Agile Experiments is a communal project born out of experimenting with two ideas:
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To create new music of a completely collaborative nature via the un-questionable and un-revocable application of improvisation.
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To bring this music to locations where audiences were likely to have never heard anything like it before.
The project began unassumingly in 2015 as members of the London music scene gathered to experiment under the casual guidance of Dave De Rose.
A series of gigs at The Agile Rabbit pizzeria in Brixton Village identified a series of combos that eventually gathered for eight one-hour sessions in a DIY studio space in Camberwell, London. This unintentionally formed a collective.
In 2018 thirteen cuts from these sessions were compiled on to two vinyl releases (Agile Experiments vol.1 & 2). This powerful underground collection of music caught the attention of the British Library's “Sound Archives” project that requested to store them on file in order represent the nation's cultural achievements.
In 2019 another two LPs were released. The third LP featured further cuts from the original sessions alongside new extracts captured during live performances in London venues (London - The Ultimate Guide of Avant-Garde-Step - sides A & B). For the 4th LP Dave De Rose embarked on a mission to Athens in order to recruit, perform and capture a fresh new sound using Greek musicians.
In 2020 Agile Experiments released three more unique sounding LPs: 'Alive in the Empire' (March) featuring cuts from a one off performance featuring John Edwards, George Crowley, Dan Nicholls & Dave De Rose for the London Jazz Festival at The Empire Bar. 'Tiatoma' (June) featuring Saber Rider & Dimitris Foken in trio with Dave, a formation that had participated to the Athens LP but amassed further and substantial amounts of quality music.
The 'Edwards/Nicholls/De Rose' LP (October) saw the return of Agile Experiments' first ever trio showcasing its great evolution.
Our 8th record "Bloom Anubis" featuring Josh Arcoleo and Giannis Angelopoulos. This time, influenced by virus related restrictions, we completely rethought our process and blended improvisation with post-production. This necessity to adapt helped us spawn yet another extremely original work.
In November 2021 DDR records released "plants heal" bringing to vinyl what Dave De Rose and Dan Nicholls have been experimenting with at his night Free Movements. This record was also created completely improvising like all the Agile Experiments series records.
In April this year 'Challenger/Edwards/De Rose" was released on cassette, this recording returns Agile Experiments to the raw live capturing of a free improv session with these pioneers of the London music scene.
Agile Experiment's 11th LP is due to release in October 2022.
Presented in a rogue, hand-written, white label vinyl format. These collectable records are now in the hands of art collectors and original music appreciators all of over the world. New Zeland, Hong Kong, Russia, the U.S.A., Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Austria, Czech Republic, Thailand, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, China, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain & Japan as well as all over the UK.
Musicians who have participated live or in the studio:
John Edwards
Dan Nicholls
George Crowley
Tom Challenger
Josh Arcoleo
'Level' Neville Malcolm
Rory Simmons
Sam Crowe
Dario Rossetti-Bonell
Karl Vanden-Bossche
Liam Noble
Colin Somervell
Barnaby Keen
Nathaniel Keen
Ruth Goller
Chris Sharkey
Jesse Hackett
Tom Skinner
Leon Brichard
Jasper Hoiby
Alice Zawadzki
Ivo Neame
Theon Cross
Alex Roth
Shaney Forbes
Lewis Wright
Jon Scott
Bill Mudge
Laura Jurd
Dave Smith
Idris Rahman
Flo Moore
Brad Webb
Tim Giles
Bex Burch
Alice Leggett
Dave Storey
Peter Ibbettson
Adam Teixeira
Oliver Keen
Miriam Solomon
Simo Lagnawi
Panagiotis Kostopulos
Fotis Siotas
Dimitris Foken
Saber Rider
Kyriakos Tapakis
Giannis Angelopoulos
Michael Kapillidis
Peter Jaques
Marius Mathiszik
Fausto Sierakowsky
Neil Charles
Dancers that have performed alongside the musicians during live shows:
Kasia Witek
Elisa Vassena
Anders Duckworth
Theano Ksidia
Athina Kyrousi-Salvucci
An extensive YouTube playlist of Agile Experiments performances, promo videos and a mini documentary are featured here :
Listen, download and buy vinyl at DDR Records :