Mark Wastell

Mark Wastell is one of the more distinctive figures in British free improvisation. Born in Orsett in 1968, the English musician works across cello, double bass, electronics, tam tam and percussion, performing alone and in shifting collaborations. In the 1990s he helped originate the New London Silence, a strand of free improvisation that prized soft sounds, delicate attack and low volume.

Since 1996 Wastell has run Confront Recordings, which began as an outlet for his own music and grew into a label releasing work from across the improvising world, including Tony Oxley, Keith Tippett and Joëlle Léandre. His trio IST, with Simon H. Fell and Rhodri Davies, ran from 1997 to 2002 and performed in Italy, Berlin and New York. The Sealed Knot, formed with Davies and Burkhard Beins in 2000, brought electronics and repetition into the mix, and its Surface/Plane was listed in The Wire's Top 10 Improvised Music Records for 2003. The Seen, a large ensemble he convenes for individual performances, has released archives covering 2005 to 2009 and 2014 to 2016.