Our good friend and close collaborator Tullis Rennie (you can hear him on the Beats & Pieces Big Band remixes as well) has totally reinvented three tracks from HAQ’s debut album ‘Walking Walking Falling’ for a download-only EP entitled ‘In Free Fall‘ – listen/buy below or via our online shop. To perfectly compliment the music, there’s also some brand new artwork by Angela Guyton.
Tullis has been mangling sound through his laptop for years, a lot of the results of which can be found on the Concrete Moniker label. Of particular Efpi-related interest is this improv trio with Anton from HAQ, and his newest project The Electronic Exchange, a collaboration with singer Najia Baji, who was recently spotted guesting with the Beats & Pieces Big Band.
In Free Fall
Catch HAQ on tour next week:
Mon 14th November – Coventry Tues 15th November – London Jazz Festival Weds 16th November – Manchester
HAQ, the Claire James Trio and Trio Riot join forces for a special evening of music by Efpi artists at the London Jazz Festival. Part of the Efpi November Showcase Tour. For more information click here.
November 2011 is shaping up to be the busiest month in our short but colourful history! Not only will we be locking ourselves away to work on some exciting releases for 2012, but Efpi musicians from home and abroad will also be embarking on an extensive showcase tour all over the country, including two gigs at the London Jazz Festival. Kicking off in Sheffield on the 9th with some free improv from Efpi co-founders Sam Andreae and Anton Hunter, the tour will then see various combinations of HAQ, Trio Riot and the Claire James Trio wind their way across England before ending on November 19th with the final chance to catch the Beats & Pieces Big Band in 2011, the conclusion to an incredible year for the band.
We’re particularly excited to introduce the UK to Trio Riot (pictured above), a sax-sax-drum group formed in Helsinki in 2009, as well as teaming up with The Forge in Camden again for our first ever Efpi showcase gig as part of the London Jazz Festival. Also at the festival, we’re proud that Beats & Pieces have been included in a programming series at Kings Place that throws the spotlight on young artists from across the UK, Europe and USA alongside Robert Glasper, Gretchen Parlato, Nik Bartsch and Rory Simmons’ Fringe Magnetic.
All the dates are below, hope to see you at one or more of them. Click the links for venue info and ticket details!
Saturday 19th – Beats & Pieces Big Band @ Kings Place, London *London Jazz Festival*
There will also be a brand new Efpi Records Sampler CD available at the gigs, featuring some as-yet-unheard live recordings and a general mix of what we’re up to.
So we set off on our second UK tour a couple of weeks back, here’s some photos, and the outcome of the Sam-Eero chess tournament (not much of a tournament as I’m rubbish and Fin doesn’t like chess, so we didn’t really play).
Rehearsals: I’d forgotten to bring all the old music, so we re-learnt them from the recordings instead. Turned out to be a great decision as we really opened stuff up a lot over the 7 gigs. In this photo here, Sam tries to explain to Fin what he thinks the drums should sound like while Eero looks enviously at Sam’s hair.
Kicked off in Leeds at The Wardrobe and already it felt really good to be playing together again. Here’s a photo of us eating dinner before the gig:
Afterwards we drove to Sam’s mum’s for the night. Here’s a lovely photo of Fin and another one of us eating, this time a cracking veggie soup that Eero had made (the secret was in the cumin and soy).
Coventry was great, only playing one set meant we could keep quite a high energy, and started us thinking about how cool it’d be to tour with another band. Afterwards we drove to Birmingham where the amazing Rob Anstey put us up for the night. Big debate the next day about what to do with all our spare time before the gig. Fin won and we ended up at…
…Cadbury World. Eero and Sam by this point had got quite into playing chess. In this photo, taken outside the Yardbird, Sam still has a series lead of about 5-2 (remember that for later).
The gig was great too by the way, we met a nice guy named Jake who’d never heard this sort of stuff before, and, being a man of great taste that he is, he bought the CD (which you can do too here). The next two days we had off, Fin and Sam went home, Eero and I watched Lethal Weapon 4. All normal there.
Newcastle, it turns out, is an amazing place, I’d never been but definitely heading back one day. The Bridge Hotel (where we played for Jazz Action’s Splinter night) is situated right by the river, next to some beautiful architecture. And Adrian, Andy and Zoe all made us feel very welcome. The first gig on the tour with a quiet room to play to, and they were appreciative too. Check out a video or two… ‘Da da da da da da da’ and ‘Bint’ and a review here.
The day off was spent productively, Eero drew level in the chess to 7-7, Fin unplugged our freezer without realising for a few hours, and most of us went to the pub.
There aren’t really any photos from London, Sheffield or Manchester, or at least not yet, Eero’s photographer friend nearly got himself run over taking shots of us outside The Forge in Camden. All three gigs went really well, to varying crowds, but the music has never sounded better, it feels very natural and open. We played a few new tunes all nights, ‘August’ by myself, ‘Da da da da da da da’ by Sam (as well as his arrangement of Bowie’s ‘Changes’) and Fin’s ‘Don’t You Know’ – all feel pretty exciting, and we’re already itching to get back together to play/write/drink more. Hopefully some gigs in Finland look like they might happen, but it’s far too early to confirm dates or anything yet.
The final chess score was Eero 9-7 Sam. Chess fans will wonder how Sam let a 5-2 lead slip away, winning only 2 of the last 9 games, but he’s been practising since. The final Fin vs. our flat score was one unplugged freezer, one smashed wine glass and two near misses with a teapot, but to make up for that he fixed the squeak on the front door and mending the curtain. So that’s a draw I guess.
And here are some photos of the HAQ trophy made by Angela Guyton for the cover art…
So I know this was promised for yesterday (Monday 14th) but we felt that our exclusive preview track from the new HAQ album was perhaps going to be a little overshadowed by a little announcement from somebody else… But it’s here now! Hope this track, Cacillia, fully whets your appetite for the full album release next Monday – it’ll be available from the online Efpi shop from then.
Don’t forget HAQ will also be on tour from February 22nd until March 3rd… Don’t miss out!
Efpi Records is proud to announce that the brand new album by HAQ will be released on February 21st 2011, and that the band will be embarking on a 7 date tour over February and March in support of the release.
The album is called ‘Walking Walking Falling‘ and is the first full length release from the band, following on from their EP which was released in May 2009 (available here). Since then the band have had a line up change (bringing Finnish bass player Eero Tikkanen into the fold) which has altered the group dynamic and direction and has led to them producing a remarkable set of music. The majority of the tunes were composed by co-leaders Anton Hunter (guitar) and Sam Andreae (saxophone), with drummer Finlay Panter contributing the album’s final piece.
‘Walking Walking Falling‘ again features artwork by Angela Guyton, and will be available on CD and as a digital download from the Efpi online shop. HAQ are also embarking on an 7 date tour to celebrate this release, generously supported by Jazz Services through their Touring Support scheme. Dates are as follows (check the Efpi listings or the poster below for more details):
February 22nd – The Wardrobe, Leeds
February 23rd – Taylor John’s, Coventry
February 24th – Yardbird, Birmingham
February 27th – The Bridge, Newcastle
March 1st – The Forge, London
March 2nd – Lescar, Sheffield
March 3rd – Matt & Phreds, Manchester
From next week (Monday 14th) we will be offering up an exclusive track from the album to whet your appetite for the release on the 21st, so check back then…
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