Hannah makes music and plays the 'cello using improvised performance, cross-arts collaboration, composition and sound design.
She is interested in movement, consciousness of sound, subconscious contributions to creativity and questioning divisions - using sound, music, and audio-visual pursuits, including film and drawing.
She records for various personal and public projects using a variety of instruments, environmental sounds and voice, collaborates on new compositions, plays with regular groups, spontaneous collaborations and solo.
At times she treats the cello as a collection of parts to be manipulated and dismantled, at others she plays traditionally. She enjoys combining the two.
She collaborates with people in performance and film, creating atmospheric sound, as well contributing to the story-telling process. She is co-artistic director and performer with The Ding Foundation, and has devised and collaborated with a number of other theatre and arts companies including: Wild theatre, Norwich Puppet Theatre, A2, People Show, Little Angel Theatre, Improbable, Angika Dance, Monstro theatre, Royal Opera House, Medusa Media, Emma Bernard, The London College of fashion and the Young Vic.
She has played in new compositions by composers connected to improvised and experimental music including: Simon Fell, John Butcher, Tim Hodgkinson, Dylan Bates, Julie Kjaer, Sam Eastmond, Constantin Dimitrescu, Michael Oliva, Julien Pontvienne, Alexander Hawkins, Eva-Maria Houben & Alex Ward.
She has held monthly musicians gathering 'OME' in Bristol in 2016-2017 that used a variety of methods for group communication and improvisation informed by but not limited to John Steven's search and reflect. And she has contributed to large ensembles including: Moss Freed's 'Union Division', Rick Jenson's Skronk, The London Improvisors Orchestra, Insub Meta Orchestra, Maggie Nicol's 'The Gathering' and The Brian Irvine Ensemble.
Artists Hannah has played with include: Veryan Weston (sol 5 and sol 6), Alison Blunt & Ivor Kallin (Barrel), Rachel Musson, John Edwards, John Russell, Roger Turner, Tony Marsh, Dave Tucker, Evan Parker & Matt Wright's Trance map+, Nick Malcolm, Lauren Kinsella, Sylvia Hallett, Ansuman Biswas, Ntshuks Bonga, Steve Beresford, Black Top, Xhosa Cole, John Butcher, Jacques Demierre, Luc Ex, Diatribes, Dan Am, Ingrid Laubrock, Bernadette Russell & White Rabbit.
Hannah tutors music learners regularly in schools and community, guiding musicianship, creative practice, and practical playing with people of all ages and experience.
Please get in touch to discuss a project or collaboration.
Excerpts from reviews of performances and recordings:
'Tuning Out' (Emanem) with Veryan Weston & Jon Rose:
"The result is unusual to say the least, and often stunnning, not the solemn or reverent sounds you expect in churches, but rather the nervous and agitated sounds that correspond with nature on a windy day, when trees and grasses and plants wave back and forth, pushed in the same direction, full of intensity and relentless dynamics yet without moving as such, still firmly rooted somehow in the natural sound of each instrument. Or is it not? Not entirely, because not only are the organ stops used to create microtones, the strings are also tuned differently to allow for a better and more surprising interaction and dialogue. Jon Rose compares the collaboration of organ and strings to the most basic animal digestive system : wind, guts and pipes. This sounds irreverent, and the music itself is not as digestive as described here......Quite to the contrary, the effects of the quarter and eighth tones result in quite surprising music, totallty unfamiliar and new, yet at the same time strangely welcoming too. You do not always grasp what is going on - at least I don't - yet the combination of sounds is strong, and leads the listener to dark atmospheres, fresh surprises, light and playful interactions. Like with all good music, you can only surrender to what is being presented, and enjoy the journey, even if it leads you to uncharted territories" - Stef - Free Jazz Collective
'Tulse Hill' - solo record with Linear Obsessional:
"BRILLIANT improv pieces for solo detuned cello by glorious Hannah Marshall !!!! - minimal & rhythmic & instant & also eternal !!! - first BC random-hit of the day !!! - there is a god !!!!" -Pyongyang Plastics
The Ding Foundation's 'Wild Life' theatre production:
"..perfect, sensuous clarity of performance. A heartfelt play, Wild Life serves up a jungle of emotions, the urge to make sure you never fall into the pit of personal abandonment and become stale, a ghost of yourself; for nobody should ever feel that small or insignificant. A wonderful production! Ian D. Hall - Liverpool Sound and Vision
Live performance with John Edwards - Bass & Alex Ward - Clarinet:
"The trio play two long pieces, with every note forged an act of co-operative discovery, every pattern of sound new, transient and fleeting, never to be heard again" Morning Star Online.
'Gratuitous Abuse' (Emanem) Barrel with Ivor Kallin - Viola & Alison Blunt - Violin:
"...imagine three first class musicians locked up in a time capsule, having associated with various shamans, drunk Romanian fiddlers, Yiddish chant leaders, the serialists, especially Webern. Then folks like Ligeti, Satie, and various Dadaists pop their head round the door from time to time to put in their tuppenceworth. After a few months you let them loose in the 21st century to pick up on the very new....." Fouter & Swick
Halftone with Yvonna Magda - Violin, Tina Hitchens - Flute & Caitlin Callahan - Bass:
"The foursome play an unsettling, absently beautiful post classical music evoking wind in the trees, unresolved conversations and difficulties around corners" – Misfit City.
Wild Theatre's 'Stone Belly' Theatre production:
'...A trance-like hypnotic power, magnified by Hannah Marshall's specially composed score it lured the audience smoothly and effectively into it's world of dreams and memories, a place inhabited by discarded and forgotten things..." Animations Online -Isabel Smith
'Haste' (emanem) with Ingrid Laubrock - Tenor Saxophone & Veryan Weston - Piano:
Replacing the absolute bass of the music, Marshall nonetheless shows up with brilliant passages where she reinvents melodic lines, provides spectacular harmonic intervention, and sets the pulse around which much of the music revolves. Together, these three musicians have created an ingenious document where past and present collide revealing a glimpse what might be in a not-so- imaginary future.
Live performance with Julie Kjaer - Alto Saxophone & Rachel Musson - Tenor Saxophone:
" a single diaphonous improvisation of heart stopping intensity and quietude that brings the entire room into a tip-toed state of heightened awareness..." Daniel Spicer - The Wire.
“Their set was a dynamic union of artists, breathing and thinking as one“ M. Holland, Ears4Eyes.
Tulse Hill:
"..with 'Tulse Hill' Hannah Marshall has proven herself to be a solo player of imagination and intelligence; recording an album of deceptively simple but very rewarding and hypnotic music. A series of small meals that combine in a feast for the ears and mind." -Michael Holland - Ears For Eyes
