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34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Westminster
London Improvisers Orchestra at Cafe Oto (2008-2013)
The London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) typically involves 30 to 40 players. Some of the pieces it performs are entirely improvised. Others are led by members of the orchestra, using the conducted improvisation – ‘conduction’ – techniques developed by the American cornettist ‘Butch’ Morris. Beresford conducts and plays piano.
Since its opening in 2008, Cafe Oto, in Dalston, east London, has proved a strong focal point for experimental music, presenting numerous international ensembles, particularly from Japan and then the United States. Over the same period, the cafe has been the ‘laboratory’ in which the LIO developed its style and technique.
Please see portfolio for further documentation of research dimensions.
In western music, improvisation has often been seen as a precursor to notated music, and therefore as less sophisticated. Beresford’s research, in the form of his playing with the orchestra and conduction, questions this easy assumption. The LIO was formed by Beresford and others in 1998 to continue the creative approach of Butch Morris’s Skyscraper group, which had just toured the UK. The aim was to explore the possibilities of free improvisation by a really large group – something that had always proven fraught with difficulties. Beresford investigates the nuances of non-verbal communication that enable a successful musical collaboration to take place. The research asks: With an orchestra the size of the LIO, what stops free improvisation from collapsing into cacophony? How can conduction shape and structure freely improvised musical performances, yet at the same time avoid shaping and structuring music predicated upon a lack of pre-ordained structure? How can conduction expand its expressive scope and audio-visual language without becoming ‘conducting’? This research is progressively refined: each performance artefact, whether recorded or not, moves the project forward. Through the improvisatory process, Beresford is trying to establish a flexible model for musical communication and meaning, whereby the artefact at the end of the process, while rewarding in its own right, opens only a momentary window into the process itself. Beresford’s LIO projects should be viewed in the wider context of his improvised music performances as a whole, which include an appearance at Ray Davies’ Meltdown in 2011 and participation in Just Not Cricket!, three days of improvised music in Berlin, in 2011, which was captured by film-maker Antoine Prum for a documentary slated for release in 2014.
