Asked to describe themselves, Baby say ‘… A version of the group will arrive at Supernormal 2013 unsure of what will happen’ – deliberate ambiguity wrought of an improvisatory nature, allowing open-ended exploration, never scrimping on elegance and not a jot of ‘will-this-do?’ imrpov chancery. While we’ve no idea what they’ll do, there’s no doubt […]

Composer, musician and all-round good-times guy, Barnabas has played in just about any genre you could happen to name – from proper classical ensembles and Gypsy jazz groups to unholy brutal doom and agonising noise. He’s also returning after featuring in the Hákarl (communion) performance last year. For this year’s festival he’ll be providing some […]

Brighton’s finest troupe of free-jazz merrymakers hit Supernormal with the synapse-flaying zeal of a brain surgeon from the bad part of town. It’s equal parts tribute to the jazz records your Grandad never understood and the perfect answer to the question ‘what would it happen if the Spice Girls had actually asked us to skronk […]

Branch Medley is one Mr Iain Paxon, the lynchpin thoroughly decent chap in Supernormal favourites Hamilton Yarns; Branch Medley is the sound of a beautiful love affair between one man and his bicycle. He takes his bike, carefully primes it and delicately coaxes a symphony in spokes. Possibly the greenest man in improvisation, Iain’s audio […]

The avant-garde neither started nor finished with John Cage; while much of the art world are familiar with bits and bobs of his, there’s somewhat of a question mark-shaped chasm in terms of what came next. Bangthebore.org don’t purport to remedy that, but for this programme of events we’ll be reporting back on what we’ve […]

Yaseen Ali Ni Matullah and Aalam Bin Muhaymin. Radical sax and electronics duo. Aural waterboarding.

Carousel Collective say, “Conjuring noise from almost object and other junk, Carousel will play with toys, robots and even the odd instrument to transport you to places hitherto not even conceived. Very, very serious indeed. Anyone for a bowed nail?” We say “yes please!” Often quieter than a mouse weeing, Carousel specialise in heart-stoppingly elegant […]

Clive Henry, in a just world, would be the best-known name in British experimental music. From his forays into Harsh Noise Walls to his distressingly bizarre littlecreature guise and his more delicate and fragile acoustic guitar improvisations, Henry is a man incapable of not being awesome.

Former punk turned electro-acoustic composer, Mr Hignell has the sort of sensitivity to texture and sound that’d make John Cage blush. For Supernormal this year he’ll be improvising soundtracks to improvised films. And if you’re wondering how that works, you should make a beeline to see it at the festival. Stunning.

… hexes in noise, but also worth remembering that curses aren’t always belligerations of those demonised but salves for cosmic disruption. Immersive, perhaps, but at least a jolly great racket. Maybe you’re thinking of Diamanda Galas around 85; maybe you’re just going to stand aghast going ‘by God [or your own choice of post-celestial reference], […]

London-based violinist specialising in making sounds you didn’t know a violin could make; improvisation can carry the red letter of shabbiness but there’s not an ounce of waste to this woman’s playing. Her list of associates reads like a who’s who of British improv – old hands like Eddie Prévost, avant-monsters like Christian Wolff and […]

Quietly amazing, and sometimes amazingly quiet. Reeds, flutes, prayers bowls and a guitar that Dan’s never learnt to play. Live, they have a habit of turning from lush, drifting pastoral gentleness to leaving the distinct impression that the room’s oxygen has been slowly sucked out. Lending themselves to lovely acoustics, Nil and the barn will […]

Nil are Dan Powell and Chris Parfitt, alumni of Brighton’s long-standing Safehouse collective. In spite of the high-seriousness associated with free improv, they bring something of a sense of the ridiculous to scraping paper, prayer bowls and free reeding. Not to say they’re not serious, but there’s a camp brilliance to two men old enough […]

Recently described (by this writer admittedly, but this is a recycling-friendly festival after all) as “Making me think of a knife fight with children’s play knives – you’re not going to get cut, but that headache’s going nowhere.” Ostensibly drone music, but definitely in a one-too-many-poppers, my head’s full of actual watermelon sense. Something to […]

A group more likely to be found improvising to tiny audiences in middle-of-nowhere locations like caves and mountains, we’re very pleased to have Team Sports back again. Whether you’ll catch them is a different matter – they played last year to an audience of birds and dewey grass at some ungodly hour when no-one was […]

How a group of Missouri-based civil war vigilantes from the 1880s came to be found operating as a musical cell in Anarchist squats in the South East of England, with a century’s distance, is a question for the ages to answer. Rumours fulminate like perilous waters, but it’s assumed that the group were into hiding […]