Alistair Zaldua – violin
John Jasnoch – fretless guitar
Mick Beck – bassoon
A recently formed trio with a lively and nimble approach to improvised music. New ideas are constantly being developed – some from scratch, some as responses to what has gone before. The group has a wide ranging and engaging sound.
Alistair Zaldua is an improviser and sound artist and is based in Manchester; he plays both the acoustic violin, the e-violin and live electronics in different combinations. Alistair is interested in both collaborative and solo improvisation; recent projects have been with David Birchall (e-guitar), Lauren Redhead (organ) and Michael Vaughan (composition), Fran Comyn (percussion), Alwynne Pritchard (voice), Christopher Gallio (saxophone), and Steve Altoft (trumpet).
Initially John Jasnoch played Country & Western and general popular music. He switched to improvised music in 1979. Having started on guitar and mandolin, he subsequently became interested in exploring a wide variety of plucked string instruments. Over the last 40 or so years he has played a considerable number of solo and group performances in the UK, mainland Europe and North America.
Mick Beck was originally a tenor sax player but later took up bassoon as a second instrument. He has played in a number of regular line-ups including the improvising big band Feet Packets,and the trios “Something Else” (with Paul Hession and Simon Fell), “Beck Hunters” (with Johnny and Anton Hunter) and “Weavels” (with Alex Ward and Chris Cundy). He subsequently formed another improvising big band “Gated Community. He continues to be an extremely busy player and event organiser.