Steve Beresford

When Christian Marclay took over White Cube Bermondsey in early 2015, the exhibition doubled as a concert hall and a record plant. Works about glass and drinking filled the galleries, and musicians played among them every weekend. The Vinyl Factory pressed each concert on its mobile VF Press in the gallery, while Coriander Studio printed Marclay's sleeves by hand. The concerts were free, and audiences could watch the records being made a few rooms away. Steve Beresford, one of the most familiar figures of London improvisation, appears twice in the series. The ninth record pairs him with the vocalist Elaine Mitchener. This tenth one gathers two more of his concerts: a conducted ensemble on one side and a commission for the London Sinfonietta on the other. Beresford and Marclay go back a long way. They played as a trio with Günter Müller at the Doubletake exhibition in Vienna in 1993. Speaking in VF's film about the show, Beresford said, "I think that really redefines what an exhibition is" (The Vinyl Factory, 2015).

Side A, recorded on 7 March 2015 and untitled on the label, has Beresford conducting nine improvisers, among them Terry Day, Adam Bohman and Mark Sanders. He also adds percussion, glasses and assorted objects, and the side lasts about twenty minutes. Side B is Green Slipper Rewrite, a score commissioned by Marclay and premiered by the Sinfonietta. It was recorded on 15 March, in the piece's second outing, with violin, clarinets, cello and percussion. Beresford's own table holds electronics, a noise box, electric insects, a bucket, glasses, bows and an electric ukulele. Contact microphones, a whammy pedal, music boxes and a hand-cranked toy turntable complete the set-up. Reviewing that afternoon, Geoff Winston described five linked sections moving from taut passages to sudden outbursts. He heard the bass clarinet pushed to its limit, glasses bowed, the cello slapped and small battery-powered bugs crawling over the instruments. He called it "a gentle tour de force" (London Jazz News, 2015). Daniel Halford engineered both sessions, and the runouts carry the two recording dates.

Black vinyl LP, hand pressed on The Vinyl Factory Press, in a sleeve with artwork by Christian Marclay hand screen-printed by Coriander Studio. Limited edition of 500 copies.