About:

'Mahood' are Walt and Graham Foster. Graham plays electric bass, double bass, stick, objects, and electronics.

Walt and Graham started their musical association in the early eighties, playing together in a band called, 'Plug'. From that period onwards they have often been joined by the guitarist Chris Hancox.

Walt's work with Graham over the years has been very significant. It's a very special collaborative relationship.They worked together in BET4, performing in the Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and in Paris and Germany. They were together in a number of bands, 'Borderline Guerillas' and 'Betango', these two together probably being the most significant. The former was with Corey Mwamba on vibes, Rocco Franchelli on accordion, Unkle Peechi aka Pete Farmer on turntables and banana and often joined by Lol Coxhill on saxes. The latter was a tango quartet with Walt, Graham, Oli Mathews on sax and Rocco Franchelli on accordion.

Graham played a major part in Walt's Arts Council England projects, 'Polarities', 'Timepoints' and 'Entropic'. Walt reciprocally performed in Graham's ACE project, 'The Rise of Robert'. They worked together in the 'Synaesthesia' project and both are musicians in Birmingham Improvisers Orchestra. They collaborated in many other projects too.

It was a natural outcome of their collaboration to form a duo at some point.

This happened in 2004. The work of 'Mahood' explores a sphere that integrates improvised sound-worlds with a live art dimension. Improvised and structured actions are as important as the musical improvisation. The duo also work within installation contexts. After many experimental and exploratory rehearsal sessions they performed at 'Fizzle', Birmingham in 2005.

This was followed by an installation and live performance in the watertower of the Kunsthalle, Lingen, Germany, June 2006 'Pile of Rubble' installation and live performance at Osnabrück Bienalle, 'Wahlverwandtschaften' in the Dominikanerkirche. July / August 2006

The 'Pile of Rubble' project, with elements of free improv, improvised action and installation was performed at 'Fizzle', Birmingham shortly afterwards, with the renowned saxophonist, Lol Coxhill.

In 2008 'Mahood' performed a live art / improv piece at Sheffield's 'Freenoise' organised by Johnny Drury. Also they performed at venues in the Midlands.

2009 saw 'Mahood' at Oxford Jazz Festival and Birmingham's 'Radio Black Forest', with sax player Herve Perez guesting.

Since then they have performed many times locally, often with guests such as Birmingham's Bruce Coates, saxophones and Sheffield musician Martin Archer.