Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
The Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) was a loose collection of free improvising musicians, convened in 1965 by the now late South London-based jazz drummer/trumpeter John Stevens and alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts. SME performances and recordings could range from Stevens–Watts duos to gatherings of more than a dozen players.
Incus Records is a British record company and label founded by Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker and Michael Walters that specializes in free jazz and improvised music.
George Lowen Coxhill known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone.
Steve Beresford 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.
John William Stevens was an English drummer, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble.
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Tony Oxley was an English free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Jamie Muir is a Scottish painter and former musician, best known for his work as the percussionist in King Crimson from 1972–1973, appearing prominently on their fifth album Larks' Tongues In Aspic.
Barry John Guy is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Emanem Records is a record company and independent record label founded in London, England in 1974 by Martin Davidson and Madelaine Davidson to record free improvisation.
Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.
John Butcher is an English tenor and soprano saxophone player.
Trevor Charles Watts is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist.
Simon H. Fell was an English jazz bassist and composer; he is primarily known for his work as a free improviser and the composer of ambitiously complex post-serialist works.
Paul Lytton is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist.
John Howard Riley is an English pianist and composer, who worked in jazz and experimental music idioms.
Roger Turner is an English jazz percussionist. He plays the drumset, drums, and various percussion, and was brought up into the jazz and visual art cultures inhabited by his older brothers, playing drums from childhood in informal jazz contexts.
Gheim is an album by trombonist Paul Rutherford and his trio, featuring bassist Paul Rogers and drummer Nigel Morris. The first two tracks were recorded live at the Bracknell Jazz Festival on July 2, 1983, and were originally released by the Ogun label in 1986 on a cassette titled Bracknell '83. In 2004, Emanem Records reissued the live tracks, along with three tracks that were recorded in a London studio on December 12, 1983, on a CD titled Gheim. The disc, with all five tracks, was reissued by Emanem in 2014.
Sequences 72 & 73 is an album by trombonist Paul Rutherford and the group known as Iskra 1912. It was recorded during 1972–1974 in London, and was released in 1997 by Emanem Records. The album features studio recordings of two ensemble works composed and conducted by Rutherford, plus a live recording of a solo trombone piece.
