Mark Wastell (born Orsett, 1968) is an English

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of ...

musician who plays

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

, electronics, tam tam and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. He performs solo and in various group and collaborative situations, notably IST (with

Simon H. Fell Simon H. Fell (13 January 1959 – 28 June 2020) was an English jazz bassist and composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composer ...

and Rhodri Davies) and The Sealed Knot (with

Burkhard Beins Burkhard Beins (born 1964 in Lower Saxony, West Germany) is a German composer/performer who works with percussion, selected objects and electronics. Living in Berlin since 1995, Beins is active in experimental music and electroacoustic improvis ...

and Rhodri Davies). During the 1990s Wastell was an originator of the New London Silence, a form of

that focused on soft sounds, delicate attack and low volume. Since 1996 he has run the Confront Recordings label. Confront Recordings has been described as "one of the most original and intelligent labels of contemporary avant and improvised music". Between 2001 and 2010 he ran Sound 323, a record shop and mail order service that also hosted performances from artists including

Keith Rowe Keith Rowe (born 16 March 1940 in Plymouth, England) is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both AMM in the mid-1960s and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, his paintings hav ...

, Derek Bailey,

David Toop David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, curator, and emeritus professor. From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a regular contributor to British ...

and Taku Sugimoto. During its time in operation, Sound 323 was described by Clive Bell in

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

as "an epicentre of much of London's improvised music".

IST

Formed with

and Rhodri Davies, IST was in operation between 1997-2002. The trio used acoustic string instruments (

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

), deploying extended techniques and preparations to combine

with semi-composed pieces. The trio gigged extensively, in the UK and internationally. They supported Derek Bailey and

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

at the Barbican London and performed in Italy, Berlin and New York. According to Richard Cochrane, "While many free improv groups saw away at their instruments striving to be "difficult", IST seem to be genuinely trying to make their extremely intricate music communicate as clearly as possible".

The Sealed Knot

The Sealed Knot is an ongoing collaborative project between Wastell, Rhodri Davies and

, starting in 2000. Wastell and Davies have been keen to differentiate the group's aesthetic from that of IST, with the use of electronics (as opposed to IST's purely acoustic sounds) and repetition, and the emphasis on pure improvisation feeding into the group's operations. Michael Rosenstein's review of ''and we disappear'' described the release as "a consummate example of the refined, spontaneously composed forms the three have mastered, working with ... bowed and scraped cymbals and drum heads, bowed and beaten bass, and harp harmonics and overtones." The trio's ''Surface/Plane'' was listed as one of The Wire's Top 10 Improvised Music Records for 2003.

The Seen

The Seen is a large-group ensemble, convened by Wastell for specific performances. Line-ups are evolving and never repeated, with participants selected by Wastell from across the fields of

and experimental musics. Performances are generally improvised, although Wastell provides some instruction to musicians or sub-groups of musicians within the larger ensemble prior to performance. The Seen's live performances were, at first, sporadic and its recordings non-existent. This changed with the release of ''The Seen Archive: Volumes I-V'', spanning concerts the group played between 2005 and 2009. A second archival release documented increasing activity, and the ensemble continues to be a going concern. More than 175 participants have performed with The Seen including

Stewart Lee Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, and deadpan delivery. Lee began his career in 1989 and formed the comedy duo Lee and Herring with Richard ...

, Bertrand Denzler, Bill Thompson, Jacques Demierre, Jennifer Allum, Michael Francis Duch,

Angharad Davies Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist and composer, known for her work in the field of free improvisation, her use of prepared violin (using techniques similar to the prepared piano), her extensive discography and collaborative work with other mus ...

, Yoni Silver, Jason Kahn and Annette Krebs.

Confront Recordings

Wastell formed Confront Recordings in 1996, initially as a platform for releasing his own music, inspired by labels such as Derek Bailey's Incus Records and Simon H. Fell's Bruce's Fingers. Having developed musical relationships across the improvisation scene the label expanded to release work from other artists from the UK and across the world. Its catalogue includes Tony Oxley, Sidsel Endresen, Joëlle Léandre, Mike Cooper, Paul Dunmall, Jeph Jerman, Matilda Rolfsson, Keith Tippett, Duch Baker, Roger Turner, Valentina Margaletti and many others.

Selected discography

IST

* ''Anagrams To Avoid'' (Siwa, 1997) * ''Consequences (Of Time And Place)'' (Confront Recordings, 1997) * ''Ghost Notes'' (Bruce's Fingers, 1998) * ''A More Attractive Way'' (Confront Recordings, 2021)

The Sealed Knot

* ''The Sealed Knot'' (Confront Recordings, 2000) * ''Surface/Plan''e (Meniscus, 2003) * ''and we disappear'' (another timbre, 2009) * ''Twenty'' (Confront Recordings, 2020)

The Seen

* ''Archives : Volumes I - V : 2005 To 2009'' (Confront Recordings, 2017) * ''Archives : Volumes VI - X : 2014 To 2016'' (Confront Recordings, 2019) * ''For Sake Of Joy Of Study Of Oneself Together'' (Confront Recordings, 2020)

Solo

* ''Vibra #1'' (W.M.O./r, 2004) * ''Amongst English Men'' (absinthRecords, 2006) * ''After Hours'' (Cathnor, 2009) * ''Vibra: Trent'' (Linear Obsessional Recordings, 2015) * ''Cello-Intern Solos'' (Confront Recordings, 2022) * ''Pre-existing Commitments'' (Hundred Years Gallery, 2023)

As leader, co-leader

* ''Assumed possibilities'' with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Phil Durrant (Confront Recordings, 1998) * ''Davies/Rombola/Davis/Wastell'' with Rhodri Davies, Alessandra Rombola, Matt Davis, (Confront Recordings, 2000) * ''Foldings'' with Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto (Confront Recordings 2002) * ''Done'' as Broken Consort, with Matt Davis, Rhodri Davies (Quakebasket, 2002) * ''open'' with Matt Davis, Phil Durrant (Erstwhile, 2003) * ''+minus irst Meeting' as +minus, with Bernhard Günter, Graham Halliwell (Trente Oiseaux, 2004) * ''Kiss of acid'' with Lasse Marhaug (Monotype Records, 2004) * ''Live at I-and-E Festival'' with Keith Rowe (Confront Recordings, 2006) * ''Caressed on the brow by unseen hands'' with Tetuzi Akiyama, Benedict Drew, Mattin, Michael Duch, Annette Krebs, Nishide Takehiro, Rhodri Davies, Andrea Neumann, Graham Halliwell, Paul Hood (L'Innomable, 2006) * ''A life saved by a spider and two doves'' with Max Eastley, Graham Halliwell, Evan Parker (another timbre, 2007) * ''John Cage: Four4'' with Simon Allen, Chris Burn, Lee Patterson (another timbre, 2010) * ''Membrane'' with Burkhard Beins, John Butcher (Confront Recordings, 2014) * ''There Is No Love'' with Rhodri Davies, David Sylvian (Confront Recordings, 2017) * ''And John'' with Maggie Nichols (Confront Recordings, 2023)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wastell, Mark English musicians 20th-century English musicians 21st-century English male musicians 1968 births Living people