Steve Beresford was born in Wellington, Shropshire,
UK in 1950. In 1974 he moved to London, playing piano with improvisers
like
Derek Bailey and also trumpet with the notorious Portsmouth
Sinfonia.
Since the mid-1970s, he has worked with hundreds of people, including
The Slits,
Han Bennink, Christine Tobin, Thurston Moore, Ivor Cutler,
Prince Far-I, Vic Reeves, Alan Hacker, Ray Davies, Ilan Volkov, Najma
Akhtar,
Evan Parker, Adrian Sherwood, Derek Bailey, The Flying Lizards,
Stewart Lee,
Otomo Yoshihide and
John Zorn. Free improvisation is central, generally involving piano and/or
electronics. He also writes songs, TV and film music, directs ensembles
and has been known to sing and write. He was a member of the groundbreaking group Alterations (1977-1986),
with
David Toop,
Peter Cusack and Terry Day. People he regularly performs with include Blanca Regina, Elaine
Mitchener, Satoko Fukuda,
Max Eastley, Mark Sanders, John Edwards, Orphy
Robinson, Sarah Gail Brand, Mandhira De Saram and the London
Improvisers Orchestra.
Beresford has co-curated a number of events with Blanca Regina,
including the ongoing "Strange Umbrellas" series and a ten-day event
'Unpredictable', planned for April 2018 in Ambika P3, London. He has had a long musical association with Swiss-American artist/musician
Christian Marclay. In 2012, he received the Paul Hamlyn Award.
Steve Beresford is included in
Steven Stapleton's legendary
Nurse With Wound List.