Red Square: Right. So. What's next then....??

The Red Square ImprovsInAFieldInOxfordshireMicroFestival-cum-BirthdayParty went off like a dream last weekend, and we were sufficiently encouraged by the responses from both bands and audience members to start planning for next year.

We would like to thank the following musicians and bands for playing this year, and because they were the Men From Improv who say 'Yes!', and because they went down so well, we've already asked them to come back and play again next year;

Bitten By A Monkey
Dylan Bates: violin, saw, mediaeval fiddle, overtone flute, xaphoon
Steve Myers: recorders
Roland Bates: piano

musicians from the Oxford Improvisers
David Grundy: laptop
Martin Hackett: synthesizer
Stuart Chalmers: electronics

musicians from the Brighton Safehouse Collective
Gus Garside: double bass and electronics
Dan Powell: laptop, small percussion, guitar
Chris Parfitt: soprano sax

One thing we found very interesting was the way that people who had never been exposed to this kind of music enjoyed both the music and the day itself. It seems that the setting of a small, outdoor festival with a decent PA and some lights creates a user-friendly context for improv and helps to overcome some of the suspicion that often greets experimental musics. If you're lying in a field in the sunshine with a glass of wine and a nice bun, whilst some crazee cats are busy circuit bending on stage, it's somehow all seems a little less threatening. We will certainly keep the relaxed, 'challenging music in a non-challenging environment' feel for next year.

More on this, as the collective Squarion brain expands terrabytentially to absorb the lessons learned, whilst simultaneously planning for ventures new in the sunlit uplands of the future……..

Oh. Yes. One thing for certain; we need a snappier name for the event!

Here are some photographia of said event: