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.
Kiss of acid
“Kiss of Acid - a composition for pre-recorded tam tam and electronics. Lasse Marhaug - electronics / computer / compositional structure. Mark Wastell - pre-recorded 32" paiste tam tam. The „Kiss of Acid Story” as told by Mark Wastell: I had hired a tam-tam, 36" Paiste, to take to a solo concert in Paris. There was some confusion over train tickets and I regretfully never made it out of London. So, I had to make use of this instrument that I had paid for for the weekend. I hastily contacted THE …
For Hugh Davies
Extraordinary homage to pioneering instrument-builder and improviser Hugh Davies (1943-2005), recorded in January 2008. Adam Bohman (prepared balalaika & amplified objects), Lee Patterson (amplified objects) and Mark Wastell (cello) - three improvisers heavily influenced by Davies's work - improvising alongside solo recordings Davies made in the 1970s. A virtual quartet where one voice is fixed, unable to respond.
Davies - who worked as Karlheinz Stockhausen's assistant in Cologne in the mid-60s…
Open
Mark Wastell and Matt Davis met and first played together in a workshop led by Eddie Prévost in London during the spring of 1996. Soon after, Wastell was invited to join Chris Burn's Ensemble, in which he played with Phil Durrant for the first time. Subsequently, Phil and Mark worked together in the quartets Assumed Possibilities and Quatuor Accorde, documented on Rossbin and Emanem CDs, respectively.
The debut trio concert by Davis/Durrant/Wastell took longer to organise than any of the partici…
Amoungst English Men
2006 release ** Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies packaged in special 7" sleeve. "Amongst English Men finds Mark Wastell alone, brooding magnificently in the bottom octave of a superbly recorded Steinway grand piano until his Tilburyesque clangs are eventually lost in a haze of tam tam harmonics and mournful strokes on a tubular bell. It’s deceptively simple to describe but remarkably subtle and compelling to listen to, impeccably mixed and mastered by Graham Halliwell."
Still Point
Assumed Possibilities comprises of four musicians who understand the meaning and use of understatement and close listening. This quartets non-idiomatic music attains a minutely focused intensity, where the subtlest shifts in pitch, timbre and texture speak volumes. Though sounds sometimes sting and startle,the music carefully colours the aural environment,often hardly modifying the silence... growing out of and merging back into it. The results are detailed, meticulous, precise and responsive. S…
Foldings
At 7pm on a cold Tokyo evening in January 2002, Taku Sugimoto met Mark Wastell at the exit to Yoyogi underground station. Taku had with him his acoustic guitar and a cello that Mark was to use for that evenings concert. They walked the short distance to Offsite, more or less just around the corner. Once inside, Mark began to change the cello strings and Taku started to arrange the recording equipment. Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakumara arrived shortly after and busily set about installing the…