Bathing Trio (Andreae/Birchall/Willberg)
Sam Andreae - saxophone, objects
David Birchall - guitar, objects
Otto Willberg - double bass, objects
with Toshimaru Nakamura - No-input Mixer
“Not long after the release of the fascinating Live in Beppu, the new English free sound artists Sam Andreae (saxophone), David Birchall (guitar) and Otto Willberg (bass) will release a new edition, now at the London Raw Tonk label. This time the musicians from Manchester are joined by the Japanese Toshimaru Nakamura. His instrument is the no input mixing board, an electronic instrument that produces sound without any outside audio input.
The no input mixing board is an unpredictable instrument. According to Nakamura, an attitude of obedience and resignation is necessary in relation to the system and the sounds it produces. The instrument ensures a high degree of indeterminacy and surprise in music. It is therefore not surprising that the three English gentlemen, when they were in Japan, came into contact with Nakamura and started making music together.
The four musicians have in common their open vision of what music is and can be. The game with sounds comes first, not so much as making rhythmic or melodic music. These musicians conduct research into sound, the possibilities of their instruments and how they fit into the sounds that the others produce. This leads to music that comes across as abstract, from which the joy of playing is dripping and which, as a listener, often leaves you astonished: what have I just heard? It is precisely the turbulence in combination with the audible love for innovation in which the beauty of this music lies.”
Opduvel writing about Live at Ftarri [June, 2018]
Uk
2018 press snippets
with David Birchall, Otto Willberg
Live in Beppu reviewed by Daniel Spicer in Jazzwise May 2018
Hair in the Chimney reviewed by Radio Free Midwich April 2017
The sympathetic support of each instrument and player is super-palpable as each voice is selfless enough to bring out the best in each other. Be that a slow dripping, almost Sonic Youth-style, electric gamelan or a razor-sharp ladder of tones, each essential to the overall sculpture.
Hair in the Chimney reviewed in The Quietus, Stewart Smith, April 2017
Top-notch weirdo jams from the north of England…..Hair In The Chimney brings an underground sensibility to free improvisation, with the musicians using unconventional techniques to defamiliarise their instruments.
Live at Ftarri OUT NOW!
Tokyo/London
Ftarri/release/12131241">Andreae/Birchall/Willberg/Nakamura Live at Ftarri OUT NOW!
with David Birchall, Otto Willberg, Toshimaru Nakamura
Live at Ftarri is now released on the fantastic Raw Tonk label, get them by clicking on the link aboce. And look out, we’ll be touring after summer in the UK so you can come see us in your area soon!
Live in Beppu release tour
Berlin, Wroclaw
Bathing Trio (Andreae/Birchall/Willberg) Live in Beppu Release Tour
with David Birchall, Otto Willberg
The trio met up to do a couple of gigs in Berlin (KLANGKELLER) and Wraclow at the fantastic OPT. Massive thanks to Jan and Dawid for running the concert and making us feel very welcome.
Live in Beppu OUT NOW
Berlin, Wroclaw
Bathing Trio (Andreae/Birchall/Willberg) Live in Beppu OUT NOW!
with David Birchall, Otto Willberg
LIVE IN BEPPU is released into the world. I’m really proud of this release, it was the result of a three day residency with many fantastic people in Beppu, this is a recording of the concert we performed as a trio at the end of it. Thanks to Hinago-san at ReNTReC for hosting the gig and recording it, everybody at Beppu Project/Platform 05, Bodies at Play friends and colleagues: Arthorymen, Mio, Rina, Ono-kun (also for taking the cover photograph), Kazusa-san, Hino-san, Chigusa-chan and Tayuu-san and Kotobuki Onsen and Onsenmeister where we took the cover image.
Bodies at Play
Platform5, Beppu
3 day installation performance with local artists in Beppu, Japan
with Mio Ebisu, David Birchall, Otto Willberg, Arthorymen, Mio, Rina, Ono-kun, Kazusa-san, Hino-san, Chigusa-chan and Tayuu-san
3 day residency at Platform5 in Beppu. We worked together as a group in the space and constructed what turned out to be somewhat like a sound and image play area ;-) it was quite a unique experience for all of us I think, with very little discussion we inhabited the space together and allowed different events and pieces to emerge over time.
Eyes are listening, ears are watching
Blockhouse, Tokyo
performance work exploring the relation between sound, space and gesture
with Mio Ebisu, David Birchall, Otto Willberg and Kouhei Sekigawa
rENTrEC concert
Beppu, Kyushu
performance at rENTrEC record shop in Beppu
with David Birchall and Otto Willberg
Andreae/Birchall/Willberg/Nakamura
Tokyo
concert at Ftarri experimental music record store
with Toshimaru Nakamura, David Birchall, Otto Willberg
During our tour of Japan me, Otto Willberg and David Birchall had the chance to play and record with Toshimaru Nakamura at the legendary imporov record store Ftarri in Tokyo. The recording from the gig should be out on Raw Tonk in the very near future.
hair In The Chimney OUT NOW!
Tokyo/London
Bathing Trio (Andreae/Birchall/Willberg) hair In The Chimney OUT NOW!
with David Birchall, Otto Willberg, Toshimaru Nakamura
Hair In The Chimney is release on Heavy Petting & Vernacular! Beautiful artwork by Mio Ebisu :-)