Organ scholar turned jazz musician, Kit Downes has spent his career sidestepping specific labels about his music, trying instead to pursue all his evolving interests. He’s played in jazz quartets, yes – his time in the award-winning Empirical, for example – but has also made contemporary folk recordings with Aidan O’Rourke, explored kaleidoscopic tuning systems with composer Max de Wardener, written one-handed studies for pianists with hand injuries and played avant-garde noise with cellist Lucy Railton. There are common elements in all of the above – but no two projects are the same.
Downes’ appearance at hcmf// 2017 was another surprise: playing organ alongside saxophonist Tom Challenger, he explored ‘duration, vibration and mechanics’, the duo interrogating the meta of music through extended techniques. His first recording for the ECM label, Obsidian was a different kind of improvisation, rooted in Downes’ musical training but tearing away from it, too.