About us

Improvizone ran rgularly from 2007 to 2010 playing live ambient semi-background music for bars and public places. We could be the centre of attention on a stage, but usually we liked to sit in the corner creating our music while people talked and came and went around us.

We formed in 2006 as an online place for improvising musicians to share their recordings, intending to use them as a means to recruit new people to play live with. Our live appearances began in 2007 with a monthly residency at Imbibe Bar in Southwark. Subsequently we played at some other locations in Central London, including the Design Museum, then maintained regular appearances for the next couple of years at The Plough in North East London. There we became not so much a background band as a feature, for which we introduced our own accompanying video projections.

Our approach was heavily based on electronics, including live percussion, encompassing legacy and modern technologies, from rare analogue effects pedals to our own looping and drum software. Our use of electronics enabled us to record very easily, and our downloads list built up well over a hundred free mp3s of appealing instrumental music. It also meant that, unlike most live bands, we could play at a controlled volume to suit the venue.

After 2010 we did not very much, besides a one-off gig in March 2012, plus some occasional 15-minute appearances by Mike Bearpark, Colin Edwin and Andrew Booker as Improvizone warming up for the Tim Bowness band (all three players were TBB members).

Then in 2019 we did three gigs. Two in the UK, in Cambridge and Durham, were organised by Charles Fernyhough. Another in Cologne, Germany, was organised by Michael Peters. Music from these gigs its making its way into releases available on Bandcamp, where we currently have three releases. After 10 years, we have now taken our vast collection of free mp3s from the 2007-2012 era offline, and a few of those feature in our first best-of release called Optimizone. Our second release is the entire 2019 Live In Cologne set, featuring the (we think) superb Number 18 Seed, which is the whole of the second set from that evening, almost unedited. Our latest release is a section from our 2019 live set at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, again capturing a vast chunk of playing almost as it happened, called The Old Library. Expect further collections soon, including some material previously unavailable as downloads.

Find us here:

Facebook Bandcamp