Music Gigs for Cheltenham in February

CORSANO-BEVAN-LASH, GRACE & DELETE + WARP WHISTLE & ION BEALE

25 February 2009, 8pm, Slak Bar

Tickets £5adv/£6 door, available from Badlands Records

Chris Corsano's drumming has to be seen to be fully appreciated. An 'into the void' musician who collaborates with a huge range of artists. Loose-limbed, intense, even melodic, he exposes the audience to sounds and rhythms that defy normality. He moves light footed around the world sparking off into all kinds of collaborations playing with/alongside Jim O'Rouke, the Dimension X project, Evan Parker, Bjork, Mick Beck, Okkyung Lee, Thurston Moore and Bill Nace among many. Chris will perform with his trio featuring Tony Bevan on Saxophone and Dominic Lash on double bass.

The enigmatic Grace & Delete duo of Chris Cundy and James Dunn reprise their horn and tinnitus analyser electronics in a must see return to Cheltenham. Joined by experimental percussionist Stuart Wilding, the unexpected is expected!

Ambient samples and off-kilter drones hurtle around a large hadron collider of 8-bit beats in a demented collaboration between the irrepressible Chiptune producer Warp Whistle and mysterious and relentless noise-monger Ion Beale.

PAUL DUNMALL & PAUL ROGERS DUO + THE BEATRIX WARD-FERNANDEZ TRIO

27 February 2009, 8pm, Xposed Club

For thirty years Paul Dunmall has carved out a reputation for himself and is now widely recognised as one of the most uncompromising and talented reed players on the International jazz/improvised music scene.Whether playing in small groups or big bands his musical sensitivity and imagination combined with a powerful sound to make him one of the most distinctive improvisers playing today.

Paul Dunmall and Paul Rogers have been making music together since the 1980s as a duo, as half of the co-operative quartet Mujician, and in larger groups organised by Dunmall, Keith Tippett and others.

Born in London and raised in Cadiz, Southern Spain, Beatrix Ward-Fernandez began classical violin training on her return to England. Residing in Sheffield, her interest in experimental and improvised musics led almost inevitably to her involvement in the fertile local creative scene, playing violin and castanets!

Long attracted to the sound of the Theremin, she became fascinated with the possibilities it presented. It seemed to her that there had been little or no exploration of its integration and use within acoustic/experimental ensembles. Developing new techniques to meet the demands of these musics became an abiding interest.

Over the past few years she has recorded and/or performed with a vast number of creative artists, including Martin Archer, Mick Beck, Pat Thomas, J.D. Parran, Phillip Thomas, Jez riley French, Pleasure-Drenching Improvers, Damo Suzuki, Chris Corsano and Okkyung Lee. In July 2007 she performed with her regular trio of Derek Saw and Charlie Collins at the Theremin symposium "Hands Off".

For a full calendar of 2009 Cheltenham gigs please visit our MySpace page. For other Cheltenham events visit our Cheltenham events guide.