SPECTRUM / creative music for curious ears

DUBLIN March 10-12th 2017

A new festival experience for fans of innovative music-making, SPECTRUM presents a widely diverse programme of music that flows through the prism of the jazz approach; its output a miscellany of sound, covering a full spectrum through jazz, progressive, rock, alt-folk to electronica.

Presented by Improvised Music Company (IMC) in association with Note Productions and Homebeat, SPECTRUM is 3 days of stimulating music, at the creative intersection where jazz, contemporary, rock and electronic music collide, with focus on the live and improvised, complimented by a compelling programme of talks, 10-12th March in Whelans and The Opium Rooms on Wexford St, Dublin.

Friday kicks off with a dose of context in a debate on the excessive classifications of modern music led by Professor Matthew Causey from Trinity College Dublin. Later on Whelan’s mainstage, jazz composer and bassist Ronan Guilfoyle is joined by two of New York’s most respected jazz musicians Tom Rainey and Dave Binney performing Guilfoyle’s ‘Hands’, a compelling conflict between composed music and freewheeling improvisation.

Saturday night’s double-header is a treat for irish audiences, with the cinematic sounds of Belgian instrumental trio Dans Dans, followed by the raw punk energy of Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad. Then from 11pm til late, a hand picked selection of live electronic artists carefully curated by ambience-masters, Homebeat will take over the upstairs space in Whelan’s.

Sunday begins with an intimate, duo concert with two fearless, world-class improvisers in Izumi Kimura and Barry Guy at the Hugh Lane Gallery at noon, followed by another SPECTRUM speaks session in conversation with Barry Guy and Evan Parker - two godfathers of the European free improv scene since the 1970s. Sunday night saxophonist Parker takes to the stage with acclaimed Irish pianist Paul G.Smyth for a thrilling duo performance, opening with a support slot by alt-folk guitarist Cian Nugent, much admired for his intricate extended compositions.

Jazz music is and always has been an attitude more than a fixed genre, with improvisation and evolution at its core. From Improvised Music Company, through a compelling collaboration with Note Productions and Homebeat, SPECTRUM presents a programme of acts intent on creatively evolving and busting confines of genre for the germination of truly creative music.

Further Info: www.improvisedmusic.ie