Evan Parker was interviewed by John Robinson in the May 2025 edition of Uncut magazine regarding The Heraclitean Two-Step, etc, on False Walls: “the sax legend on improv, the Oscars and his new CD boxset”. The published interview was edited down from the following.

There’s a lot of material here, interviews, writing, art, emails – the kinds of things you might find in a retrospective set rather than a new release. Did you feel the time was right for an extensive statement?

Thanks for your interest John. My first proposal to CJ Mitchell at False Walls was for a single CD for which I had a clear idea and even a title. I had a 22 minute solo recording from a concert in the Unitarian Chapel in Warwick in 1994. It was played as part of a group concert. Not long enough to release as a piece in its own right, it had an atmosphere or feeling that made me listen to it every so often. Finally I had the idea to go back to the same space in Warwick in 2023 and record again. The title was “The Heraclitean Two-Step” for obvious reasons – the saying of Heraclitus about not being able to step in the same river twice – although the more I looked into the origins of the famous dictum the less obvious it became. CJ was happy with the idea of a single CD but encouraged me to be more ambitious with my 80th birthday coming up. I had seen and admired the boxed set of Andrew Poppy’s music False Walls had produced and in the spirit nothing ventured, I asked whether such a production might be possible. He agreed. We started to compile the ideas and materials.

My first plan was to look at the archive of concert recordings I had done at various stages and places. Particularly concerts from Edinburgh, Aachen, Berklee and New York for which I had high quality analogue recordings. Listening to old work can be very demanding; there is a frustration in hearing elements emerging which took years to bring under control but which are not fully under control … I dropped the whole archive idea and went to the recent recordings which I had made immediately before and during the covid hiatus. The three CDs which constitute the “etc.” of the title were all made at the Arco Barco Studio in Ramsgate and document the evolution of my relationship with the acoustics of the space and with Fil Gomes, the studio owner and recording engineer. Fil has become a good friend and understands what I am looking for.

It’s a wonderfully immersive album. Can you tell me about what considerations guided you through the sequencing?

The four CDs run in chronological order and the recording techniques used were evolving throughout this period. There is material from before and after the covid hiatus – which represents another “two step”. To the extent there was editing, it was by the omission of entire sessions. “Some days are better”, as Kenny Wheeler used to say. There are no cuts and joins – material was either used or not used. Fil and I have such a good understanding of how to do this that I am eager to get back there to do more as soon as I have some new material.

We know you as an improviser, and a prolific composer. How far have you planned out what form a longer piece will take – or is that dictated in the moment?

My approach to concert and studio is gradually merging. The key thing is to get the right reed for the particular room then play until there is nothing more. There is quite a bit of discussion either explicit or by inference in the boxset’s book about the limits of the term “improvisation”. If the etymology is indeed from “unforeseen” then I am only partly improvising, since things often move from the known to the unknown. I would like to return to describing the playing as “open”. Yes, “chance” comes into this but it has very little to do with John Cage’s use of chance in composition.

It was a pleasure to hear your work used prominently in The Brutalist. What was the process – and what did you think of the film and the music’s place in it?

I met Daniel Blumberg at Cafe Oto some years ago. He wanted me to play soprano saxophone for his work on “The Brutalist”. He asked me which space I would like to play in. Of course I chose Arco Barco in Ramsgate. He came down with all his own high spec recording gear, some beautiful Schoeps microphones, and we spent a good evening together. It was great that he sang for all his friends at Cafe Oto over the “your time’s up music” at the Oscars.

What is/How does one do the Heraclitean Two-Step?

My first idea for the boxset cover was a pastiche of the Warhol b&w dance step screen prints but it lost out to the beautiful photograph by Caroline Forbes of sunlight on a stone from the Verdon.

Many thanks to Uncut magazine: https://www.uncut.co.uk

>Born Trembling<
by Tremble With Joy

CD/digital release: October 1, 2024

Tremble With Joy is a new collaboration between Cinder (Cindytalk), Michael Anderson (Drekka), Mark Trecka, and Michael Carlson (remst8). The CD packaging for their first release includes visual artwork by David Caines and letterpress printing by Hellbox Letter Foundry (Faversham, UK) — the first in an occasional letterpress series from False Walls, including a letterpress CD sleeve, two letterpress 4-panel inserts and the CD.

Here are some photos from Hellbox Letter Foundry (Kent, UK).

False Walls is pleased to release MARCONI’S DRIFT by Transatlantic Trance Map on September 13, 2024. https://www.falsewalls.co.uk/release/marconis-drift/

Evan Parker and Matthew Wright’s Trance Map project has included improvised live events across Europe and the US, involving other invited guest performers, with various Trance Map+ recordings released on psi, Intakt and FMR Records. Since 2020, Trance Map+ have undertaken ambitious streamed and networked performances, connecting with musicians around the world from The Hot Tin venue in Faversham, Kent, UK. In 2022, this resulted in Transatlantic Trance Map, a simultaneous performance between seven musicians in Kent and six musicians in Roulette, New York City, which is profiled on MARCONI’S DRIFT.

An archival focus on Trance Map, including a number of ‘paths’ through audio and video recordings, texts, interviews and original writing, can be found here:
https://echo.orpheusinstituut.be/article/paths-through-pasts

More Trance Map information:
https://www.matt-wright.co.uk/trance-map
https://evanparkerintakt.bandcamp.com/album/etching-the-ether
https://evanparkerintakt.bandcamp.com/album/crepuscule-in-nickelsdorf

A Trance Map duo release is forthcoming from Relative Pitch (USA):
https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com

We have launched a blog, ARK, where writers/musicians are invited to write about an album of their choosing. The first posts are now available:

Robin Rimbaud / Scanner on Mohnomishe by Zoviet France (1983).
Leah Kardos on The SubSet by Kristeen Young (2019).
Ian Masters on Os Afro Sambas by Baden E Vinicius (1966).

https://www.falsewalls.co.uk/ark/

Radio Buena Vida, Glasgow, have a one-hour edition of ‘If There Is Something … w/ Cindytalk’ dedicated to the False Walls label, which you can stream here:
https://soundcloud.com/radiobuenavida/if-there-is-somethingw-cindytalk-radio-buena-vida-250224

Including:
ANDREW POPPY – AVALANCHE THOUGHTS No.6.
CINDYTALK – SEE SEER SEEK
KEVIN DANIEL CAHILL – CAOINEADH
HENRY DAGG & EVAN PARKER – CHOCKS AWAY, ATLANTIC CITY REVISITED, SURFING THE WAVEFORMS
HELENA CELLE – MUSIC FOR COUNTERFLOWS
CINDYTALK – WHERE EVERYTHING SPARKLES AND SHINES
HENRY DAGG & EVAN PARKER – REVOLVE TO RESOLVE
ASTRÏD – TALKING PEOPLE
GENE COLEMAN – ACROSS TIME (TRANSONIC SYMPHONY 1) MOVEMENT III LIM-MEM ; MOVEMENT II COG-ASA
KEVIN DANIEL CAHILL – IMPOSSIBLE WORLDS
ASTRÏD – REMEMBERING THROUGH NARRATIVE

Gene Coleman has been developing a series of works around concepts of Neuro Music and Transcultural Music, some of which are collected for the first time on Exploratorium, which is also the first album exclusively dedicated to Gene’s compositions. The CD booklet includes the following Introduction by Gene, as well as notes on each of the compositions.

Ideas about exploratory behavior, Neuro Music and Transcultural Music have been the basis for many of my works over the last 20 years. Exploratorium is an album of some of those works and a space of exploration. Indeed, all the works on this album are examples of Neuro Music, which is the fundamental connection point across these compositions.

I define Neuro Music as an area of research and creation based on the study and application of models and concepts from Auditory Neuroscience, as a form of musical composition. For me the big question is: how can we apply ideas and data from Auditory Neuroscience to create new works of art?

My definition of Neuro Music is also shaped by the growing field of Neuroaesthetics, which is a branch of Cognitive Neuroscience that studies aesthetic behaviors, such as the definitions of and responses to beauty. In my lecture ‘Music Mirrors Mind’ I examine the concepts of Neuroaesthetics and Neuro Music, along with related work in these areas by Stan Brakhage, Anthony Braxton, Helmut Lachenmann and Alvin Lucier.

‘Atonal Music as a Model for Investigating Exploratory Behavior’, a paper by a group of neuroscientists, was published in 2022. The paper’s research into ideas of listeners’ exploratory behavior as a neurological activity opens up new ways to think about creativity, both for the composer’s work and how music is heard and processed by listeners. Is it possible to understand an impulse to create things that don’t fit known compositional categories or strategies? There is no clear answer to that yet, but I have a desire to explore new lands in music, I don’t want to travel where most composers go. The possibilities for Neuroscience to deepen our understanding of sound and music, as well as the behaviors of listeners, are extraordinary. Applying these ideas from Neuroscience has profoundly transformed the way I think about and create music.

My interest in Neuroscience and music began around 10 years ago and found an early form in my work for solo cello The Geometry of Thinking (2016). That work contained experiments with what I call Geometric Bowing, a technique of moving the bow on the strings in geometric patterns (rather than the normal back and forth) to represent auditory information processing in the brain. Another technique is called Synapse Bowing, which involves moving the bow vertically on the strings, following patterns of electrical flow between Neurons, as presented by the Neuroscientist Eugene M. Izhikevich in his book Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience. Geometric and Synapse Bowing are on full display in the first work on this album, RITORNO (2019), which is my 2nd string quartet.

The Neuro compositional methods I have developed are modeled on the auditory pathway of the brain (APB). It is my belief that constructing musical compositions based on the APB will allow new forms of musical thought and expression to emerge. Technically speaking, the auditory pathway is the entire chain of events that occur in our auditory experience, from sound waves striking the Pina (outer ear) to the mechanical conversion of air waves to water waves, then to impulses in the auditory nerve, then onward to various stages of cognition, memory, emotion and thinking. This is a vast territory, and in some works I have found it interesting to focus on a particular portion of the APB as the model for the composition. Such is the case with Kokhlos I and Kokhlos IV, which use the inner ear (the Cochlea) as the model for the entire piece. These works (along with Vidrone) use texts by Lance Olsen, who wrote a novel called Dreamlives of Debris that rewrites the mythology of the labyrinth in Crete. ‘Kokhlos’ is the Greek word for ‘spiral shell’, from which the term Cochlea originates. I compare the labyrinth to the Cochlea, the winding, spiral organ that converts sound waves to electrochemical signals.

I am in awe of the ways in which music and brain functions are so similar. I have studied the way the brain processes sound and worked to develop and define related compositional models and refine existing ones. The creative process of designing these models and using them to create music is an amazing odyssey. My models of the auditory pathway merge with my intuition (the subconscious); for many years I have explored the conscious and subconscious in music, though I didn’t define it like that until recently.

Another concept behind some of my works is what I call Transcultural Music, which I define as an area of research and composition based on the integration of music from different cultures and traditions. In my works the emphasis is often on timbre (sound color) and noise to control or dissolve boundaries between different forms of music. In 2003, the Transonic festival was initiated at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (the House of World Cultures) in Berlin. I was very fortunate to be asked by the HKW Director Hans-Georg Knopp to act as the artistic director and composer in residence for this festival. It was an unprecedented opportunity to explore how musical styles and traditions might meet and combine in new ways. This experience, along with my 9-month residence in Japan in 2001, created the conditions for my Transcultural compositions, which have involved collaborations with musicians from Japan, Taiwan, Lebanon, Brazil, China, Europe and North America. The compositions Vidrone (2017) and Across Time (Transonic Symphony #1) (2023) are examples on this album.

Across Time also introduces a new series of works called The Transonic Symphonies. Using highly unique formations of instruments and media, along with my models of Neuro and Transcultural Musics, these works explore new possibilities for what a symphony can be in the 21st century. My main vehicle for the performance of these symphonies is the Transonic Orchestra, a group I started in 2019, which features musicians from many different places and traditions.

This new symphonic approach redefines some concepts of diversity, as it’s not about placing people into existing western hierarchies, like orchestras in the USA and Europe. This form of symphonic music goes deep into different cultures, exploring many traditions, sound and media, using a wide range of instruments from different cultures combined with electronic sounds to create a symphonic, Neuro Music experience.

One aspect of this new kind of symphony involves separately recording individual musicians and using modern popular music and video techniques to mix them together. While in classical, contemporary and jazz music the norm is to record everyone together and capture the sound made by the musicians in real time, to go into new realms it is necessary to move beyond this way of working, especially regarding large ensemble music, where the logistics and economics make many new ideas impossible to realize. I fully intend to present these works live in concert, but these recording and mixing approaches are central to the ideas around Transcultural Music. The ways in which virtual representations and live performers are combined in live concerts is another possibility, as well as electronic media versions for broadcast, etc.

The current politics and economics of the orchestra stifles creativity. Composers fight for small commissions and have very little support to compete with the museum culture of classical music. The composers selected are very limited by what they can compose, which is detrimental for creativity.

In 2023 I launched the Institute for Music and Neuroaesthetics, with headquarters in Bellano, Italy. The work of the Institute will explore the research and creation of Neuro Music and Transcultural Music projects and be a valuable platform for advocacy and support. My goal is to build new pathways to a different, more creative future.

Andrew Poppy’s Ark Hive of A Live continues to be met with enthusiasm and delight. As False Walls’ most ambitious release to date (4 CDs, plus book and slipcase), we’re sharing some extracts from reviews and social media below. Over an hour of the Ark Hive can be streamed here. 

Robin Rimbaud on Instagram:
Ark Hive of A Live by British composer Andrew Poppy (b.1954) has just arrived and it’s an absolutely beautiful production. I first became familiar with Poppy’s work when he was part of seminal British ensemble, The Lost Jockey, whose work still stands tall today. I went to hear them perform live several times in the early 1980s and still own their sadly limited discography – one LP, one cassette and a 12” vinyl. Their work shared an attraction towards the minimalism school of American music, from Terry Riley, through Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Poppy then signed to Trevor Horn and Paul Morley’s Zang Tumb Tuum Records (ZTT) in 1984 and released the extraordinary The Beating of Wings album which I thoroughly recommend anyone take a listen to. I even contributed sleeve notes to a box set of recordings from this era at one point. Since then he’s released a truly vast body of inspiring work. This new 4 CD set, accompanied by a handsome 128 page book, acts as a place for unreleased music, apparently recorded live but treated, processed, added to and manipulated. I love that his work slips between genres with such ease, from electronica to ambient music, to operatic explorations to contemporary classical music. At points cranky cowboy guitars meet piano diversions, whilst percussion batters away, and synths softly float around the scene. Or cinematic strings go into battle with honking brass, and rapidly rolling lilting melodies chase them down. The publication is also fascinating as it features an an introduction by Paul Morley, and additional writings from Leah Kardos, Nik Bärtsch and Rose English. Definitely a release to treasure, and apparently it’s out officially today, which I never even realised writing this. And let’s be honest, his hair is a work of art in itself. I’ve heard that it even has its own postcode in London!

Brian Morton, Wire magazine:
The animating spirit is Poppy’s protean musical imagination, as light as wings beating one moment, thunderous and dark the next. … It’s not just an archive [but] otherwise unreleased works caught in live performance and gently transformed in the editing suite into the components of four well-shaped albums. … Poppy’s music is like Madagascar — you discover species there you don’t find anywhere else.

Downtown Music gallery, NYC, USA:
Each of the four CDs included has a different theme and different personnel with Mr. Poppy playing piano, drum machine, percussion, etc. There is quite a bit to take in with four discs and informative notes to read through. Disc or ‘Volume One’ begins with “Goodbye Piano Concerto” for piano, keyboards, guitar & percussion, all played by Mr. Poppy. It is an eerie, somewhat skeletal, minimalist piece with a slow central pulse which we can’t hear but it is there, buried below the surface. Although this piece is minimal, it does have a strong, suspense-filled vibe running throughout it. “Attempt at an Ecstatic Moment” and “Chewing the Corner” come from a larger piece called “Horn Horn”, six pieces for two solo saxes and orchestra. These pieces aresomewhat dark yet haunting, a bit solemn yet most stirring as well. “Chewing the Corner” raises the bar to a more uptempo, magical landscape with a stream of dreamy flutes and percussion plus some complex, kaleidoscopic orchestral parts. “Almost the Same Shame” is for piano and orchestra. The piano part sounds like a sped-up Philip Glass-like minimalist work. “Weighing the Measure” is for piano, drum machine percussion with bass clarinet & accordion. The music contains a series of drones, both soothing and a bit eerie. I still have to listen to the other three discs. I must admit that I am most impressed with the disc that I’ve heard and the great artwork & preparation that went into creating this lovely box set.

Freq:
Not listened to any Andrew Poppy until now and l’ve got to say I feel like l’ve been missing out, as this compelling four-disc excursion aptly demonstrates. A superb series of endeavours embracing classical and avant flavours, Ark Hive Of A Live is full of improvised sparks and juddering disposition, the enclosed write-up full of fascinating insight.

Nieuwe Noten / New Notes:
A beautiful edition by the way, consisting of an extensive book and four CDs, together in a sturdy slipcase. A ‘must have’, as we say. And Poppy’s music fits perfectly into what I’ve been paying attention to for several weeks now: the minimalism in the music. Poppy also shows himself a descendant of this genre, although he is by no means limited to it.

Post-Punk Monk:
The price of the package all but demands its purchase as one rarely sees a package this luxe at an affordable price like £30.00. There will be 500 of these dispersing through the world and fans of the beauty that Mr. Poppy brings to the music would do well to invest …

Ark Hive of A Live is a 4 CD set of recordings by Andrew Poppy, along with a 128 page book, including writing by Andrew Poppy; an introduction by Paul Morley; other writing by Leah Kardos, Nik Bärtsch and Rose English; and archival photographs.

More detail here:
https://www.falsewalls.co.uk/release/ark-hive-of-a-live/

From the International Times review: “If, as the False Walls website says, ‘Ark Hive is an ironic meditation on the archive’ which ‘brings together elements of biography and materials from a lifetime of creative endeavour in sonic, language and visual forms’, then I would like to suggest that it is much more a celebration of being alive, of being persistent, tenacious and single-minded. Of being a wonderful composer, performer and musician … a superbly designed package … “
https://internationaltimes.it/different-places-everywhere/

The launch event for Ark Hive of A Live is on 4 April 2023 at Century Club, Soho, London. At the event, Andrew will be in discussion with the author Travis Elborough, and perform ‘Almost the Same Shame’ in person; the conversation will be accompanied by a selection of video pieces compiled by his long-term collaborator Julia Bardsley.
https://centuryclub.co.uk

A new interview with Andrew is also available here:
https://15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-andrew-poppy/page-1/