EVAN PARKER (1944) is a British free jazz saxophone player. He has recorded dozens of albums solo or as a group leader, and has recorded or performed with Peter Brotzmann-including Brotzmann’s epochal “Machine Gun” in 1968, Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe, Joe McPhee and many others. In recent years, he has expanded beyond free jazz, working with the dub music oriented Jah Wobble and the adventurous drum n bass duo Spring Heel Jack.

Parker is one of rather few saxophone players who has extensively recorded and performed unacompanied, and has developed a unique, idenitifiable approach. One critic has written that Parker’s solo performances “reveal also the mechanical possibilities for the instrument that weren’t even considered before he came along — things like playing in all three registers of the instrument at the same time.

GRUTRONIC are four musicians from diverse backgrounds working collaboratively in a unique electronic idiom. They combine electronic and acoustic sound to create unique textures and give them compositional direction. This process involves the creation of a complex, shifting soundscape. They employ a hands-on physicality to electronic instruments, understanding that input, control and exchange of human energy are what gives sound, form, soul and a human reason for being. Grutronic bring many different influences to the music, contemporary classical, free jazz, improvisation, funk and abstract electronica.

In their gigs they normally perform as a quartet and often also invite an acoustic guest soloist to make a quintet. The guest can attempt to penetrate the Grutronic world of slippery bendy electronic improvisation, or they can choose to take the music where they want and the band will try to support their vision. In the past Grutronic have done this with Evan Parker, shakuhachi master Clive Bell, Orphy Robinson, Paddy Steer (Homelife), Alice Kemp and others.