Raymond Macdonald & Steve Malley, ADRA

Live @nanmoors Raymond MacDonald & Steve Malley "Bringing together two distinctive and deeply individual musical voices, Raymond MacDonald and Steve Malley (Horse Loom/Unit Ama) create performances that draw audiences into an intimate narrative celebrating folk lyricism, jazz expressionism and contemporary sound exploration. MacDonald's internationally acclaimed saxophone work, renowned for its emotional depth, spontaneity, and fearless creativity, meets Malley's richly textured guitar playing in a musical dialogue that is both warm and expansive.Malley weaves together alternative folk, spontaneous improvisation, and atmospheric storytelling into a deeply immersive musical landscape. Rooted in acoustic traditions yet unbound by convention, his work finds a compelling counterpart in MacDonald's soaring soundscapes, which draw on jazz, pop, and decades of genre-defying experimentation and whose playing has been characterised by The Wire as "mid period Albert Ayler hitchhiking in the Scottish highlands, yet melodically unique and utterly wild and free".Drawing on a wealth of musical experience and a shared commitment to listening, risk-taking, and communication, the duo crafts music that unfolds in the moment. Their performances move effortlessly from delicate, atmospheric passages to powerful and immersive exchanges, revealing a unique musical language shaped by curiosity, trust, and imagination.At once lyrical, adventurous, and deeply engaging, Raymond MacDonald and Steve Malley invite audiences into a world where melody, texture, and improvisation converge, creating music that is immediate, unpredictable, and profoundly human”. ADRA Andy Abbott is an artist, musician and writer who lives in West Yorkshire, UK. For a long time Andy was synonymous with pummelling noise; playing guitar in celebrated Leeds bands such as the ferocious duo That Fucking Tank or the double-drumming psych outfit Nope. However, in recent years – under his solo moniker ADRA – he has been making minimalist abstract music, alongside more acoustic and ambient-leaning explorations. In 2024 Andy released 'Music For Psychiatric Wards (And Fluid Structures)'; a compilation of recordings inspired by his experiences as a creative practitioner performing ambient music in psychiatric wards across Yorkshire in 2023. Since then he has continued to explore site and context responsive approaches to composition including a sound collage reflecting civic life in Calderdale, and music for former municipal swimming baths in Bergen. Previous releases include tapes and vinyl for Bloxham Tapes, Reverb Worship and Folklore Tapes. He has collaborated with Alice Hubble, Aby Vulliamy and Dean McPhee; and shared tours and bills with Maurizio Abate and Above the Tree, Edgars Rubenis, Ex-Easter Island Head and Norway’s Soft Noise Ensemble.