Adjunct Ensemble

Taking 2023’s critically-acclaimed collagist anti-opera Sovereign Bodies / Ritual Taxonomy (Diatribe Records) as its starting point, composer Jamie Thompson invited three open-eared improvisers, Stephen Davis (drums), John Pope (bass) and Sam Comerford (tenor saxophone) to join him (on piano and electronics) in entangling themselves not only with the textual and political themes of the record – migration, racist linguistic taxonomy, nationalism, Europe’s deadly borders policies – but with its powerful vocal presence; the poet Felispeaks. Extracting eight poems from the album, as well as developing three new texts in rehearsal, the group developed swirling collective improvisations over three days in early November 2023, which were imbued with a devastating new urgency in the shadow of yet more Palestinian suffering.

Indeed, the track Territorial Irregularities is a desperate cry for solidarity not only with Gazans, but with people suffering ongoing catastrophes in Sudan and Syria which have displaced millions, many of whom are seeking, and deserve, safety and sanctuary in Europe. Adjunct Ensemble’s narrative of refusal; to spurn Capitalism’s insistence to participate in its genocidal pursuit of endless growth, endless war, ecological destruction and subjugation of the world’s poorest is what spurs them to make their music. As they declare in the opener Communal Refusal, “we refuse to make ourselves believable in the eyes of Capitalism; we reject its inheritances.”