| Clive Bell studied shakuhachi (Japanese flute) with Kohachiro Miyata in Tokyo, and the khene (Lao mouth organ) in Laos and Thailand. In 2004 he has played shakuhachi live on Radio 3's Late Junction, at the John Cage Festival, the Spitalfields Festival (with the BBC Singers), and Japanese festivals in Warrington and Gillingham. He also plays a range of unusual flute and reed instruments from the Far East, Crete, Turkey and Wales. In 2003 he spent six weeks in Tokyo working on Complicite's theatre production of The Elephant Vanishes, based on short stories by Haruki Murakami; and in 2004 contributed to Complicite's Measure For Measure at the National Theatre.
Clive has composed music for IOU Theatre, Kazuko Hohki, The Little Angel Theatre, the Whalley Range All Stars, and drama on Radio 4. He plays in the Japanese classical music group, Japanesque. He has played on Jah Wobble's last 16 albums, and writes for contemporary music magazine The Wire. Clive's solo album of traditional shakuhachi music is on the ARC label. His involvement in improvisation includes a duo with Sylvia Hallett, and a CD titled Sleep It Off with Mike Adcock on the Emanem label.
|  photo Sean M Kelly |