Monkey Puzzle Trio has been played on NTS in shows including The Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show w/ Charlie Bones, featured first on 28 January 2016. Songs played include Orange Car.

MONKEY PUZZLE TRIO

A long term slowly evolving music project featuring This Heat drummer/lynchpin Charles Hayward, bassist Nick Doyne-Ditmas and the words, voice and textures of avant-vocalist Viv Corringham, whose music walks a tightrope between song, improvisation and sound-as-sound.

Soon to release their debut album ‘White World’ on forward thinking indie label Slowfoot – Their music is driven by the restless energy, invention and power of Hayward’s drumming and underpinned by the languid and exploratory double bass playing of Doyne-Ditmas, to which Corringham adds, with the aid of a loop pedal, her unique collage of words and sounds….

“We are making new song forms based on live improvisation. Every song is created in the actual moment of performance. I arrive at each gig with a fresh stack of lyrics and choose which one to use as the song starts to unfold". [V.C]

Together they create a distinctive sound world which is exhilarating and immersive and relies on the sensitivity and experience of all three musicians.

Charles Hayward – drums, keyboards, melodica

Known as the pioneering drummer with seminal experimental rock band This Heat and Camberwell Now, an ever growing list of solo concerts and cds, special collaborative performances, and is in Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.

Recent releases include – About with Pat Thomas, John Coxon and Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip [with whom he has also recently collaborated] and Clear Frame with Hugh Hopper, Lol Coxhill, Orphy Robinson and Robert Wyatt.

“Telepathic magic… … Hayward is one of the most life affirming who stalks this dark globe” [freq.co.uk]

Viv Corringham - electric voice, mini-disks British vocalist, currently based in Minneapolis, USA, who makes performances, installations and soundwalks.  Her work has been presented extensively worldwide, and she has collaborated with the likes of Didier Petit, Milo Fine, Peter Cusack, Lol Coxill, Pat Thomas, Eddie Provost, Gino Robair, Maggie Nicols, Ansuman Biswas and Paul Burwell.

Nick Doyne-Ditmas – double bass

Since working with acclaimed avant-jazzers Pinzki Zoo in the mid 80's he has been a mainstay of the south London music scene for many years, collaborating many times with drummer Charles Hayward and with artists/bands as diverse as H2C7, Charles Stuart, Skip Macdonald, Vibration Black Finger & K-Scope. He is currently recording and performing with Crackle, whose debut album ‘Heavy Water’ was released on Slowfoot in 2008.