16/10/2025 – 19:30
De Blikfabriek
SiM, Rotkat, Klankhaven and Blikfabriek join forces for a double bill featuring Frelonia—the striking new trio of Núria Andorrà (percussion), Lotte Anker (saxophones), and Fred Frith (electric guitar)—and guitarist, improviser, and organiser Steve Marquette, who has become an integral part of Chicago’s storied and vibrant improvised music community over the past decade.
Frelonia is a trio of Núria Andorrà (percussion), Lotte Anker (saxophones), and Fred Frith (electric guitar). Edge of the Light (“inspired…exciting…serene…transcendent”) is the name of Fred’s CD with Lotte, and Dancing Like Dust (“diverse, compelling and endlessly inventive”) features the duo of Fred and Núria. Now they will join forces. Sparks will fly…
Fred Frith is a pioneer of the extended electric guitar. He learned to compose in Henry Cow, developed his song-writing skills in Art Bears, explored his multi-instrumentalism in Skeleton Crew, rocked the house with Massacre and is still doing all of those things, having been in one band or another continuously since 1964!
Meanwhile his work has been performed by string quartets, orchestras, big bands and a whole range of groups and artists in the ever-expanding field of semi-popular music. Film music credits include the acclaimed documentaries Rivers and Tides, Leaning into the Wind, and Tracing Light directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, The Tango Lesson, Yes and The Party by Sally Potter, Werner Penzel’s Zen for Nothing, Peter Mettler’s Gods, Gambling and LSD, and the award-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Last Day of Freedom, by Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones. Fred’s passion for improvising has increasingly led him to work with artists who don’t necessarily define themselves uniquely as improvisers. He is the subject of Step Across the Border, cited by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the hundred most influential films of the 20th century
Lotte Anker is an award-winning Copenhagen-based saxophonist/composer working in the hybrid and fluid field between improvisation, experimental jazz and contemporary composed music. As a performer/composer, she is particularly interested in the dynamics between ‘free’ improvisation and
compositional practices, with an emphasis on exploring qualities and possibilities in sound material, silence and space. Recent collaborations include Anker/Taborn/Cleaver, Wassermann/Anker/Parkins, Lotte Anker & Fred Frith, and larger groups such as What River Ensemble, Electric Habitat and Sub Habitat. Other past and present collaborators include Magda Mayas, Tony Buck, Joëlle Léandre, Christof Kurzmann, Okkyung Lee, Sylvie Courvoiser, Ikue Mori, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Johannes Bauer, Sofia Jernberg, Satoko Fuji, Natsuki Tamura, John Edwards, Nate Wooley, Susana Santos Silva, Chris Corsano and countless others. Lotte has performed and led workshops at numerous venues in Europe, USA, Canada, Russia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Percussionist, improviser and composer of new creations, Núria Andorrà trained in classical and contemporary music but has always drawn from other sources of inspiration. She proposes a universe where images, sound and the body come together to create and transmit emotions from an
interdisciplinary perspective. She has played with Fred Frith, Lê Quan Ninh, Joëlle Léandre, Agustí Fernández, Michel Doneda, Frances-Marie Uitti, Susana Santos Silva, Christiane Bopp, Nuno Rebelo and Alessandra Rombolá as well as collaborating with dancers Federica Porello, Julyen Hamilton,
Almudena Pardo and Sònia Sánchez among many others. She has also worked on interdisciplinary shows with Carles Santos, Hèctor Parra, Raül Refree, Matmos, and Mariona Naudin. Núria taught improvisation at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and currently teaches percussion at the Reus Conservatory and the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona.
Guitarist, improviser and organizer Steve Marquette has become an integral part of Chicago’s storied and vibrant improvised music community this past decade. He has toured Europe and the United States with several of his bands and was featured in the Oorstof concert series at AB Salon with The Few in 2017. Two years later, he was part of a Visitations residency of Ken Vandermark’s Marker, where the ensemble was joined by Farida Amadou, Stan Maris, Hanne De Backer and Audrey Lauro for a collaborative project and in 2024 he amazed at the Summer Bummer Festival with cello player Alison Chesley (Helen Money) as Liminal Rites. Marquette is also the founder of the Instigation Festival that brings together performers from Chicago and New Orleans for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration in each city once every two years.
