David Toop Interviews Phil Durrant

Phil Durran


"In the mid-1970s I was one of a small group of musicians who founded the London Musicians Collective. For a time we shared a space in Camden Town, north London, with the Filmmakers Coop. At that time it was one of the few venues for improvised and experimental music and because of that the LMC premises attracted anybody who wanted to work outside the constraints that existed elsewhere. Phil Durrant used to come along regularly, either to meetings, to perform or as a dedicated fan of the music. In recent years I’ve worked with Phil and got to know a lot more about the way he thinks and his approach to playing. The dramatic transition he has made from acoustic violin to digital sound fascinates me but I’m also interested in the transformation of a fairly busy collective style of improvisation into something less immediately responsive or active, in which the potentiality of what is held back can become as powerful as sound itself. This interview was conducted at London College of Communication, January 27th, 2011." - David Toop


  1. Transition
  2. Politics and reasons
  3. post-Webern
  4. On record




