Phil Durrant

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Phil Durrant (* 1957 ) is a British improvisation musician ( violin , electronics) and composer who has worked in the London improvisation scene as well as in the techno underground scene.

Live and act

Durrant received classical training as a violinist and pianist at the London College of Music. His participation in the Barry Summer School courses with musicians such as Tony Oxley , Derek Bailey and Philipp Wachsmann opened up improvisation music to him, whereupon he turned away from classical music at the age of twenty and began to work as a freelance musician, especially in the London Musicians' Collective . In this environment he played in trios with Brett Hornby and Will Embling ( Saxoviotrump ) as well as with Mike Johns and Ross Plotkin . In 1978 he was a member of a string quartet made up of Philipp Wachsmann, Tony Oxley and Tony Wren .

In 1979 Durrant began working with guitarist John Russell , with whom he formed a trio with saxophonist Mark Pickworth , who was soon replaced by John Butcher ; the group's first three albums, which were created in the late 1980s, brought Durrant international recognition. With the addition of the drummer Paul Lovens and the trombonist Radu Malfatti , the group continued to perform under the name News from the Shed . During this time Durrant also worked as a musician and producer in the English techno underground scene. a. under the pseudonyms Excel D, Midi Tribe and Mystical Units , mostly with Francis Powell . In the early 1990s he also played in the Chris Burn Ensemble.

In the 1990s, Durrant concerted his activities on integrating electronics into free improvisation and worked with dancers such as Susanne Thomas, Maxine Doyle and Gill Clarke. After his cooperation with Swiss avant-garde projects such as Planet Oeuf and Stringfield (with Günter Müller and Alfred Zimmerlin ), he worked in the Berlin musicians in the Phosphor formation in the late 1990s (with Burkhard Beins , Ignaz Schick and Michael Renkel, among others ). In 1997 Sowari: Violin & Live Electronics presented his first solo album . In the following years he worked on projects with Gail Brand , Cor Fuhler , Gunnar Geisse , Charlotte Hug , Stefan Keune , Hans Koch , Thomas Lehn , Mark Sanders , Pat Thomas , Christofer Varner and Alan Wilkinson .

In the field of jazz and improvisation music, he was involved in 43 recording sessions after Tom Lord between 1978 and 2006, apart from the aforementioned with Johannes Bauer , Evan Parker and Alexander Frangenheim .

Discographic notes

  • Concert Moves , 1995
  • Sowari: Violin & Live Electronics , 1997
  • Secret Measures 1999, with John Butcher
  • Dach , 2001, with Radu Malfatti

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 9, 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Durrant, Phil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British improvisation musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1957