Ten Years Alive: Anna Högberg Quartet xcrswegx (a dedication)

Out-Jazz double bill at ABFs Zäta-Salen featuring the debut of a new group led by alto saxophonist Anna Högberg who follows up her expanded double sextet version of Attack with a completely new band &mdash a quartet with Norwegian multi-instrumentalists Heida Mobeck and Anja Lauvdal and Danish drummer Mads Forsby.

They are joined by the radical text and raw sonics of xcrswegx (a dedication) &mdash featuring writer and broadcaster Edward George in collaboration with @xcrswx [Crystabel Riley Seymour Wright].

Anna Högberg

Anna Högberg is an alto saxophonist and composer from Stockholm.

In 2013 she initiated her own group &mdash Anna Högberg Attack &mdash a sextet that released two acclaimed LPs &mdash the groups eponymous debut in 2016 and its follow-up Lena in 2020 which was awarded LP of the year by Swedens Jazz magazine Orkester Journalen. Shortly after that records release Högberg put things on hold retraining as a nurse whilst continuing a solo practice and playing in other groups &mdash most notably various permutations of Fire! Orchestra.

In 2024 she assembled a new ensemble &mdash this time a double sextet &mdash to record Ensamseglaren an album length suite of new music written in dedication to her late father &mdash the titular &lsquolonely sailor&rsquo pictured on the LP cover as a young boy. Shot through with renewed energy and a brutally affective emotional punch Högberg&rsquos formal experimentation opens up vibrant possibilities for the assembled musicians to let loose with some of their wildest and most ecstatic playing on record and across standout concerts for Berlin and Stockholm Jazz Festivals.

Anja Lauvdal

Freeform pianist and electronic musician Anja Lauvdal (born 1987) has an inimitable ability to conjure multiple sonic moods reflecting on the fragility of the natural world while exhibiting a positive stillness.

Shes an established force on the Norwegian scene with her playful and textural playing running the All Ears festival and collaborating with Jenny Hval Hamid Drake and William Parker among others.

&lsquoFrom A Story Now Lost&rsquo marked her first solo album. The album was produced by Berlin-based electronic musician Laurel Halo. In July she released &lsquoFarewell to Faraway Friends&rsquo a collection of improvisations on Wurlitzer. She has written commissioned works for Next Festival Bratislava/INA GRM Fosseprisen Henie Onstad Kunstsenter & Ultima.

Heida Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck 

Heida Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck is an improvising musician (tuba) composer and artistic initiator with a musical practice that spans jazz improvisation experimental pop and art music.

Mobecks artistry is strongly rooted in a philosophical and relational approach to music where social interactions visual media and text play an important role in the creative process. Through this Mobeck explores how different perspectives can function both as inspiration and a starting point for purely musical and aural investigations – a dynamic movement where music influences and is shaped by ideas outside of itself.
  
Edward George

Edward George is a writer and broadcaster. Founder of Black Audio Film Collective George wrote and presented the ground-breaking science fiction documentary Last Angel of History (1996). George is part of the multimedia duo Flow Motion and the electronic music group Hallucinator. He and hosts Sound of Music (Threads Radio) Kuduro – Electronic Music of Angola (Counterflows). George&rsquos series The Strangeness of Dub (Morley Radio) dives into reggae dub versions and versioning drawing on critical theory social history and a deep and a wide cross-genre musical selection.

Edward George lives and works in London.

The Strangeness of Dub Archives - Morley Radio
Morley Radio
 
https://morleyradio.co.uk/series/the-strangeness-of-dub/

 
Crystabel Efemena Riley

During the late noughties Crystabel Efemena Riley toured Japan and Europe using drums electronics and make-up in power-noise trio Maria and the Mirrors. This was the start of her interest in patterns on skins &mdash human and drum. An interest in dimensional patterns existing on (and off) different skin surfaces exploring the idea of care and uncare: layered skins recycled drum skins smetled sculptures other metallics and electronics.

Crystabel has been a long-term collaborator with Sue Lynch who welcomed her into the Horse Improvised Music Club and later played in the London Improvisers Orchestra.

She is currently working on the multi-format duo project @xcrswx with Seymour Wright together they created the sounds for Edward George&rsquos Black Atlas film at the Warburg Institute.

 
Seymour Wright

Seymour Wright is a saxophonist. His work is about the creative situated friction of learning ideas people and the saxophone – music history and technique ­– actual and potential.

Seymours solo music is documented on four widely-acclaimed collections - Seymour Wright of Derby (2008) Seymour Writes Back (2015) Is This Right? (2017) and RITES (2023).

Current projects include: @xcrswx with Crystabel Riley abaria with Ute Kanngiesser [Ahmed] with Antonin Gerbal Joel Grip and Pat Thomas GUO with Daniel Blumberg XT with Paul Abbott The Creaking Breeze Ensemble a trans-atlantic duet with Andy Guthrie and with Jean-luc Guionnet a project addressing an imaginary lacunae in Aby Warburgs Atlas Mnemosyne.

www.seymourwright.com

@xcrswx