Robyn Steward is a London-based experimental trumpet and cornet player who took up the cornet at the age of eight, but after a period of inactivity took up the trumpet after meeting Andy Diagram of James, Spaceheads and David Thomas And Two Pale Boys in 2016.
Her use of the trumpet, played through various effects as a means of improvisation, produces a series of meandering and thoughtful dream-like vignettes that over the course of listening insinuate themselves into your head, played over a series of ambient soundscapes and separate watery worlds that are particularly effective through headphones.
These pieces are more calming than one might expect from improvised trumpet and she manages to lull the listener with the gentle, echoing tones rather than blast them from their reveries. Things grow a little more excitable with her Two Horns project with Diagram and also with The Hairdressers, which includes Kathy Hulme. The act of working as part of a group allows more energy to flow but still her trademark sound shines through.As well as being a skilled improviser, Robyn has other sides to her that take in broadcaster, author and autism trainer. It is this last skill that is perhaps her greatest passion and through this has she taken to putting on all-inclusive shows at Café Oto as Robyn’s Rocket. These are open to everybody without exception, and the event that she has organised on 18 July 2019 finds four bands performing, including two with Robyn as part of the line-up. Robyn’s Rocket takes over the venue for the evening and turns it into a home-made spaceship, with live art projected on the walls and ceiling and music. The evenings are inclusive conscious, so they try to include all people regardless of gender, ethnic origin, language or disability. She believes in particular that everybody should be able to come and enjoy the sounds on offer.
The four bands, two of whom include Robyn as part of the group, are Jazz Biscuits, where Robyn and Andrew Foster will be hosting the show and appearing with the other acts, with space trumpet and glissando guitar coming to the fore; Unreliable Witnesses will be bringing their love of covers and improvisation to the stage, the band having to second guess what lyrical content their singer will be lobbing into their midst, and no track is ever played twice; pioneering artiste Lizzie Emeh will be playing her jazzy, soul-inflected sound, bringing to musical life tales of her own experience as a singer dealing with hearing loss.
This tale is recounted in a scathing style by Simon, backed by Robyn’s spacey trumpet that drifts in a slightly sinister way around the frustrated words. Smith’s keyboard bass effects give a slow, dark rhythm that sits uncomfortably with the trumpet both doing their best to make the story resonate as clearly as possible with the listener. It is an intriguing idea that is delivered with great skill and finds me wanting to know the outcome of the life of Aubrey Itch and why a life where “there’s nothing to eat but pork pie and bubble’n’squeak” is worth putting yourself in hospital.
-Mr Olivetti-
