We are proud to present What Remains, Maggie Nicols’ first album for Bead, in collaboration with Phil Durrant on octave mandola and Emil Karlsen on percussion.


Nicols has been a central figure in European improvised circuits for nearly six decades. In 1968 she joined John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and subsequently became involved in significant groups and collaborations including Keith Tippett’s Centipede, the Feminist Improvising Group, which she co-founded with Lindsay Cooper in 1977, and Les Diaboliques with Irene Schweizer and Joëlle Léandre.

Phil Durrant has similarly worked in British and European improvised music over several decades. Initially known as a violinist through the influential trio with John Butcher and John Russell, his work has subsequently included acoustic and electronic improvisation, including collaborations with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn and longstanding involvement in ensembles like MIMEO and The SEEN. In recent years, he has increasingly worked on the octave mandola across many different formations, including a trio with John Butcher and Mark Wastell.

UK-based, Norwegian-born drummer Emil Karlsen has, in recent years, emerged as an in-demand figure on the improvised music scene, collaborating with Philipp Wachsmann, John Butcher, Dominic Lash, Phil Durrant, John Edwards and Maggie Nicols, among others. He has been a key member of Bead Records since 2022, and has also appeared on labels including Relative Pitch, 577, and Confront Recordings.

Durrant and Karlsen first met at cellist Shirley Smart’s Creations night at the Green Note in Camden, London, in 2019. Karlsen, visiting from Leeds as an invited guest musician, performed a brief duo with Durrant during the evening. They both agreed to carry on, leading to subsequent performances at IKLECTIK and Hundred Years Gallery in London. Recordings from these concerts formed their inaugural duo album, Grain.

At the album launch at Mopomoso in March 2020, Nicols was appearing in a trio with Phil Minton and the late guitarist John Russell. Having heard Durrant and Karlsen perform, she was very complimentary, and the duo invited her to join them as a trio. Within weeks, however, the first Covid lockdown brought those plans to a halt, and the new trio was put on hold for the foreseeable future.

When live music resumed, Nicols, Durrant and Karlsen were finally able to get together through a series of London performances. This culminated in a concert at Cafe OTO in February 2023 as part of Nicols’ 75th birthday celebration, documented here alongside studio recordings made the previous year.

What Remains can perhaps best be described as three generations of musicians with a shared connection to the history of improvised music, finding common ground while continuing to look forward towards new possibilities.

There is a shared emphasis on close listening, spontaneity and the possibilities that emerge when individual musical languages meet. The music moves from intimate and fragile exchanges to dense textural bursts, with all three musicians continually leaving, taking and reshaping space. Without settling into fixed roles, they move between foreground and background, supporting, interrupting and responding as the music unfolds

Limehouse Pt. 1-6 was recorded by Shaun Crook at Cable Street Studios 14th April 2022
Live at Cafe Oto Pt. 1-2 was recorded by Billy Steiger at Nicols' 75th Birthday concert at Cafe Oto 25th February 2023
Mix and master by Florence Christman
Cover photo by Emil Karlsen
Artwork and design by Emil Karlsen
Produced by Emil Karlsen for Bead Records
All music by Maggie Nicols (PRS), Phil Durrant (PRS), Emil Karlsen (TONO)


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