Efpi Records is proud to present the eagerly anticipated debut EP from the Beats & Pieces Big Band. The EP’s 5 tracks feature many of Manchester’s finest young improvising talents performing original compositions for jazz ensemble influenced not only by jazz, but by rock, electronica and contemporary classical music amongst others.
1. bake
2. yafw (part iii)
3. [...]

JOHN ZORN!! JOHN ZORN!! JOHN ZORN!!!!
Ok, we’ve not got him, but The Noise Upstairs is presenting a free workshop on Cobra, his most famous piece. The blurb follows…
The Noise Upstairs Workshops
John Zorn’s Cobra is either an often performed contemporary music composition, an improvisational game, a short attention span barrage of noise, a social experiment, [...]

So over the weekend, I got a chance to play with Skamel again. For those of you that don’t know (which is probably most of you), Skamel is a six piece that me and my brother set up a few years ago to play his arrangements of Raspigaous tunes (they’re a French ska band [...]

Just thought I’d list a few of the gigs that I’m really looking forward to checking out this month, in Manchester and beyond…
Tues 2nd, 13.00 – Tom Arthurs/Jasper Hoiby/Stu Ritchie with Elysian String Quartet Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Thurs 4th, 20.00 – Beats & Pieces Big Band The Spin Off, Bar Santiago, Leeds
Thurs 11th, 20.00 – Kit [...]

Good friends of Efpi, the Moss Project are currently undertaking a UK tour and you should definitely check them out in a city near you… The group is headed by guitarist Moss Freed and he’s got himself a new line up for these dates, featuring our very own Sam Andreae and Acoustic Ladyland’s Ruth Goller [...]

Its about time we concluded the epic tale of our business trip to Helsinki – apologies if you’ve been waiting in suspense for the rest of the story…

The main focus of the trip was the Efpi Showcase gig, featuring HAQ, local duo Sagolik, and Beats & Pieces Finland – a big band featuring the cream [...]

Merry Christmas one and all! To thank you all for your support in 2009 we thought we’d prepare a lovely festive message to get you in the spirit of things… Best wishes for 2010!

Well, I’ve now said my farewells in Helsinki. It was really hard to leave, I think we’d managed to build a really strong community both as friends and musicians in our short time together. I have no doubt we’ll be staying in touch and our paths will be crossing many times in the future! Much [...]

So me and Anton have been in Finland for the past few days visiting Sam and for a few gigs and jams and stuff with some Helsinki musicians. Its been great so far, but pretty cold…

Efpi Records’ two releases received a joint review by Mike Butler in yesterday’s (11th December) Manchester Evening News, with the Hunter/Andreae Quartet’s EP. 1 gaining 3/5 stars and the Beats & Pieces Big Band’s EP 4/5.

Hey there, this was the first outing (and my first proper gig in Helsinki) with my new Trio, a load of people turned out and there was a really good response to the music. The venue was a small bookshop in the center of the city, really nice place to play and many thanks to [...]

Howdy everybody,

Check out our new artist videos available for your perusal…..

Terve, Moi! – Greetings from Helsinki!!
This is my first post written from my new home here in Finland, how exciting…..
I won’t bore you with details of everything I’ve been up to while out here, just a few, and I thought everyone back in Manc might like to check out some of the music I’ve found [...]

Those of you who are regular readers of the excellent Jazzwise magazine may have noticed mention of our very own Hunter/Andreae Quartet in the reviews section of the October 2009 issue (with Empirical on the cover).

So I just got back from playing at Holy Trinity Church in Leeds with the Huddersfield Experimental Laptop Orchestra and the inclusive improv collective. All part of the Leeds Expo which looks really good (can’t make it to anything else due to other gigs unfortunately).
First off, our very own Ben Cottrell performed Oliver Carmen’s [...]

At the start of August we had the Beats & Pieces Big Band in the studio for a couple of days to record for an exciting upcoming release on Efpi Records. I’ve put up some pictures from the recording session, taken by Sam Healey, on the Beats & Pieces website – click on the photos [...]

What a night, the bands played some great music to a fantastically high standard and a drunken night was had by all! BRAVO!

Here’s some audio and photos to keep as a memento….

We had a great time playing at the jazz fest earlier in the week, thanks to everyone who came down and a big thanks to everyone who snapped up the CDs we had down there. Sorry we didn’t have more……
Here’s a recording of the gig if you missed it/want to listen again.
Hunter/Andreae Quartet
Sam Andreae – [...]