Mark Wastell
Mark Wastell is an English improvising musician. He plays cello, double bass, tam tam, percussion and electronics, and has been active since the mid-1990s. He is associated with the quiet, low-volume improvisation that took shape in London in that decade, sometimes called the New London Silence. In 1996 he founded the label Confront Recordings, first for his own music and later for other artists. Wastell played in the string trio IST with Rhodri Davies and Simon H. Fell, recording Consequences (Of Time And Place) and Ghost Notes.
Dancing with Dragonflies
Confront Recordings announces the release of Dancing with Dragonflies, a compelling new collaboration between double bassist Alan Niblock and percussionist Mark Wastell.
Where the Stars
*100 copies limited edition*
Phil Durrant // amplified objects, electronicsJason Kahn // voiceMark Wastell // percussionCaius Williams // double bass
Recorded on September 12, 2025 by Dave Hunt in London.Mix, mastering and cover design by Jason Kahn.
Two Thousand Sacred Steps
*200 copies limited edition*
Chris Abrahams - Steinway grand pianoMark Wastell - cymbals
Recording engineered by Andrew LisleVortex Jazz Club, London, 8 May 2025
Polyvalent Creativity
Polyvalent Creativity is a new CD release on Confront Recordings featuring free improvisation by bassist Dominic Lash on electric guitar and percussionist Mark Wastell on drums and percussion.
The album comprises four tracks: "Potential," "Commitment," "Activation," and "Fulfilment," blending jazz improvisation with rich, textural soundscapes. Reviews highlight its unconventional approach, starting with tuning-like sounds that evolve into emotionally resonant free jazz.
Critics praise the duo's …
Wunderkammer
On Wunderkammer, Jan Bang, Michael Francis Duch, Erik Honoré, David Toop and Mark Wastell assemble a single 38‑minute live trance of electroacoustic chamber‑drift, where Moe‑Repstad’s disembodied voice moves through gongs, bass and quietly uncanny objects like a ghost cataloguing its own reliquary.
Semiotic Drift
Semiotic Drift is a living conversation - Maggie Nicols uses voice as a map to possibility, Matilda Rolfsson provides creaking, insistent percussion, and Mark Wastell frames everything in the deep resonance of amplified tam-tam. The work rides the edge between storytelling and pure abstraction.
Icarus
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage.
A Life Saved By A Spider And Two Doves
Three extended improvisations recorded at the church of St. James the Great, North London, September 2007 - the first convocation of this unexpected quartet crossing different generations and playing styles. Max Eastley (arc - electro-acoustic monochord), Graham Halliwell (computer & electronics), Evan Parker (soprano saxophone) and Mark Wastell (tam-tam, metal percussion & harmonium) document a meeting of three generations of London free improvisation.
Parker has had a venerable presence as bot…
A Thousand Sacred Steps
We owe this session to a touch of happenstance and a measure of forethought. Chris Abrahams was in London with The Necks for a residency at Café Oto, the capital's enterprising and valuable haven for adventurous music. Mark Wastell asked him whether, if he had any spare time whilst in the city, he’d be interested in doing a studio session as a duo.
The two have met a number of times over the years (including once in Berlin when Chris came to hear The Sealed Knot, the trio which Mark inhabits wit…
Live At I-And-E Festival
Long anticipated vinyl re-issue of a concert that took place at the I-and-E Festival at Trinity College, Dublin in 2006 by Keith Rowe (legendary AMM guitarist and one of the founding fathers of European improvised music) and Mark Wastell (pivotal London based experimentalist). The duo had formed the previous year for a show at ErstQuake Festival in New York and this was to be their second, and only, other performance together. "Keith Rowe and Mark Wastell - This last performance balanced the eve…
Sound Mirrors
The UK’s network of crumbling sound mirrors - an early form of radar - supply cues for blues experimenter Mike Cooper and pivotal improvisor Mark Wastell (Company) in an inquisitive collaboration on Wastell’s Confront Recordings. The strange, austere relics of WWI were erected between 1916 and the 1930s and are found dotted along the South East and North East coastline of England, sometimes in farmer’s fields who’ll let you in for a look if you ask nicely (out to my guy in Boulby).With Cooper ma…
The Map Is Not the Territory
Max Eastley: arc (electro-acoustic monochord)Fergus Kelly: invented instruments, found metals, electronicsMark Wastell: tam tam, metal percussion, piano frameRecorded at Studio 3, Stoke Newington, London on 8th March 2017 by Rupert Clervaux. Edited, mixed and mastered by Fergus Kelly. Produced by Mark Wastell.
There is no Love
Few copies, sold out at source. Additional contribution from Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixer) recorded by Steve Bates and David Sylvian, Montreal. Tubular bell and concert bass drum recorded by Matthew Sansom, Surrey University, 2006. Original text by Bernard Marie Koltès. Compositional structure by Mark Wastell. Mixed and mastered by Rupert Clervaux. Personnel: Rhodri Davies - lap harp, table harp, vibraphone, radio; David Sylvian - voice, vocal treatments, electronics; Mark Wastell - tam ta…
Sold Out
Tales Of Hackney
Arild Andersen (double-bass, electronics), Clive Bell (Thai mouth organ, shakuhachi, pi saw, shinobue), and Mark Wastell (percussion, shruti box). This genre defying trio release their debut offering, Tales Of Hackney. Quick to capture the energy and undeniable empathy of their celebrated live performances at Cafe OTO on September 24, 2017, the troika reconvened the following day for an intense ten-hour east London studio session. The beguiling, often meditative results see Andersen deploy his u…
All Angels
Just when I thought I had collected all the recordings I could of Mark Wastell playing cello he unearths another gem from his vault, himself and Nikos Veliotis playing acoustic cellos. I started following Mark and the London/Berlin scene only about 6 years ago. I would be hard pressed to pick any other improvising cellists if had to choose a duet to hear. Lachenmann, Xenakis and Scelsi are my favorite cello composers and I imagine these two fellows are avid fans too. I missed out on the lowercas…
Quartet
The newly formed quartet is making its debut performance at the gallery. Alan Wilkinson (alto saxophone), Olie Brice double bass,Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Wastell (cello). Mark Wastell Quartet is combining the unavoidable and reverential influence of the great jazz pioneers of the 20th century with the sophisticated integrity of the modern day improviser.
Live At I'klectik
"This was my first trip to series of improvised music curated by Sue Lynch at The Horse at Cafe I'Klectik in SE London. What a treat! The evening opened with a sensitive and controlled duo of Hutch Demouilpied (trumpet, flute), Keisuke Matsui (guitar, electronics) this was followed by an intense and beautiful trio of Maggie Nichols (vocals), Caroline Kraabel (alto saxophone) and Charlotte Hug (viola, voice).This I thought a very hard performance to follow. But the trio of Richard Sanderson (ampl…
Membrane
This marvellous release from Mark Wastell’s Confront label documents a meeting of these three heavy hitters convened at Dalston’s Cafe Oto, last March. This was the first time all three had played together, although, as John Eyles remarks in his liner notes, they had all worked with each other, before, in outfits such as Powelchsel (Butcher and Beins), The Sealed Knot (Beins and Wastell) and Chris Burn’s Ensemble (Wastell and Butcher).
This familiarity, combined with rigour and expertise o…
Live at I-and-E
This is a long-awaited re-issue, unavailable since 2006. The duo had formed the previous year for ErstQuake in NYC and this was to be their second and, as yet, only other performance together. The breadth and depth of [the] music is totally inspiring, I absolutely love this piece of music. Total unity in sound to make a perfect piece in the moment. It doesn't get better than this! (Gordon W. Smith)
Keith Rowe and Mark Wastell. This last performance balanced the evening well. Louder, more gestura…
Derby 11.05.2002 / Liverpool 10.05.2002
A blast from the past! Or, rather, a whisper from those long ago days when reductionism (that hated term) held reign and only the merest sounds were often discerned during the course of a concert. A welcome return, in this case.Previously available in exceedingly minimal quantity (like 50), Confront has generously allowed these two sets to once again see the light of day. Davis was often heard on trumpet and Wastell on cello or percussion, but here it seems (no instrumentation is listed) that bo…