Biography
Mark Wastell performs on cello within London’s free-improvisation community. He emerged alongside a cohort of players that surfaced in the latter half of the 1990s, among them Rhodri Davies, Ian Smith, Knut Aufermann, and Caroline Kraabel. His approach draws on John Stevens’ ideas about improvisation together with the austere compositions of Morton Feldman, Luigi Nono, and Helmut Lachenmann; the result emphasizes the cello’s timbral range, close attention to fellow musicians, and severely restrained gestures. These traits locate him within the post-minimalist tendency that arose around the turn of the century in London (John Butcher, Phil Durrant), Tokyo (Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura), and Berlin (Burkhard Beins, Axel Dörner), a city where he resided for a period.
Although music had engaged him from childhood, Wastell settled on the cello only in his late teens, after earlier periods devoted to piano and double bass. He entered free-improvisation circles in 1991 and first appeared on the London Musicians’ Collective roster the following year. His initial recording occurred in 1995 as a member of the quintet Icarus, alongside violinist Philipp Wachsmann, whose influence remained audible in subsequent work. In 1996 he established the micro-label Confront, which has released numerous discs by ensembles in which he participates. His activity has since expanded at a measured yet steady pace.
From the early 1990s onward Wastell has taken part in numerous London-based projects, frequently alongside harpist Rhodri Davies. The two appear together in Chris Burn’s Ensemble—whose 1997 release Navigations and ensuing tours across Europe, Canada, and the U.S.A. helped confirm Wastell’s abilities—in Evan Parker’s Strings project, the quartet Assumed Possibilities (completed by Burn and Durrant), the trio the Sealed Knot (with Beins), the Improvising String Trio or IST (with Simon H. Fell), the London Improvisers Orchestra, and the duo Broken Consort. Over time their interplay has grown exceptionally attuned. Wastell has also performed in Necessaire with Beins, Ignaz Schick, and Alessandro Bosetti, and belongs to Tony Wren’s Quatuor Accorde. John Wall has incorporated samples of his playing into the Constructions series.
Although music had engaged him from childhood, Wastell settled on the cello only in his late teens, after earlier periods devoted to piano and double bass. He entered free-improvisation circles in 1991 and first appeared on the London Musicians’ Collective roster the following year. His initial recording occurred in 1995 as a member of the quintet Icarus, alongside violinist Philipp Wachsmann, whose influence remained audible in subsequent work. In 1996 he established the micro-label Confront, which has released numerous discs by ensembles in which he participates. His activity has since expanded at a measured yet steady pace.
From the early 1990s onward Wastell has taken part in numerous London-based projects, frequently alongside harpist Rhodri Davies. The two appear together in Chris Burn’s Ensemble—whose 1997 release Navigations and ensuing tours across Europe, Canada, and the U.S.A. helped confirm Wastell’s abilities—in Evan Parker’s Strings project, the quartet Assumed Possibilities (completed by Burn and Durrant), the trio the Sealed Knot (with Beins), the Improvising String Trio or IST (with Simon H. Fell), the London Improvisers Orchestra, and the duo Broken Consort. Over time their interplay has grown exceptionally attuned. Wastell has also performed in Necessaire with Beins, Ignaz Schick, and Alessandro Bosetti, and belongs to Tony Wren’s Quatuor Accorde. John Wall has incorporated samples of his playing into the Constructions series.
Singles
