An extended improvisation interweaving acoustic and electronic instruments in a beautifully coherent evolution of mysterious and approachable sources, from the trio of Jan Bang, David Toop and Mark Wastell, combining tam tams, gongs, flutes, lapsteel, live sampling, gongs, brushes, elastic, paper and more to captivate the curious listener.
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Sample The Album:
Jan Bang-live sampling, samples
David Toop-lapsteel guitar, flutes, whistles, small percussion, harmonica, elastic, paper
Mark Wastell-tam tam, gongs, beaters, brushes, sticks, bow, autoharp
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UPC: 5904224870591
Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 23
Squidco Product Code: 31590
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded in London, UK, on November 22nd, 2019, by Shaun Crook.
"From the moment I heard that this trio had spent a day in a London studio I have been anticipating the results. Three distinctive musical minds and voices: each familiar, never before together.
Jan Bang's sound environments are deeply affecting, created with an Akai sampler and interwoven with the work of collaborators in both studio and live remix situations. There's a sensitivity and respect in David Toop's sound-making borne from his insatiable curiosity about the evolution of music in cultures across the world. Mark Wastell's use of acoustic percussion and his explorations into the potential of simple instruments result in nothing short of a spiritual communion with sound.
No parameters were set for the sessions. Three improvisations of around thirty minutes duration were recorded. Afterwards, every sound played in those performances was brought together to create a unified whole.
There are moments where each player's voice is distinct: the resonance of Wastell's tam-tam caresses, the bursts and trills of Toop's woodwind, the pitch-altered looping of Bang's manipulated samples. But the triumph of this collaboration is the sound world of their combined creation.
There's an openness in the mix that allows each expression to breathe. It's like being encircled by some elaborate gossamer sculpture, flashes of colour and light glinting through as it catches the breeze.
The trio's music creates a strong sense of place, yet you can't quite put your finger on the exact location. There are crescendos that remind me of the vibrant frenzy once experienced in the Amazonian rainforest. Jan Bang injects into the mix both snippets of his co-creators' performances and samples collected over time for deployment in just the right context. We hear faint orchestral swells and then voices, both spoken and sung, the recordings degraded so far as to be barely recognisable. These add a strange authenticity to this imagined territory, the acoustic purity of Toop and Wastell's instruments providing a counterpoint that expands the stage.
Deep listening reveals some beautiful passages where all else subsides but for the elegance of a simple motif. None is more perfect than the gentle melody that emerges to bring resolution in the final moments.
A Compound Full of Bones, Translucent Thousands has an eloquence that transcends both the circumstances of its creation in a small London studio and the finely-honed technique of each individual artist. Expressive, alluring: music with which to share your time and imagination."-Confront Recordings
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Jan Bang "Jan Bang (born 21 August 1968 in Kristiansand, Norway) is a Norwegian musician and record producer, known from several albums and collaborations with musicians like Morten Harket, Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Nils Petter Molv¾r, Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arve Henriksen and Erik HonorŽ. Bang played with Erik HonorŽ in ÇWoodlandsÈ (EP, 1988), and they have released two albums (2000, 2001). He has also contributed to albums with Bertine Zetlitz, Bel Canto, and has written music for the film Ballen i ¿yet (2000). In recent years he has played with Dhafer Youssef, and in 2004 he received the Gammleng Award i klassen studio, and together with musician colleague, Erik HonorŽ, he initiated ÇPunktfestivalenÈ in 2005. He is one of NorwayÕs most accomplished and influential producers and the epithet electronics guru has stayed with him for a long time and with good reason. Bang is the kind of musical innovator and bridge-builder who consistently manages to balance progressive thinking with popular appeal. He is always looking for ways of moving music and people forward, and by creating new meeting places and musical intersections he is the kind of person who makes events like ÇScene NorwayÈ possible. In addition to hosting ÇPunktÈ, Bang will also contribute to the opening concert where he will perform with one of his many musical collaborators, the celebrated Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen. John Kellman of the All About Jazz magazine, recognized Jason Moran & Jan Bang at the Moldejazz and Arve Henriksen/Jan Bang Double CD Release Show at the Punkt Festival, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2013, as one of his 25 "Best Live Shows of 2013". Bang has also appeared live at Music Tech Fest Berlin in 2016 with Mercury nominee Eska in a unique one-off improvised performance." ^ Hide Bio for Jan Bang • Show Bio for David Toop "David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, and professor and chair of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a member of the Flying Lizards and a contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire, a British music magazine. Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art. Toop published his pioneering book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound appeared, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass." Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Scanner, and others. He is a member of the improvising, genre-hopping quartet Alterations, active from 1977 to 1986 and reforming in 2015. In 2001, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960Ð1977. More experimentally, Toop has also actively engaged with 'sounding objects' from a range of museums." ^ Hide Bio for David Toop • Show Bio for Mark Wastell "Mark Wastell Born 1968; cello. Much of Mark Wastell's relationship with his chosen instrument is concentrated on the tactile, textural and sonic possibilities of both violoncello and bow. He is increasingly interested in working with extreme elements drawn from frequency, timbre and pitch. His early activity was consciously and subconsciously influenced by a variety of improvising musicians including John Stevens, Barry Guy, Phil Durrant and John Russell. Subsequent exposure to contemporary composers lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the works written for strings by Feldman, Cage, Nono, Lachenmann and Sciarrino. The use of live electronics and music concrete by Tudor, Parmegiani, Xenakis and others was another important early influence. Wastell's current instrumental material primarily focuses on using abstract principles of space and texture - encompassing elements of new London silence, pro-instrument minimalism, new complexity and electro-acoustics. Because of the very nature of his chosen instrument, he tends to favour 'chamber' style ensembles and is a member of a number of regular groups: Mark Wastell has also performed with many other leading musicians including John Zorn, Keith Rowe, Peter Kowald, Hugh Davies, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Axel Dorner, Hans Koch, Phil Minton, Max Eastley and Steve Beresford. As a soloist he has played at the Micro-classical Festival (London 1996), LMC Festival (London 2000) and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2000). He has travelled extensively with various groups, performing on tour and at festivals in the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Greece. Other work includes the launch in 1996 of his own record label, Confront Recordings. Wastell is also joint co-ordinator of the concert venue All Angels, together with Rhodri Davies." ^ Hide Bio for Mark Wastell
10/2/2024
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10/2/2024
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• Derek Bailey's Company - with, for example, Will Gaines, Simon H. Fell and Rhodri Davies
• Evan Parker's String Project, with Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Rhodri Davies, Phil Durrant, John Edwards, Kaffe Matthews, Marcio Mattos, John Russell
• Assumed possibilities, with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Phil Durrant
• The Sealed Knot, with Burkhard Beins and Rhodri Davies
• Necessaire with Alessandro Bosetti, Ignaz Schick and Burkhard Beins
• IST with Simon Fell and Rhodri Davies
• Quatuor Accorde with Tony Wren, Phil Durrant and Charlotte Hug
• Broken Concort, a duo with Rhodri Davies
10/2/2024
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Track Listing:
1. Compound Full of Bones, Translucent Thousands 35:53
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Trio Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Search for other titles on the label:
Confront.
 | Grady, Spencer / Fermata Ark / Mark Wastell Thus : Excerpts From A Smaller Work (Confront) |
| UK sound artist Fermata Ark, aka Harry Smith, composed this work from improvisations recorded by Mark Wastell performing on cello, double bass and harmonium, and Spencer Grady performing on 5-string banjo, ebow, violin bow and brass slide, creating an extended work of immersive and mesmerizing textures and tones, sounds rising and falling in sublime and passionate ways. | |
 | Virtual Company (Fell / Wastell / Bailey / Gaines) Virtual Company (Confront) |
| IST, configured as the duo of double bassist Simon H. Fell and cellist/percussionist Mark Wastell, performing a virtual quartet at London's Cafe OTO, using using pre-recorded fragments of solo work from late guitarist Derek Bailey and tap dancer Will Gaines, combined with sections of silence of unforeseeable length, and then combined with the live musicians; amazing. | |
 | Cooper, Mike / Mark Wastell Sound Mirrors (Confront) |
| Lapsteel guitarist and electronic artist Mike Cooper and percussionist Mark Wastell, employing a paiste 32" tam tam and a shruti box, pay homage to the large acoustic sound mirrors used in Britain from 1916 to 1930 as an early form or radar, each of their detailed improvisation referencing one of the locations on the British south and northeast coasts. | |
 | Endresen, Sidsel / Jan Bang Hum (Confront) |
| Using sampler, dictaphone, and voice, the duo of Sidsel Endresen and Jan Bang improvise and interact to create unorthodox hybrids of fractured electronics and articulated word, as edgy and engaging as it is unusual, captured live at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, in Oslo, Norway in 2016, a great followup to Bang's "And Poppies From Kandahar" Samadhi album. | |
 | Collusion Duo (Nick Smith / Mark Wastell) Refraction (Confront) |
| Violinist and percussionist Nick Smith, having access to St. Mary's Church at Great Baddow for music performance and rehearsals, made his first use of the space in 1996 in a duo with Mark Wastell on violincello, preparations and percussion, where they used the acoustics of the church to enhance their detailed and absorbing improvisations. | |
 | BEFOREHAND (Lazaridou / Wastell) Live at Hundred Years Gallery (Confront) |
| The duo of Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga on zither and Mark Wastell on his electronics set including bowls and shruti box, formed for the release concert for Angharad Davies' "Six Studies" in 2014, recording this excellent improvised dialog of rich and unusual sound. | |
| Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell) Berlin (Confront) | |
| Ist - Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (double bass) & Mark Wastell (violoncello) - recorded this fascinating, quietly active lower case work at Total Music Meeting in Berlin 2001. | |
| Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell) Lodi (Confront) | |
| Since 1995 the string trio of Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell & Mark Wastell have created sparse, introspective improvisation, performing here at the Contemporaneamente festival in Lodi, Italy. | |
 | Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell) and we disappear (Another Timbre) |
| For a decade this trio has created some of the most interesting electroacoustic improvisation, captured in a 38 minute performance at the Ear We Are Festival in Biel, Switzerland, 2007. | |
 | Suzuki, Akio / David Toop Breath - Taking (Confront) |
| Minimal improvisation using a meditative set of instruments including stone flute, small stones, and a "silent toy", from David Toop recording with Akio Suzuki on a rare trip to the UK. | |
 | Various Artists That Mysterious Forest Below London Bridge (Matchless) |
| A live presentation at the Shunt Lounge, London Bridge in November of 2006, including an AMM duo of John Tilbury and Eddie Prevost. | |
| Scotch Of St James, The Live at Amplify 2004 (Confront) | |
| Tim Barnes on snare drum and amplification and Mark Wastell on amplified textures, tuned metal, making small, mostly unidentifiable sounds with a Cage-style open flair. | |
 | Butcher, John / Luigi Marino / Mark Wastell Parallel Streams (Confront) |
| An impressive live performance at Exploratorium Berlin in 2024 as part of the international symposium Musicians' Perspectives on Improvisation, which explores the practices, ideas, visions and theories of improvising musicians, from the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, Luigi Marino on cymbals, zarb, zarb e zurkhaneh & feedback devices, and Mark Wastell on percussion. | |
 | Wastell, Mark Pre-Existing Commitments (Hundred Years Gallery) |
| During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work. | |
 | Nicols, Maggie / Matilda Rolfsson / Mark Wastell Semiotic Drift (Confront) |
| Extending the duo of British improvisers, legendary vocalist and leader of London's The Gathering, Maggie Nicols, also performing on taps and percussion, and Confront label-leader, percussionist Mark Wastell performing on cymbals and frame drum, with Swedish percussionist Matilda Rolfsson on bass drum, captured in a captivating concert at All Ears in Oslo in 2023. | |
 | Jones / Lash / Wastel Meditating With The Father, Son, And Holy Ghost (Confront) |
| An interpretation and reimagining of the opening track of Coltrane's Meditations, from the UK trio of Ed Jones on tenor & soprano saxophones, Dominic Lash on double bass and Mark Wastell on tam tam, gongs, cymbal & percussion, performed live at Cafe OTO in London in 2023, transforming the original recording's density into a slowly opening, evolving work of beauty. | |
 | Wastell, Mark Cello-intern Solos (Confront) |
| Beginning in February 2022 on the 1st Saturday of the month Mark Wastell would bring his cello to the Hundred Years Gallery in London with the grace of gallery owners Graham MacKeachan and Montse Gallego and play, not as a performance, not as a rehearsal, just to play and record his improvisations as he expands his reach on the instrument, heard here in 17 fascinating excerpts. | |
 | Oceans Of Silver & Blood Acetate [CD EP] (Confront) |
| Reissuing their limited 2014 release on Joachim Nordwall Editions, the Oceans Of Silver & Blood duo of Joachim Nordwall on analog synthesizer, effects & tape and percussionist Mark Wastell on tam tam and timpani present two pieces, the first an environmental work underpinned by subtle percussion, the second a richly resonating work of threatening warmth. | |
 | IST (Davies / Fell / Wastell) + John Butcher / Phil Durrant A More Attractive Way [5 CD BOX SET + 20 page booklet] (Confront) |
| A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators. | |
 | Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell) Twenty (Confront) |
| After twenty years playing together, the Sealed Knot trio of Burkhard Beins on amplified percussion, Rhodri Davies on amplified lap harp, and Mark Wastell on dual 32 past tam tams, gongs & nepalese singing bowls, performed live at Cafe OTO to record this beautifully captured, contemplative concert of tone, texture and ringing sound, like a 20-year dream reflected. | |
 | Seen, The For Sake Of Joy Of Study Of Oneself Together (Confront) |
| Inspired by a work by John Stevens from 1991, Mark Wastell developed this work merging narration and improvisation by transcribing the text from Steven's performance, preseanted here by an electroacoustic ensemble including Phil Durrant, Dominic Lash, Bertrand Denzler, Jennifer Allum &c, yielding an enveloping and fascinatingly mysterious piece presented in two versions. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri / David Sylvian / Mark Wastell There Is No Love (Confront) |
| Confront initiates their new Core Series with the text piece "There Is No Love" with David Sylvian on voice, vocal treatments and electronics, Rhodri Davies on harp, vibraphone and radio, and Mark Wastel on tam tam and percussion, a sophisticated spoken word piece of shadowy atmosphere and innuendo, leveraging approaches from experimental, improvised and composed music. | |
| Butcher, John / Burkhard Beins / Mark Wastell Membrane (Confront) | |
| Mysteriously dark electroacoustic improv from the adept trio of John Butcher on acoustic and amplified saxophones, Burkhard Beins on amplified bass drum and electronics, and Mark Wastell on amplified 32" paiste tam-tam, slowly evolving, rich environments in sound. | |
| Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell) Consequences (of Time and Place) (Confront) | |
| ist (The Improvising String Trio) of Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Wastell (violincello) performing at The Natural Music Club in London, 1997, using unorthodox techniques in indeterminate systems and free improvisation for fascinating results. | |
 | Davis, Matt / Phil Durrant / Mark Wastell Confront Collectors Series (Confront) |
| Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, the trio of trumpeter Matt Davis, violinist Phil Durrant and cellist Mark Wastell performing subtle and sophisticated free improvisation at St. Michael's and All Angels church, Chiswick, London in 2000. | |
 | Eastley / Halliwell / Parker / Wastell a life saved by a spider and two doves (Another Timbre) |
| Three extended improvisations documenting the first meeting of an exciting and unexpected electro-acoustic quartet with a unique sound and instrumentation. | |
