Quartetics documents a British free improvising quartet in its first-ever performance in May 2019 in York, featuring sound artist and live-electronics player Federico Reuben (who lectures at the University of York), tenor sax player Mark Hanslip, double bass player Dominic Lash, and drummer Paul Hession. These seasoned improvisers share extensive collaborative histories: Lash has longstanding collaborations with Reuben and Hanslip, while Hession, Reuben, and Hanslip had already performed and recorded as a trio.
The new configuration, with Reuben’s radical approach to laptop improvisation and live coding using manipulated samples, glitches, synths, distorted guitar and piano sounds, and live processing, explores the idea of quartet as a new field of challenging sonic possibilities through five intense and exploratory free improvisations that generate a body of knowledge and sensation through «a state of being about to happen».
This quartet acts like an elaborate sonic lab that demands deep listening, super-fast instincts, and dynamic interplay. As expected, Reuben acts as the unpredictable wildcard. Lash, Hanslip, and Hession attempt to accommodate his rich, surprising, and experimental sonic palette into a collective aesthetic and intricate, detailed, layered textures, while capturing an urgent sense of imminent discovery, maintaining a balanced interplay, and leaving enough space for strong-minded individual voices. Unfortunately, the 33-minute Quartetics is the only recorded document of this fine, intrepid quartet.
Eyal Hareuveni
Federico Reuben (laptop improvisation, live coding), Mark Hanslip (tenor saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Paul Hession (drums)
