Words & Jazz at the Vortex
Performance on 26 January 2017, Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston.
About
Formed as a response to the erratic and all-consuming city of London, White Flower offers its audiences an opportunity to step away from urban life, pay attention to intimate sound, and be drawn into dream-like sonorities.
Through creating a focus on stillness and silence, but exploring uncomfortability and contradiction, the group hope to provide space for contemplation, trance and catharsis.
The music draws richly from folk music, but is approached through the lens of contemporary classical, improvisation and sound art perspectives. It may be presented as solely acoustic, or extended and distorted by electronics, creating surreal atmospheres. Poems by the members and others feature in the work.
Listen
Live at St Sepulchre’s Church
A live demo of some of their work, recorded at St Sepulchre’s Church, Holborn.
- Produced
- Klaus Bru
- Mixed & mastered
- Alex Bonney
- Cameo
- Peter Straker
Performances
White Flower made three appearances at London’s Vortex Jazz Club, including a performance that invited leading London improvisers to work with them: German saxophonist Klaus Bru, Greek guitarist Nikos Ziarkas, London-born drummer Sam Jones, percussionists Giles Leaman and Saul Eisenberg (Junk Orchestra) and the Greek folk band Valia Calda.
- Vortex Jazz ClubDalston
- Nonclassicalclub night & label
- DIGexperimental arts, 2015
- Power LunchesDalston
- St Stephen’s ChurchLewisham
- Water Tower Art FestivalSofia, 2017
New work written for the trio by young London-based composers
Andy Hall, Mak Murtic, Cath Roberts, Tim Doyle, Leon Haxby, Rowan Hudson
News
Silent Night
Biography
Seb Silas and Will Newell studied and collaborated together from an early age at Forest School, East London. Seb later met German vocalist Sylvia Schmidt while studying at Middlesex University, where they graduated in Jazz Performance in 2014 and 2012 respectively. In the same period, Will completed his BMus in Classical Violin at Guildhall.
Seb and Sylvia work together in various jazz and improvisation projects, including Mimika Ensemble. All three are busy London musicians, working across a wide musical palette.
