My guest for episode 4 is guitarist, promoter, and occasional label owner David Birchall. For well over a decade, David has been synonymous with improvised music in Manchester. In addition to being one of the cities most talented and prolific practitioners, David has been a dedicated and selfless facilitator of improvised music concerts in Manchester. On this second instalment of episode 4, we continue to discuss David’s activities as a promoter, this time turning our attention to his current long running concert series Curious Ear and some of the incredible players he’s hosted over the years. We also take a well needed look at David’s earliest musical projects, which include Stuckometer, My Beautiful Ridiculous Plan and The Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra, providing a fascinating snapshot of how the wider DIY Punk and independent music scenes operated at this time in both Manchester and the wider UK. David has been fortunate enough to play is some pretty ‘exotic’ and farflung locations over the years and we talk about his experiences performing in Palestine, Japan, Russia and in small beer shops around Europe. We round the show off with the quick-fire pop quiz, which although a bit gimmicky, continues to produce some very interesting answers and David’s are no different. You’ll also be able to hear an exclusive track from mine and David new duo project, Fire Nearby, at the end of the show, which is taken from our forthcoming album out very soon on Tombed Visions.

Important Links:

https://davidbirchall.bandcamp.com/

https://curiousear.net/

https://davidbirchall.neocities.org/

Helpyourself Manchester Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu67QZvMLqY

https://tombedvisionsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-islington-mill

https://tombedvisionsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-difficult-second-album

Socials:

@curiousearmcr

My guest for episode 4 is guitarist, promoter, and occasional label owner David Birchall. For well over a decade, David has been synonymous with improvised music in Manchester. In addition to being one of the cities most talented and prolific practitioners, David has been a dedicated and selfless facilitator of improvised music concerts in Manchester, booking the likes of Evan Parker, Pat Thomas, Alan Wilkinson and Toshimaru Nakamura in recent years. On this first instalment of the interview, we chronicle David’s recent musical projects which goes a way to illustrate that he is far beyond your regular free improvising musician. We discuss the Minimum Wage Immanence unit, a relatively new trio that melds folk and new music idioms together in mantra like improvisations, his long standing free-rock group Historically Fucked and their recent album and tour of the UK earlier this year and his current live experiments with the prepared banjo, featuring an array of speakers filled with pebbles and pinecones to create earthly, elemental drones. We also go into detail on the making of his solo record Pomona Itineration’s, built mostly from field recordings that act as an audio-graphic survey of an abandoned wharf in north Manchester. Also highlighted is mine and David’s recent work together in a duo project called Fire Nearby which draws on our shared love of a particular type of quiet guitar music that was prevalent in the 90s – and you’ll be able to hear an exclusive track from our forthcoming album at the end of part 2. Amongst this discussion, David shares some extremely valuable and illuminating insights in his approach to the guitar and the concept of ‘embodiment’ and clarifies his own personal politics which underpin and motivate much of his work. We finish off this instalment by delving into his activities with Tubers Music, a experimental music promotion that was born from the scene built around Hotspur Press, an old printing mill in the heart Manchester’s city centre.

Important Links:

https://davidbirchall.bandcamp.com/

https://curiousear.net/

https://davidbirchall.neocities.org/

Helpyourself Manchester Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu67QZvMLqY

https://tombedvisionsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-islington-mill

https://tombedvisionsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-difficult-second-album

Socials:

@curiousearmcr

On this second instalment of episode 3, Ben discusses working with Merseyside Schools, being invited to perform at the Stewart Lee ATP and the recording of the forthcoming Ex-Easter Island Head album ‘Norther’. We also look at his first touring experiences as a member of Liverpool DIY legends Stig Noise Soundsystem, an important influence in Ben’s development which has informed his ability to consistently gain interesting concerts at home and abroad for his work. His studio only duo Land Trance reviewed in more detail, reviewing the making of their debut album ‘First Séance’, the recording of ‘Embassy Nocturnes’ and the pairs recent collaborations with Philip Jeck. We wrap things up with some illuminating and pretty hilarious answers to the regular pop quiz.