Never released before recordings by the improvising quartet Alterations (active from 1977 to 1986, and reforming in 2015) from Logos Foundation live sessions at Logos Foundation, Gent, Belgium on January 3, 1981.
The music is free-improvisation—that is we make our music co-operatively while playing : by listening, reacting, throwing in new ideas, not by following preplanned schemes. At its simplest the group's intention can be said to be to play together as well as possible and to enjoy ourselves while doing so. We are very interested in the result and intend that the audience is as well. As well as the musicians reacting to each other the music itself is pretty reactive to context. In other words room acoustics, background noise, audience response have a strong effect on what happens. This is particularly true of the audience. We have done performances where conversation has broken out with some audience members. There is much to see as well as hear—this is partly to do with the instruments. Together Peter Cusack, Terry Day, Steve Beresford and David Toop have hundreds, all sizes, all sorts, most colours. They completely cover the floor. Many of these are non-western. The wide range of instruments means that an extremely broad sound spectrum is covered, from sudden bangs to very quiet low notes, from squeaks to normal guitar sounds. This is what fixes the overal group sound.
David Toop: Flute, home-made reeds, percussion.
Peter Cusack: Guitar.
Steve Beresford: Piano, Small Instruments.
Terry Day: Percussion, home-made reeds.
Born near London in 1949, David Toop is a musician, writer and sound curator.
He has published three books, numerous solo albums since his first album released on
Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975, curated five CD compilations, composed the soundtrack for an outdoor spectacular under Lisbon Expo '98, recorded shamanistic ceremonies in Amazonas. He
worked with musicians including Brian Eno,
John Zorn, Prince Far I, Jon Hassell,
Derek Bailey, Talvin Singh, Evan Parker,
Max Eastley,
Scanner, Ivor Cutler, Haruomi Hosono, Jin Hi Kim and
Bill Laswell, and collaborated with artists from many other disciplines, including theatre director/actor Steven Berkoff, Japanese Butoh dancer Mitsutaka Ishii, sound poet Bob Cobbing, visual artist
John Latham, filmmaker Jae-eun Choi and author Jeff Noon.
As a critic and columnist he has written for many publications, including
The Wire,
The Face,
The Times,
The Sunday Times,
The Guardian,
Arena,
Vogue,
Spin,
GQ,
Bookforum,
Urb,
Black Book,
The New York Times and
The Village Voice.
Peter Cusack is an English field recordist, musician and sound artist with a long interest in the sound environment. He is based in London and Berlin. He is best known as a member of the avant garde musical quartet, Alterations (1978–1986; with Steve Beresford,
David Toop, and Terry Day), and the creator of field and wildlife recording-based albums. In 1998 he started the Favourite Sounds Project that explores what people find positive about the sounds of the cities—London, Beijing, Chicago, Prague, Birmingham, Berlin—where they live. His project Sounds From Dangerous Places (described as sonic journalism) investigates soundscapes at sites of major environmental damage including the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the Caspian oil fields in Azerbaijan, the Italian city of Taranto and the Aral Sea.
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.
Terence Day (born 1940) is a musician specialising in free improvisation, a poet and a visual artist. He is a founding member of the Continuous Music Ensemble and The People Band. Some of his musical partners include
Derek Bailey,
Steve Beresford,
Phil Minton,
Evan Parker, Charlotte Hug,
John Russell, Rhodri Davis, Misha Mengelberg, Tony Oxley, Marten Altena, Phil Wachsman and John Tchicai. He is a member of the improvising quartet Alterations.
