ARCTURUS by SVERDRUP BALANCE

ARCTURUS is a collection of live recordings of SVERDRUP BALANCE - Lawrence Casserley - signal processing Instrument / Yoko Miura - Piano, Melodeon / Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg - Voice during our 2019 autumn tour in U.K., Belgium and North Italy.
Physical CD on FMR available soon.
Cover image: “Moment of Silence 8” by Sàndor Györffy . In hungarian : A Csend Pillanata #8

With special thanks to: Robert Clarke at Arch 1 , Kris Vanderstraeten in Leuven Ruben Esposito in Genova
As well as all the other venues and people that helped to make this such a great tour:
Gus Garside and Alistair Strachan at The Rose Hill in Brighton, UK
Sirio Cavallera in Roccaspavera, Cuneo, Italia
Fiorenzo Terenghi and Luca Brembilla in Scanzorosciate, Bergamo,
Nicola Baroni at Conservatorio di Musica Giovan Battisti Martini, Bologna, Stefano Giust and Massimo Simonini of AngelicA at Teatro San Leonardo, Bologna, Italia
And, of course, all the wonderful audiences we had at all these various venues. 
In October and November, 2019, following the release of their first album, Isla Decepción, the Sverdrup Balance trio toured in the UK, Belgium and Italy. While the album focused on specific areas of their playing, the tour gave scope for a broader spectrum. In this album of excerpts from the tour we visit some of that broader range of playing. Most of this CD comes from two of the most remarkable concerts, in Leuven and Genova. We have added an interlude from the first concert of the tour at Arch 1 in London.
In our first album “Isla Decepción” in 2018, we visited an island just off the Antarctic continent. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern sky shining above the Arctic Ocean.
Our present album Arcturus is displaying deeper forays into our sonic universe and their components or streams in new kinds of constellations of energies, flows, inspirations and moments. Our music is based on spontaneous improvisation in the instant and built with different view points and musical references through the whole performance. Each member of Sverdrup Balance has his own background and musical aesthetic, our collaborative work is intended to extend and blend their own music into new realms and unexpected colours, shapes, interactions, dynamics. The signal processing of Lawrence Casserley, heard with such luminaries as Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Phil Wachsmann, Viv Corringham, Martin Mayes and many others is transforming the sounds of pianist Yoko Miura and the voice of Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg in real time by manipulating their pitch, textures, speed, etc in a wide kaleidoscopic palette seeming to reach the infinity of outer space, from which we selected eight pieces from nine 2019 tour dates in London, Brighton, Leuven, Roccasparvera, Genova, Bergamo and Bologna.

Sverdrup Balance has performed in 2014 at The Vortex London, in 2015 at Iklectic London and at Oxford Improvisers Concert Series. Their two Belgian dates of 2015 were sabotaged by a theft of Lawrence's gear case, and Yoko and Jean Michel performed in duo and recorded in Paris their “On the Shore of Dreams” for FMR. Sverdrup Balance reunited in 2018 with one concert and studio recording in Brussels, from which performances we selected the tracks of our first album “ISLA DECEPCIÓN” on Setola di Maiale and available from orynx.bandcamp.com
Yoko Miura has performed and recorded also with Teppo Hauta - Aho, Ove Volquartz, Jean Demey, Gianni Mimmo and Thierry Waziniak.
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg has performed and recorded with Jean Demey, Kris Vanderstraeten, John Russell, Adam Bohman, I Belong to the Band, Sabu Toyozumi, Phil Gibbs, Marcello Magliocchi and Matthias Boss
Lawrence Casserley was member of Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble with five CD's on ECM, He performed and recorded with Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Phil Wachsmann, Pat Thomas, Viv Corringham, Martin Mayes, Gianni Mimmo, Adam Linson, Jeffrey Morgan, H-K Raecke, and his own solo projects on Sargasso label.

Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg Born 1955. Belgium. Self-taught vocal improviser. Invented his own Phonoetry and vocal techninques, mouthroat cheekteethlipstong. Has performed and recorded with Jean Demey & Kris Vanderstraeten (Sureau), John Russell, Lawrence Casserley (MouthWind), Sabu Toyozumi, Marcello Magliocchi & Matthias Boss, Adam Bohman Zsolt Sörès,Oli Mayne,Yoko Miura, Paul Dunmall Phil Gibbs

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