Simon H. Fell : double bass. Mark Wastell : violoncello, percussion. Derek Bailey : (virtual) guitar. Will Gaines : (virtual) tapdance. Recorded at Cafe OTO, Dalston, London; 2nd March 2018.

An in concert, virtual Company performance from IST (on this occasion the duo of Simon H. Fell and Mark Wastell due to the snow-bound absence of Rhodri Davies) together with pre-recorded fragments of Derek Bailey and Will Gaines. IST’s Virtual Company calls on ‘the powers of improvisation’ (D. Bailey) to interface with the two musicians of IST with dozens of musical fragments drawn from both Bailey and Gaines performing solo. These are combined with sections of silence of unforeseeable length, and then combined with each other and the live musicians, all by means of random algorithms which will ensure that each performance will be both unpredictable and unrepeatable. IST, Derek and Will performed together regularly in the later half of the 1990’s and early 2000’s – Derek curated various Company events in London, Marseille and New York which sometime featured this group exclusively and, on occasions, other musicians. The quintet concerts from Marseille in 1999 (although performed under the short-lived group name cavanoconner) were eventually released as a double cd on Incus, Company In Marseille (Incus 44/45). To add to this crucial document, Confront Recordings released Derek Bailey And Company – Klinker, another double cd set, recorded on a hot and steamy night in August 2000 at The Klinker in London and which featured the quartet of Bailey, Gaines, Fell and Wastell.