Derek Bailey: New Sights, Old Sounds

This special event involves a screening of a new film by Ian Greaves, which comprises rare and unseen footage of Derek Bailey, one of the most influential improvising musicians of the 20th Century.

Join us as we travel the globe, across decades, to long lost venues, and catch Bailey's encounters with other titans of the improvisation scene, including Peter Brötzmann, Pat Thomas, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gavin Bryars and Tony Oxley. We also witness an explosive encounter with turntablist DJ Soul Slinger in New York City, at the peak of Bailey’s mid-nineties interest in playing live to unpredictable beats.

'Five stars' - Stewart Lee

'Top 10 films of 2025' - Prospect Magazine

Dominic Lash will chair a discussion about Bailey's life and work with Ian Greaves and the guitarist and clarinettist Alex Ward (Thurston Moore Band, Pere Ubu), whose decades-long collaboration with Bailey began when he was not yet in his teens.

Following the film and discussion, there will be a concert of improvised music by Alex Ward, NO Moore, Dominic Lash and Elien De Schryver.

Ian Greaves has written about broadcasting history and the arts for over twenty years. He has devised documentaries for BBC Radio and worked as consultant on major television archive projects including BBC Four’s fiftieth anniversary celebration of Play for Today and the Raven Row exhibition of community broadcasting, People Make Television. His latest book is Penda's Fen: Scene by Scene (Ten Acre Books 2025).

Elien De Schryver is a Belgian musician based in Cambridge. With a keen interest in exploring music and sound on the violin, particularly through improvisation, her work includes improvised music for performances and installations. Elien is also an HCPC-registered music therapist and an associate lecturer in the Music Therapy training programme at ARU.

Dominic Lash is a double-bassist and guitarist. His most regular current collaborators include John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Heather Roche and Pat Thomas. He is also an associate lecturer in film at ARU.

NO Moore is an electric guitarist informed by improvisation, rock, jazz, and modern classical and electronic music. Notable collaborators include Sue Lynch, Henry Kaiser, Caroline Kraabel, Roger Turner, Rachel Musson, Ray Russell, Steve Noble, Alan Wilkinson and Phil Durrant.

Alex Ward's diverse musical activities since the early 1990s have straddled the worlds of free improvisation, contemporary composition and avant rock. He has worked with significant musical figures including Derek Bailey, Duck Baker, Lol Coxhill, Eugene Chadbourne, Simon H. Fell, Thurston Moore, Joe Morris, Steve Noble, Evan Parker, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Pat Thomas and Weasel Walter. His forthcoming record releases include the debut album by math/noise trio Heckle Chamber, and the final album by the legendary band Pere Ubu (which he joined in 2021).

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Host or Publisher Anglia Ruskin University - Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences