Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra

GIO Festival IV Program

2011-11-06T08:41:00.004Z

The full program of our forthcoming festival can be found here

GIO Festival IV Workshops

2011-10-12T11:44:00.003+01:00

As part of our fourth festival GIO are offering three workshops led by Renee’ Baker, member of the AACM, director of the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and a passionate educator.

Workshop 1: for anyone with an interest in improvising, no experience necessary, all instruments

and methods of making sound welcome. Sat 26th Nov: 11am-2pm, performing @ 3pm

Workshop 2: improvising for 3-5 year olds plus parents/carers. Expect fun, creative sounds and

musical ideas to take away. Sunday 27th Nov 10.30-11.30

Workshops are free but numbers are restricted so booking is essential

All workshops take place at CCA Glasgow, 350 Sauchiehall St Glasgow,

For booking email: giocontact@gmail.com

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra Festival IV

2011-09-19T21:21:00.002+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra host their fourth annual festival at the CCA this November offering three days of performances, workshops and discussions that open up or re-frame improvisation in different contexts. Performances range from small and intimate to large scale vistas for orchestra and feature improvised encounters with films, video score, live remix and composition.

Full program here

GIO +

Rope and Duck Company,

Muris With Lumps & and Peter Nicholson

Miguel Carvalhais/Bill Wells/George Burt/Raymond MacDonald

Stuart Brown/Tom Bancroft/Chris Wallace/Fritz Welch Drum Quartet

We'll also be performing three new compositions written for the orchestra by Liene Rozite, George Burt and Emma Roche. And there will be a discussion chaired by the Dancehall Journal. Full program details to follow.

GIO Festival IV, 25th, 26th and 27th of November, CCA Glasgow, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow ( £6 per day £10 for 2 days)

GIO at the Sound Festival Aberdeen

2011-09-19T20:45:00.000+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra are performing a new work at the Sound festival, Aberdeen in October.

With nearly ten years of concentrated listening and myriad collaborations under their belt Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra have collectively produced a large ensemble with a singular record in contemporary music. The performance at Sound will explore the ambiguities and contrasts in how improvisation and composition are conventionally viewed. The piece will focus on social relations as organising structures and, above all, listening.

Saturday 22nd October 20:30
Woodend Barn, Banchory

Details

GIO and summer school workshop participants perform at the Tolbooth, Saturday 13 August

2011-08-12T13:22:00.001+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra Summer School Performance

Sat 13 Aug, 7.30pm
£5/£3

GIO musicians have worked in a wide range of settings with people of all ages, including improvising with nursery and school children, children with additional support needs, university students and adults with mental health issues.

Inspired by a recent GIO live performance of improvisation to filmmaker Hans Richter’s experimental short films, the Tolbooth asked GIO if they would be interested in holding a Summer School focusing on the experimental short films of Stirling born filmmaker Norman McLaren (1914-1987).

McLaren developed a number of groundbreaking techniques in filmmaking and animation, and is known for combining and synchronising animation with music.

Consequently the first Tolbooth/GIO Summer School is on 9 –13 August for musicians aged 14 – 21.

This performance will be the premier of GIO and the workshop musicians playing live improvisations to screenings of select Norman McLaren films.

www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com

Glasgow Jazz Festival

2011-06-11T13:09:00.005+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra will be performing at the Glasgow Jazz Festival on the 2nd of July at Streetlevel Photoworks Gallery. Starting in the Gallery their performance will gradually unfold spatial and sonic forms throughout Trongate 103. Starts at 3pm, free admission.

Daniel Spicer Article

2011-06-11T13:05:00.004+01:00

Daniel Spicer has kindly written something about the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. You can download it here.

GIO at Edinburgh Filmhouse 15 May 2011

2011-03-30T16:48:00.004+01:00

GIO perform live at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Sunday 15th May with special guest Guido Henneboehl. As part of The New Objectivity: Realism in Weimar Cinema season, GIO will accompany the silent films 'People on Sunday' and 'Berlin: Symphony of Great City'. See the filmhouse website for more info and ticket deals. http://www.filmhousecinema.com/showing/people-on-sunday/

Guido Henneböhl is a musician and concert organizer based in Berlin, Germany. He has worked with composers like Alwynne Pritchard, Jeremy Woodruff and Carlos Sandoval, and improvisers like Jochen Arbeit, Andre Vida and Brendan Dougherty. Henneböhl has a unique method of developing synthesizer instruments by circuit bending old keyboards and toys, and combining them with self constructed primitive synthesizer elements. The instruments are notable for their wide range of tones and dynamics, and produces stochastic-like musical phrases.

GIO Fest III, 10-11 December 2010 at the CCA Glasgow

2010-11-29T19:48:00.009Z

Tickets £8/5 per day, available from CCA Glasgow, 350 Sauchiehall Street 0141 352 4900

Friday 10th December

6:00 Panel Discussion on Graphic Scores, with contributions from Francis McKee, Bryony McIntyre, Alasdair Campbell and Catriona Brown (in the CCA cinema).

7.30 GIO and guests perform Schweben- a GIO commission written by Barry Guy featuring a recording of the late Edwin Morgan reading his translation of Schweben: aye but can ye? by Vladimir Mayakovsky

8.30 Neil Davidson - guitar, Nick Fells - laptop and Aileen Campbell - voice

9.30 Ken Hyder - percussion

10.30 John Butcher - saxophones, John Russell - acoustic guitar and Dominic Lash - double bass

Saturday 11th December

2:00 Panel Discussion on Improvisation, with contributions from Barry Esson, Keith Bruce, Daniel Spicer, Maggie Nicols and Ken Hyder (in the CCA cinema)

4:00 Drums vs Printers - Stuart Brown - drums and percussion and Damien Marchal - printers

5:00 Peter Nicholson - cello and Shane Connelly - puppets

7.30 Three duos: George Burt and John Russell - guitars, Dominic Lash - bass and Maggie Nicols - voice, Fritz Welch - drums and John Butcher - saxophones

9.30 Edge: Ken Hyder - drums, Maggie Nicols - voice and Raymond MacDonald - saxophones

10.30 Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and guests

GIO Festival III

2010-10-28T16:00:00.008+01:00

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra’s annual festival of free improvisation and collaboration returns to the CCA with guests including Dominic Lash, John Butcher, John Russell, Ken Hyder, Maggie Nicols and Damien Marchal, a performance of Schweben by Barry Guy (a GIO commission) and a series of talks and film screenings.

Friday 10th December from 6pm (panel discussion on graphic scores and improvisation) performances from 7.30pm

GIO performing Schweben by Barry Guy featuring a recording of the late Edwin Morgan reading his translation of Schweben: aye but can ye? by Vladimir Mayakovsky, John Butcher, John Russell, Dominic Lash Trio, Ken Hyder solo, Nick Fells, Aileen Campbell, Neil Davidson.

Saturday 11th December from 2pm (panel discussion on improvisation) with performances from 4pm

GIO + guests, The Edge: Ken Hyder, Maggie Nicols, Raymond MacDonald, Stuart Brown & Damien Marchal, Peter Nicholson & Shane Connelly + various other collaborations

Tickets £8/5 per day
CCA Glasgow, 350 Sauchiehall Street
Full program details to follow.

New Recordings released on NCA

2010-08-31T13:42:00.002+01:00

Recordings of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra performing Insects by Armin Sturm at this year's Glasgow Jazz Festival are available online here from Never Come Ashore a new net label for experimental music based in Glasgow.

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra at City Halls

2010-08-17T10:54:00.006+01:00

GIO will be performing as part of a new series of concerts at Glasgow's City Halls recital room featuring performances of experimental and improvised music curated by Tom Dalzell.

Wednesday September 8th The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra 7.30pm

Wednesday September 22nd The Rope and Duck Company & The Red Ensemble 8pm

Tickets £6
Box Office: 0141 353 8000
www.glasgowconcerthalls.com

GIO Hans Richter Early Works

2010-08-04T14:10:00.007+01:00

GIO / Hans Richter Early Works

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with German cellist Johanna Varner will perform live improvisation to screenings of Hans Richter's experimental short films from the 1920s.

An early exponent of Dada, Richter was also one of the first to recognize the possibilities cinematography offered the artist. He participated in the first avant-garde film movement alongside Leger, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Cocteau and Dali.

'By film I mean visual rhythm ... to see movement, organized movement, wakes us up, wakes up resistance, wakes up the reflexes, and perhaps wakes up our sense of enjoyment as well. This kind of film gives memory nothing to hang on ... we are given a sense of what feeling and perceiving really is: a process - MOVEMENT.'' H. Richter 1924

Edinburgh Filmhouse Saturday 2nd October, 7pm
Glasgow GFT Sunday 3rd October, 2.30pm
Dundee DCA Sunday 10th October 2pm

Produced by the Goethe Institute, Glasgow

www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com

Coming soon: GIO Festival III 10-11 December 2010 with John Butcher, John Russell, Dominic Lash.

GIO at Glasgow Jazz Festival

2010-05-02T10:43:00.004+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra will be performing at this year's Glasgow Jazz Festival at the Tron Theatre on Saturday the 26th of June at 2pm. The concert will feature two new pieces for the band by Armin Sturm which are based around the developmental cycles of insects. Also appearing at this event will be the duo of George Burt and Susan Alcorn who first performed together at the GIO festival in 2009. Their new CD 'A&B' is due out on Iorram Records in June.

Booking

GIO festival II

2010-01-27T14:10:00.005Z

GIO

Una MacGlone and Fritz Welch

Peter Nicholson Axel Dörner Aileen Campbell

Filario Farinoppo

Neil Davidson and Arild Vange

2009-10-19T10:04:00.004+01:00

The second Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra festival offers two days of other and improvised music performance featuring the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Axel Dörner, Susan Alcorn, Pyramidian, Arild Vange, Filario Farinoppo,Yoko Miura, Raymond MacDonald/Valhalla and more. 6-7 November 2009 CCA Glasgow. Friday from 7pm Saturday from 3pm. Tickets £5 per day

Program

Friday 6th November
Opens 19:00

19.30 - Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra + Axel Dörner - trumpet
20.30 - Arild Vange – poetry in Norwegian and German & Neil Davidson – acoustic guitar
21.30 - Filario Farinoppo
22.30 - Aileen Campbell –voice, Peter Nicholson – cello and Axel Dörner – trumpet

Saturday 7th November
Opens at 14:30

Afternoon Sets
15:00 - Soundtrack to Valhalla film: Raymond MacDonald - saxophones, George Lyle - bass, Aby Vulliamy - viola, Stuart Brown - drums, George Burt - guitar, Giles Lamb - piano, George Murray - trombone
16:00 – Cr:acc Ensemble
17:00 - John Burgess – bass clarinet, George Murray - trombone, Una MacGlone – bass

Evening Sets
19.30 - Yoko Miura – piano
20.30 - Susan Alcorn – pedal steel and George Burt – electric guitar
21.30 - Pyramidion (Boom Edan, Nakt Insekten, Single Helix, Cheer, Lanterns)
22.30 - Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra + Yoko Miura, Susan Alcorn, Filario Farinoppo

GIO Festival II

2009-10-04T22:07:00.001+01:00

The second annual Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra festival will take place on the 6th and 7th of November at the CCA in Glasgow. The program features performances by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Axel Dorner, Susan Alcorn, Pyramidion, Arild Vange, Filario Farinoppo, Yoko Miura and more. The final program schedule will be announced soon. Friday from 7pm and Saturday from 3pm. Tickets £5 per day. CCA 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow +44 (0) 141 352 4900 cca-glasgow.com

GIO and Bik Van der Pol

2009-10-04T22:01:00.001+01:00

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra recently collaborated with Dutch artists Bik Van der Pol, recording music for a new work in their forthcoming exhibition at the CCA which will also feature footage of the band performing. The exhibition runs from Saturday 10 October - Saturday 21 November 2009.

Download the exhibition publication here

GIO CDs

2009-10-04T21:53:00.001+01:00

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra has recorded several CDs on various labels: Emanem, Iorram, FMR and Creative Sources, most of which are available from Boa Melody Bar and Monorail among other places.