"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."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Toop)
11/20/2024

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"Peter Cusack is a field recordist, musician and researcher with a long interest in the sound environment. Projects include community arts, researches into sound and our sense of place and documentary recordings in areas of special sonic interest (Lake Baikal, Siberia). His project Sounds From Dangerous Places explores soundscapes at sites of major environmental damage - Chernobyl exclusion zone; Caspian oil fields; UK nuclear sites. This project continues and is currently researching the regeneration of the North Aral Sea, Kazakhstan. He describes the use of sound to investigate documentary issues as sonic journalism.

He initiated the Favourite Sound Project in London 1998. It aims to discover what people find positiv

"Peter Cusack is a field recordist, musician and researcher with a long interest in the sound environment. Projects include community arts, researches into sound and our sense of place and documentary recordings in areas of special sonic interest (Lake Baikal, Siberia). His project Sounds From Dangerous Places explores soundscapes at sites of major environmental damage - Chernobyl exclusion zone; Caspian oil fields; UK nuclear sites. This project continues and is currently researching the regeneration of the North Aral Sea, Kazakhstan. He describes the use of sound to investigate documentary issues as sonic journalism.

He initiated the Favourite Sound Project in London 1998. It aims to discover what people find positive about their everyday sound environment and has since been carried out in Beijing, Berlin, Manchester, Southend-on-Sea, Prague, Birmingham and Taranto. He co-produced the environmental sound program Vermilion Sounds for ResonanceFM, London and was a research fellow on the multidisciplinary 'Positive Soundscapes Project' 2006/9.

During 2011/12 he was a DAAD artist in residence in Berlin, where he worked on the collaborative project Berlin Sonic Spaces that explored the relationship between soundscape and city development.

He has had a long-term interest in improvised music, usually on guitar. CDs include Where is the Green Parrot? (ReR PC1); Your Favourite London Sounds (Resonance); A Host of Golden Daffodils (Platelunch) with Nic Collins; Operet (Rere121) with Viv Corringham; Day For Night (Paradigm) with Max Eastley; Baikal Ice (ReR PC2); Favourite Beijing Sounds (KwanYin 022); Sound from Dangerous Places (ReR PC3&4); Favourite Berlin Sounds (ReR PC5)."

e about their everyday sound environment and has since been carried out in Beijing, Berlin, Manchester, Southend-on-Sea, Prague, Birmingham and Taranto. He co-produced the environmental sound program Vermilion Sounds for ResonanceFM, London and was a research fellow on the multidisciplinary 'Positive Soundscapes Project' 2006/9.

During 2011/12 he was a DAAD artist in residence in Berlin, where he worked on the collaborative project Berlin Sonic Spaces that explored the relationship between soundscape and city development.

He has had a long-term interest in improvised music, usually on guitar. CDs include Where is the Green Parrot? (ReR PC1); Your Favourite London Sounds (Resonance); A Host of Golden Daffodils (Platelunch) with Nic Collins; Operet (Rere121) with Viv Corringham; Day For Night (Paradigm) with Max Eastley; Baikal Ice (ReR PC2); Favourite Beijing Sounds (KwanYin 022); Sound from Dangerous Places (ReR PC3&4); Favourite Berlin Sounds (ReR PC5)."

-UAL: Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (https://crisap.org/people/peter-cusack/)
11/20/2024

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"Steve Beresford (born 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.

Beresford played in Derek Bailey's Company events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the Three Pullovers with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, and Han Bennink. He has collaborated extensively with Swiss-American artist/musician Christian Marclay and is an active member of the long-standing London Improvisers Orchestra.

From 2010 he performed various pieces by John Cage, including Indeterminacy with Tania Chen and comedian Stewart Lee, and a performance with Ilan Volkov at The BBC Proms 2012 at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

He has also worked with a number of popular musicians, including Ray Davis, The Slits, Frank Chickens, Ted Milton and The Flying Lizards. In 2015 he performed a duoproject with the upcoming Norwegian singer Natalie Sandtorv at the Blow Out! festival in Oslo, Norway.

He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2012. He is a senior lecturer on the Commercial Music course at University of Westminster.

Beresford's music and his teachings have inspired the musical community in the UK for over a decade. British songwriter and performer Katy Carr cites Steve Beresford's lectures on musical themes associated with Free improvisation, Experimental music, John Cage, musique concrète, Diamanda Galás and The Slits as a source of initial inspiration with regards to the creation of her debut album, Screwing Lies released in 2001."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Beresford)
11/20/2024

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"Terry Day: Multi-instrumentalist, Improvisation Pioneer, Song Writer, Tune-Smith, Lyricist, Poet, Painter, Conductor even.

I began Improvising on the drums in a drum duet with my brother Pat in 1955, and in 1960 formed an improvising trio of Piano, bass & drums. Russell Hardy (piano) later became Music composer in Ian Dury's Kilburn & the Highroads.

I am an early 60's First Generation Pioneer of Improvisation, Free Jazz & experimental music. Since the 1960s I have collaborated with many improvising musical Luminaries, Groups, dancers, painters, poets, Artists from around the world, & performed / acted in Alternative Theatre, Events, Rock & Roll, and Nigerian High Life band. .......most of which went unrecorded, or remain "bad" recordings unreleased in my own & private Archives.

I once played many instruments (piano, cello, mandolin, alto & soprano sax), but ill health prevented me from playing for 13 years (1987-2000). Depending on who I am working with, I now play Bamboo Reed Flutes, Drums, Sopranino, Recorders, Balloons & Improvise with my Lyrics, Prose, Verse ( which many call poems - but for me They Are Lyrics ).

Since 2000 I have performed regularly with the London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) playing Bamboo Reed Flutes, Sopranino, Recorders, Balloons, Drums, & Simultaneously Conducting & Reciting Lyrics, prose, verse with the LIO. I have also performed Recitation Conductions with the Malaga, Tokyo, & Madrid Improvising Orchestras. My recitations also include collaborations with groups & individuals which can be viewed on my website.

Since 2000 I have continued to collaborate with the New Luminaries of improvisation from around the world, & old Veterans such as the People Band. I toured Japan in 2012 working solely with Japanese improvising musical Luminaries, dancers & the calligrapher Setsuhi Shiraishi. I toured Brazil in 2013 giving workshops, performing solo & with Brazilian musicians. I have appeared regularly on Malaga annual music festivals."

-Terry Day Website (http://www.terryday.co.uk/id1.html)
11/20/2024

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