Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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UNRELEASED RECORDING

Part 3 of 4

'ATOMIC JAM' live @ London Jazz Cafe April 14th 1996

ALAN WILKINSON - saxes
SIMON H FELL - double bass
LEE RANALDO - guitar
LOL COXHILL - soprano sax
PAT THOMAS - piano
STEFAN JAWORZYN - guitar
THURSTON MOORE - guitar
TONY IRVING - drums

From korperschwache.com/skull/disc/stefan_disc.html
"It was perfect timing that in April 1996, both Ascension and Descension members performed two dates with, respectively, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, and Sonic Youth. The first date, at London's Jazz Cafe, comprised of the following musicians: Tony Irving, Stefan Jaworzyn, Simon Fell, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, Alan Wilkinson (saxes), Lol Coxhill (soprano sax), Pat Thomas (piano). This collective performed an hour-long improvisation where members dropped in and out of the proceedings at various points, and some highly-charged performances were wrung out (I remember an Irving/Thomas duet as being a particular highlight).
The next performance three days later has gathered some amount of notoriety. Descension were supporting Sonic Youth at London's Forum, then touting their wares for the WASHING MACHINE album. A moronic proportion of the audience decided that being "forced" to listen to a non-"alternative" rock outfit was too much to bear, yelling out the usual abuse and throwing pint glasses and bottles stagewards. Descension coped well under the circumstances, if a little strained, until a projectile hit Tony Irving directly. Diving into the audience to altercate with the offender, he unfortunately jumped upon a girl who hadn't been responsible, who followed him back on-stage to "respond." She was dragged off by a bouncer, and the band quickly re-composed themselves. With a thoroughly polarised, hostile and near-violent atmosphere in the audience, Descension played an absolute storming 20 minutes, only curtailed by a pint of lager falling directly onto Stefan's pedals (the real danger of electrocution stopping him performing). The amazing response at the conclusion of their set had to be witnessed to be appreciated -- 50% of the audience booing and yelling abuse, 50% cheering wildly for Descension. Sonic Youth's wretchedly boring performance afterwards only served to make it further Descension's night."

DESCENSION live @ The Forum, London April 19th 1996 youtu.be/npI9mM7rZJE