What are they building in there?

A quick post to point you in the direction of Mark Holub‘s upcoming research project What are they building in there? which I am very happy to be a part of.

Over the next few months, Sloth Racket and Mark’s band Anthropods will rehearse, record and perform two sets of brand new music, one written by Mark and one by me. Funded by the Austrian Science Fund, the project will investigate ‘how established, ensemble-specific “group languages” – shared musical and social understandings – shape musicians’ real-time decisions in bandleader-led collaborative improvised music-making.’ Sloth Racket will go into the studio this November to get stuck into the music over the course of a week-long residency. It should be a super interesting and fun experience!

Stay tuned for the live dates, happening in Austria and the UK in Spring 2027.

New videos: Composite Mashworks at Summer Bummer, Antwerp

We’re working our way through the documentation from the first Composite Mashworks Temporary Art Habitat, last month at Summer Bummer. It was a brilliant weekend! Material is starting to go up on the new Composite Mashworks website, and we’re adding to our developing video portfolio. So far we’ve made a timelapse video of a day in the life of the installation, and two short films of us improvising with trombone, saxophone and small instruments, with habitat sounds going on all around us.

Next up for Mashworks is XMTR Festival, closer to home in St Leonard’s-On-Sea. We’re taking over the back room of Tough Love record shop for the whole festival weekend, 26th and 27th September, and I’m excited to see and hear what kind of habitat emerges there. Info on the flyer below, and you can find out more about the festival on their website.

Composite Mashworks: Temporary Art Habitat at Summer Bummer, Antwerp!

It’s happening…Composite Mashworks are heading to Summer Bummer Festival in Antwerp this weekend, 28/29 August! This will be the first iteration of our Temporary Art Habitat installation, where Tullis and I will mash together improvised music and sound with lo-fi neon cardboard artwork and contributions (visual and sonic) from festival-goers. Cannot WAIT! There will be a comprehensive write-up to be done when we get back, as this project combines pretty much every area of my practice in a new and totally brain-melting way…

To mark the occasion we’ve also created some new music in the studio, which you can listen to here, and buy on limited-edition cassette – only available at Summer Bummer and XMTR festivals!

The whole thing promises to be a total blast. I will report back on the other side – and/or see you out there!(Above is a new t-shirt design I’m pretty happy with…shirts also available in a VERY limited edition way, basically only at Summer Bummer, most likely…tbc…)

Guesting with Last Dream Of The Morning

Quick post just to share this great photo by John Trice, of the gig on Tuesday 7th July at Cafe Oto. I was so happy to be invited back to guest with Last Dream Of The Morning – John Butcher, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders – for the second night of their 2026 Cafe Oto residency. It was an absolute blast playing with the trio again! What an honour to be invited for the second time too.

For this gig I decided to try a completely new setup, pairing a Korg Volca Bass with the Fieldtone Weaver. This worked great! A super fun, super agile and flexible combination.

New video: Composite Mashworks in the shed


After a great set at Two Ship Festival in June, work continues behind the scenes with Composite Mashworks – including a push to document our practice with videos! Above is the latest finished offering on our new Vimeo page: an aerial view of a studio session in Tullis’ shed studio, Hastings, in May.

Mashworks is active later in the summer, heading to Summer Bummer festival in Antwerp for our first Temporary Art Habitat installation plus a live set. We then head straight to XMTR Festival in St Leonard’s to do the same again! More on this soon, plus another video in the pipeline…

Also under development is our new online home compositemashworks.org.

Composite Mashworks at Two Ship Festival

Coming up on Saturday 6th June is the fourth annual edition of Two Ship Festival in my new home town of Hastings! Last year I had a brilliant day attending the festival as a punter, but this year I’m looking forward to being there as an artist, playing a Composite Mashworks set with Tullis Rennie. Fresh from our trip to Belfast, we’ll be heading further down the mashworks rabbit hole and seeing where our huge table of soundmaking stuff takes us…

Check out the poster below for the rest of the excellent lineup. It will be a super nice day, and Londoners, you can even get home at the end of the night (speaking from experience)!

Tickets are on sale over here.

Composite Mashworks at Sonorities Festival, Belfast

Tullis Rennie and I have been working behind the scenes on our duo project Composite Mashworks, which has a few outings coming up this year. First up is Sonorities Festival in Belfast! We’re excited to be a part of their Handmade Music programme, happening on Friday 17th April at Accidental Theatre. The night is packed full of sets by all sorts of brilliant artists so it promises to be a super fun one.

In preparation for this I’m creating a whole new set of the cardboard structures that form part of our improvisation. Initially taking the form of repurposed fragments (see image above) from my 2021 hcmf// piece And then the next thing you know, these are starting to morph into their own thing as the Composite Mashworks project develops. Can’t wait to take them out next month!

 

Duo set with Dee Byrne

Very happy to be part of this bill at the Horse Hospital, London on 7th April for Taupe’s album launch! Dee Byrne and I will be exploring new electronic territories with our ongoing duo project. Tickets and info over on the venue website.

The next night, Dee will perform with the City St George’s Experimental Ensemble at our end-of-year concert! This will be a free event in the Performance Space at the university – I’ll add more details here soon…