassline—as Jasnoch does on occasion—are continually shifted around, keeping the sound moving ahead. Particularly exciting are those moments when a spontaneous, obliquely jazz-like chord progression breaks out, as when Jasnoch and Simpson do the free improv equivalent of chase choruses over Carver’s motile harmonies. (Avant Music News)

Wire Assembly – A Roadside Botany (FP14)

Ian Simpson – Guitar
John Jasnoch – Guitar
Neil Carver – Guitar

Contact through this blog to get a copy !!

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New ep from Wire Assembly ( free improvising guitar trio )

Electronic Musik has released a new ep from Sheffield guitar trio Wire Assembly.

Em193: Wire Assembly – Three Chairs

Recorded in June 2013 at Fuse

Artwork: Ian Simpson 2013

Wire Assembly are John Jasnoch, Neil Carver and Ian Simpson

download the EP FREE here

Noise Research / Ian Simpson gigs for 2013

Gigs for 2013 so far (keep checking for updates)

20th January – Blank Canvas, Ship and Mitre, Liverpool (guitar)

28th January – Open Mind, Fuel, Withington (as Noise Research)

17th February – Mopomoso, Vortex, London (with Kipple)

7th March – Centrifuge, Ducie Bridge, Manchester (guitar)

8th March – Xposed Club, University of Gloucester, Cheltenham (NR solo)

20th March – Acoute, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool

19th May – iSplash – Ship and Mitre, Liverpool (guitar / perc)

21st May – Centrifuge #21, Ducie Bridge, Manchester (Frakture event)

25th May – Chorlton Arts Festival – St Werburghs Church, Chorlton (Wire Assembly)

25th June – Centrifuge #22 – Ducie Bridge – Manchester (guitar / perc)

21st July – Blank Canvas, Ship and Mitre, Liverpool (with Wire Assembly)

22nd July – Centrifuge, Fuel Cafe Bar, Withington, Manchester

10th Sept – Centrifuge, Lamp Tavern, Birmingham

15th Sept – Just a Minute, Ship and Mitre, Liverpool (Frakture gig)

16th Oct – Acoute, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool (acoustic guitar / perc)

4th November – Centrifuge, Fuel Cafe Bar, Withington, Manchester

20th Nov – Noise Upstairs, Riverside, Sheffield (duo with Herve Perez)

Rhys Chatham’s Crimson Grail (UK Premiere) at Liverpool Cathedral

Just found out I’ve been accepted to perform as part of Rhys Chathams piece ‘Crimson Grail’ which gets it’s UK premiere at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (14th September, 2012).

The ensemble features 100 guitars and 8 basses

“Rhys Chatham’s career started as the piano tuner to the radical avant-garde composer La Monte Young. He quickly became established within the experimental music scene in New York whilst still in his teens, becoming the first Music Director of The Kitchen, the home to the New York art scene in the 1970’s. Here he presented works by over 250 composers working with everybody from Philip Glass and Sonic Youth to Robert Fripp of King Crimson whilst all the while creating his own compositions. Heavily influenced by both the early Ramones concerts he attended in his youth, his work expresses the sheer power of punk-rock whilst all the while being intertwined with the beautiful and precise nature of his minimalist contemporaries.

A Crimson Grail, due to its huge scale has only previously been performed twice, once in the Lincoln Center in New York and once in the Sacré-Cœur in Paris. For this, the third ever performance and UK premiere, one hundred volunteer guitarists and eight bassists will join Rhys Chatham and his team in a performance of A Crimson Grail in the glorious setting of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.”

Rhys Chatham’s A Crimson Grail for 100 guitars and 8 basses will be performed free as part of the Liverpool Biennial Launch Weekend 7.30pm @ the Anglican Cathedral Friday 14th September 2012

Noise Research review on Misfit City

Misfit City has reveiwed the ‘Space Stones’ EP by Noise Research.

Read it here on Misfit City

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