“That community thing’s really important”, says music workshop facilitator, Tor Festival founder, and improvising trombonist Sophie Cooper, speaking to Abi Bliss in The Wire 458. “It’s inspired me as an artist to keep going,” she continues. “I love people and I love music, so engaging with other people and hearing what they’re doing, I find it constantly interesting and inspiring.”

Based in Todmorden in West Yorkshire, Cooper regularly puts on events under the name Tor Bookings and also runs Tor Festival which she founded in 2014 with illustrator and musician Jake Blanchard. Also a frequent collaborator, Cooper has worked with Delphine Dora, Roy Claire Potter, Julian Bradley and others.

These two improvisations were taken from a longer set performed with French folk artist Emmanuelle Parrenin at Cafe Oto on 2 September 2019, the day after the most recent Tor Festival.

Read more about Cooper's many live projects and her activities within Yorkshire's experimental sound community inside The Wire 458. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital magazine archive.