We're extremely proud to present HAPPENSTANCE, a sprawling jazz concrète project produced by Johannesburg composer and double bass player Shane Cooper. Approached in 2020 by interdisciplinary arts space The Centre for the Less Good Idea to create audio work, Cooper drew on his network in the thriving South African jazz scene, bringing in Bokani Dyer (piano), Cara Stacey (bows), Daliwonga Tshangela (cello), Gontse Makhene (percussion), Jonno Sweetman (percussion) and Micca Manganye (percussion).
Two days of free-flowing composition, improvisation and investigative recording followed, with the results captured on a vintage reel-to-reel tape machine. This tape was fractured and reassembled by Cooper, bringing into surreal focus tiny ecosystems of sound, like curls of static clasped from the air and brought under the magnifying glass. The results - two long, standalone pieces - are dizzying, weightless; musique concrète melding with jazz-schooled virtuosity in a dubbed out bricolage of interludes and u-turns. Micro universes in sound.
Recommended for fans of Abdullah Ibrahim, Tony Allen, Floating Points and Daphne Oram.Record drops on May 1, 2021.
A: STATIC
Bokani Dyer - piano, composition.
Cara Stacey - umtshingo, umrhubhe, nyunga-nyunga, piano, composition.
Daliwonga Tshangela - cello, composition.
Shane Cooper - basses, synths, rhodes, guitar, composition, production, recording, mixing.
Assistant recording engineer - Zain Vally.
B: SKINS
Gontse Makhene - percussion, composition.
Micca Manganye - percussion, composition.
Jonno Sweetman - percussion, composition.
Shane Cooper - basses, body percussion, composition, production, recording, mixing.
Assistant recording engineer - Zain Vally.
All photographs by Zivanai Matangi.
Incubated and Commissioned by | The Centre for the Less Good Idea
Founder & Co-Director of the Board | William Kentridge
Founding Animateur & Co-Director of the Board | Bronwyn Lace
Animateur for the Centre | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Artwork by Sam Bristow. Vinyl mastered by Sam Annand.