Iskra 1903
Paul Rutherford formed Iskra 1903 in 1970 with Derek Bailey and Barry Guy. All three musicians had worked together in larger groups, starting off with the 1966/7 edition of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. However, they had a strong desire to work as a percussionless trio. It's not that they were or are anti-percussion - each of them have subsequently worked in various settings with numerous percussionists - it’s just that they felt a need for this sort of instrumentation. Rutherford named the group after 'Iskra' (the Russian word for spark) which was the paper that Lenin edited before the Russian Revolution. The '19' indicates 20th century music, and the '03' is the number of performers.
Paul Rutherford formed Iskra 1903 in 1970 with Derek Bailey and Barry Guy. All three musicians had worked together in larger groups, starting off with the 1966/7 edition of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. However, they had a strong desire to work as a percussionless trio. It's not that they were or are anti-percussion - each of them have subsequently worked in various settings with numerous percussionists - it’s just that they felt a need for this sort of instrumentation. Rutherford named the group after 'Iskra' (the Russian word for spark) which was the paper that Lenin edited before the Russian Revolution. The '19' indicates 20th century music, and the '03' is the number of performers.
Irma
In 1977, for Brian Eno’s Obscure Records, I made a version of Irma. These notes arise from that experience and explore how the piece can be performed. Irma is an unusual score—printed on a single 50cm x 50cm sheet. Its notation consists of verbal fragments from Tom Phillips' A Humument, referencing “libretto,” “decor and mise-en-scène,” or “sounds.” These categories are arranged separately, with stave notation at the bottom. At first glance, it appears indeterminate—requiring preparation before …
Ensemble Pieces
A split album by Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, and Gavin Bryars, released in 1975 as the second title on Brian Eno's imprint Obscure. The album includes two pieces by Hobbs and one each by Adams and Bryars. Side A opens with the experimental compositions of Hobbs, followed by Adams’ spoken-word and orchestral work, while Side B concludes with Bryars’ dissonant, frontier-classical ambient piece, featuring contributions from Brian Eno and Derek Bailey. "Aran" and "McCrimmon Will Never Return" (19…
Barry Guy — Plays
"The bass music you will hear on this album is, it might be said, a child of the seventies. A ferociously radical time in the development of the double bass as a solo instrument found composers eager to formulate soundscapes that would send our Bottesinis and Dragonettis running for the exit !
As an emerging bassist in these heady times, immersed deeply into the art of improvisation where almost on a daily basis colleagues pushed the boundaries of instrumental possibilities, I found myself addit…
Kouartéto
"We recorded this CD in May 2023 on the magical Greek island of Hydra in the Old Carpet Factory Studio. The title Kouartéto emanates from the cover image by the artist William Pownall who in the true spirit of Hydra has for many years been an important focus for visitors seeking original artistic creations. And so, in this spirit. The music on this CD reflects a multifaceted response to a multicultural and open understanding of how artists can work together.
Every project involving these four cr…
Live At Jazzdor
Jazz Festivals have often provided the opportunity for a first encounter with musicians that were “on the radar” , so to speak , but for various reasons (often geographical) never came to fruition. Jazzdor in Strasbourg was no exception, and on the 15th November 2023, at the invitation of its director Philippe Ochem, the Trio of Angelica Sanchez, Ramón López and myself performed a set that continued my lifelong association with piano trios.
Ramón is no stranger to me and we have collaborated on …
Sidereus Nuncius – The Starry Messenger
*2025 stock* "It was at Ramón’s suggestion that we record as a duo in the downtime of another studio session, and perhaps it was his constellation of drums and cymbals that prompted the thought of a metaphorical planetary system. So Sidereus Nuncius - The Starry Messenger the title of Galileo Galilei’s short astronomical treatise published in early 1610, did not necessarily stretch the imagination unduly – there it was in front of me!
Galilei’s telescopic observations of the moon and other celes…
So It Goes...
*2025 stock* "Barry Guy and I first met and played together in a version of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the days of the legendary Little Theatre Club. The late John Stevens, visionary prophet of the coming music was the key figure at the centre of things who brought us together. “So it goes“ – John often used this figure of speech.
I was reminded of this when I was looking through Samuel Beckett’s Collected Letters, hoping to glean some titles, knowing that Barry would be happy with a Beck…
Acanthis
*2025 stock* It has been eighteen years since the Homburger - Guy Duo recorded an album together with a percussionist as a third partner. All these years ago we were joined by the revered Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre. On this recording we work together with another Swiss percussionist - the unique and endlessly creative Lucas Niggli who originally developed his art by studying with Pierre. The music then consisted of baroque masterpieces as well as contemporary compositions that fulfilled ou…
Syllogistic Moments
*2025 stock* "Peter Evans and I have occasionally met in larger ensembles for special projects. This particular concert in Uster (Switzerland) within the PAM festival on 18. November 2016, allowed us to delve into the minutiae of duo performance where intense listening and decoding of intentions kept our minds and bodies in high alert. This occasion had us playing somewhat athletically, pushing and pulling ideas around, and to be honest, we both felt exhausted after the concert but also exhilara…
Time Passing...
*2025 stock* This live recording of the epic composition “Time Passing…” by Barry Guy based on texts by Samuel Beckett, Edwin Morgan and Kerry Hardie, features the stunning achievement of the singers Savina Yannatou, Anja Pöche, Matthew Brook and bass improvisations by Barry Guy who acted also as conductor of the brilliantly performing Camerata Zurich.
Slip Slide And Collide
*2025 stock* "This latest release on Maya Recordings documents a new duo collaboration of Barry Guy together with the exceptional Norwegian saxophonist Torben Snekkestad. At convergent boundaries, tectonic plates collide with each other, sometimes slowly, other times giving way suddenly with huge energy being expended. The various plates that encompass this planet either get subducted by being bent and pulled under the crust, or they collide and fold the rock at the boundary creating mountains. …
A Moment's Liberty
*2025 stock* Free jazz trio made up of leading improvisers pianist Agusti Fernandez, bassist Barry Guy and drummer/percussionist Ramon Lopez, recorded live in Cologne in 2013. Agusti Fernandez gives some insight into the music, “I believe that the essential thing for us is our shared desire to create an extraordinary, unexpected and unusual moment through music. A moment that cannot, perhaps, be described in words, but which can be perceived perfectly, as one of those fantastic occasions when mu…
Schweben – Ay, But Can Ye?
*2025 stock* Important for this composition commissioned by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra from Barry Guy, is the unity of composed and improvised passages, the concern for the capabilities and strengths of individual players, the way in which small groups are part of the larger structures. Based on “Ay, but can ye?” a Russian poem translated into Scots by Edwin Morgan and using images of Wassily Kandinsky, this mostly graphically notated score is a musical adventure for the players as well a…
Playing
1993 release (RARE) ** ""This lovely duet between avant guitar kingpin Derek Bailey and drummer/trumpet player John Stevens is a fine example of what Bailey was up to in the early '90s, before he discovered drum'n'bass and Bill Laswell, among other things. While the date is, as usual, completely improvised, relying more on nuance, texture, and timing than tonality, subtle timbral studies are evident, particularly in the middle of the recording on "Ping Pong" (where Bailey forgoes the electric g…
Attikos
*2025 stock* "A “meeting of spirits” between Greek singer Savina Yannatou and legendary free jazz bassist Barry Guy recorded live in Amsterdam, May 2010, where they performed at the famous Bimhuis Club. The music consists of free improvisations and a composition by Barry Guy, alongside two traditional songs arranged by Savina Yannatou and Barry Guy.The architects Ilya and Emilia Kabakov imagined a vertical opera space of several floors to be built within a cooling tower at the Zollverein Collier…
Morning Glory
*2025 stock* New recording from the free jazz trio of Agustí Fernández (piano), Barry Guy (bass) and Ramón López (drums and percussion) to follow their much acclaimed 'Aurora' album. The album includes a second ‘bonus’ disc of music recorded live in New York. "... Morning Glory rises as a monument dedicated to all music; music that has come and gone, music in the making, and music yet to come. Any genre, any emotion, any referent finds expression in this work, where introspection (“An Anonymous …
Some Other Place
*2025 stock* "“We are the place in which we dwell.” In a universe such as improvised music where, particularly in an ensemble, chance plays some kind of role, Agustí Fernández and Barry Guy did not by chance name this opus Some Other Place, paradoxical as it may seem at first sight. Much rather, it is a deliberate plight to give to this composition a title that brings up the notion of otherness, which is markedly present in both their careers. Many areas were scoured, at times under the command …
Fox Fire
*2025 stock* "There was a sense of excitement as the trio opened their first set in Birmingham of a mostly north England tour. Adjectives such as spiritual, energized, even devotional all come to mind. The meeting with Ken Vandermark in a classic trio formation of Saxophone (doubling clarinet), bass and percussion was suggested by Mark Sanders reacting to a tour proposal by the indefatigable organizer of Jazz events in the U. K. Tony Dudley-Evans. The music was like an initiation, a very special…
Tarfala
*2025 stock* "Listening to the tapes of this live concert from Culturen Västerås, persuaded me that certain attributes of the playing of Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid are indeed bound with “Terroir”. There is probably a useful Swedish word describing this, but the French word nevertheless seems appropriate in describing a sense of place, something earthy and powerful. My thoughts moved to volcanoes and in particular glaciers, which of course abound in Sweden. The explosive power of the volca…
Topos
*2025 stock* When Evan Parker, Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton renewed their association at l’Auditori in Barcelona in March 2006, they chose to call the resulting CD ZAFIRO, or “Sapphire”. The following day, the trio was joined by Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández at the same venue to record the Topos album. The chemistry changes to an almost microscopic world of shifting colours and densities prompted by Fernández’s mercurial articulations of the piano keys and the strings inside the in…