We were recently contacted by Julian Cowley about a Bead feature in The Wire. He was particularly interested in the relationship between the label’s original aspirations compared to those held now, half a century later. We’re pleased to see the feature was published in the Jan/Feb 2024 edition of the magazine.

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Alongside the article was a playlist curated by Cowley alongside some short reviews.

Introduction to the playlist

The consistently surprising and varied nature of the music released, sporadically, by Bead since its inception makes compilation of a representative playlist a tricky undertaking. The challenge is rendered more difficult by the fact that those recordings issued on vinyl by the label between 1975 and 1987 have not to date been transferred to digital formats. So this selection of tracks offers no more than a taste of that amalgam of inquisitiveness and constructive energy, imagination and collaborative spirit that pervades Bead’s compact discography.

Wachsmann/Jacobsen/Brighton/Mattos/Taylor
“Full Of Purple Stars”
From Eleven Years From Yesterday (1988)

Violinist Philipp Wachsmann had formed a quartet with electric guitarist Ian Brighton, bassist Marcio Mattos and percussionist Trevor Taylor back in 1976. By the time this CD was issued Peter Jacobsen had joined them on keyboards. Audibly a bridge between earlier and subsequent avatars of Bead, “Full Of Purple Stars” exemplifies an exploratory approach that embraces open forms and builds on serendipitous simultaneities. A welcome opportunity too to hear the idiosyncratic playing of Brighton, an under-recorded musician with a distinctive approach to improvisation.

Gustafsson/Sandell/Strid/Wachsmann
“Photographic Tricycle For Tourists (1883)”
From Gushwachs (1996)

On the second CD issued by the label, Wachsmann displays his remarkable subtlety and resourcefulness as both violin player and electroacoustic musician, in company with the Scandinavian improvising trio Gush. The already well established yet still unpredictable interaction that takes place between pianist Sten Sandell, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and percussionist Raymond Strid is refreshed and expanded by Wachsmann’s participation. Unexpected shapes and unforeseen trajectories emerge continuously from this quartet’s intricate interplay.

Chris Burn/Matthew Hutchinson
“Lippizaner”
From Untuning The Sky (2012)

On the album, this dialogue between the breathy fluttering and clenched tones of Chris Burn’s trumpet and the cannily responsive electronics of Matt Hutchinson kicks off a selection of pieces improvised by the duo at various venues during the mid-2000s. Hutchinson’s radically unorthodox approach to sounding both piano and synthesizer had steered him to record for Bead at the end of the 1970s, and an early CD issued by the label finds him in dialogue with Wachsmann. Hutchinson had for some years also been a regular member of Chris Burns’s uncompromising ensemble, yet the music preserved on this duo encounter oozes tension and quiet drama that is not at all jaded by familiarity.

light.box + Emil Karlsen
“Loosing The Shot Pt 1”
From The Undanced Dance (2023)

The youthful vitality of Norwegian drummer Emil Karlsen has played a key role in the recent revival of Bead Records. Currently, he helps Wachsmann to run the label. On this release Karlsen is heard with light.box, an electroacoustic duo formed by trumpeter Alex Bonney and bass guitarist Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. Unstintingly dynamic and emphatic at the kit, Karlsen brings choreographic definition to light.box’s ambient abstraction, finely etching impromptu designs across their planes of grittily textured noise and metallic chiming.

John Butcher/Dominic Lash/Emil Karlsen
“Jasper”
From Here And How (2023)

On this release Karlsen teams up with saxophonist John Butcher and double bassist Dominic Lash. The recording actually documents their first performance as a trio, yet the entire album constitutes a master class in closely attentive group playing, with individual contributions conspiring to nurture a collective identity that is fluent and intuitive, rather than formulaic or fixed. Anticipation and responsiveness become indistinguishable as the three musicians settle into their continuously evolving creative relationship.

Alex Bonney/Paul Dunmall/Mark Sanders
“Arid/In Phase”
From The Beholder’s Share (2023)

The most recent addition to the catalogue is yet another fascinating display of improvisatory virtuosity. On this occasion the trumpet and electronics of Alex Bonney engage with Paul Dunmall’s saxophones and Mark Sanders’s drums. A wealth of past experience may be distilled within the three tracks on The Beholder’s Share, but the music still seems to teeter on the edge of each moment, its poise and intensity testifying not only to the calibre of the playing, but also to an underlying recognition that improvisation is forever now.