BBC Symphony Orchestra
Josep Pons conductor
Hallé Children's Choir
Hallé Sir Mark Elder conductor
Both pieces on this album were inspired by scientific ideas about the world we live in. Title track A Brief History of Creation,
commissioned by The Hallé Concerts Society for its Children's Choir, is
a fantastic romp through 14 billion years of history, from cell
division (the choir reduced to one single, tiny voice) to dinosaurs,
sharks, monkeys and finally to man. The Guardian said of its premiere in
2016 'Dove has a remarkable aptitude for writing music that is
challenging to sing, stimulating to listen to, yet simple to remember.
The outstanding Hallé Children’s Choir covered almost 14 billion years
entirely from memory'. Inspiration for the piece was sparked by a visit
to a James Turrell art installation."It gave me the feeling of looking
through space to the first stars: it started children’s voices singing
in my mind’s ear, surrounded by twinkling percussion. I found myself
wondering about the beginning of the universe ... I thought it would be
fun to sing about the birth of the Earth and the beginning of life",
Dove explains. Dove and the librettist Alasdair Middleton picked "the
best bits of the story" and the children perform it on this live
recording with gusto.
Gaia Theory was inspired by a trip Dove took to the Arctic –
a project called Cape Farewell, organised to allow artists to witness
climate change first-hand. Dove says the experience woke him up to the
speed and scale of changes taking place: on return, he wondered how it
might be possible 'to write about this without finger-wagging'. Dove
turned to the work of scientist James Lovelock, who developed the idea
that the Earth behaves as a self-regulating organism, which always
maintains a balance favourable for life. Lovelock himself describes this
relationship as a dance, making it natural for Dove to set to music.
The resulting piece is a celebration of the resilience of life.
Alina Ibragimova violin
Adam Walker flute
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner conductor
Hallé
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
Welsh-born Huw Watkins is one of today’s leading composer-pianists
and this album (his second for NMC Recordings) showcases his vibrant,
lyrical and impeccably crafted orchestral writing.
Both the Flute and Violin Concertos were composed for soloists with
whom he already had a close working relationship. Adam Walker is the
principal flautist for the London Symphony Orchestra, who Watkins
describes as having an 'amazing sound and control of his instrument'.
The delicate orchestration in the Flute Concerto allows the solo
flute to take flight as it weaves in and out with skittish motifs.
Alina Ibragimova is the soloist in the Violin Concerto, premiered at the
BBC Proms in 2010. The piece harnesses Ibragimova’s dynamic and
intense, fiercely intelligent playing, switching from attacking
virtuosity and molten lyricism, often in an instant. The result is
dramatic and utterly compelling.
In this album's liner notes, Steph Power writes that Watkins has
'long seemed a symphonist in waiting, with a natural affinity for
big-boned yet finely-wrought drama'. Cast in two movements, Huw Watkins’
Symphony does not strictly adhere to classical symphonic form. Rather,
the composer interprets this great tradition through his development of
ideas and use of the orchestra. The result is a thrilling, huge and
percussive sound, brimming with excitement and energy.
Morton Feldman’s “For John Cage” is the second of seven large-scale
works dedicated to artists, a series which includes Frank O’Hara, Bunita
Marcus, Christian Wolff, Stefan Wolpe, Philip Guston, and Samuel
Beckett. Feldman met John Cage in 1950, at a time when Feldman’s
composition studies with Stefan Wolpe had reached a kind of dead end.
Cage gave him encouragement, enthusiasm and permission to be himself.
They remained friends until Feldman’s death in 1987. In its austere
texture, “For John Cage” gives equal weight to the violin and piano
parts. The fact that the two instruments often play similar material
makes the contrast between the sustained sounds of the violin and the
decaying sounds of the piano especially clear.
Drum-Machines, the 2nd recording made and produced under the label Percussions de Strasbourg, marks an important turning point in our approach, that of the 4th generation of our ensemble. At the junction between contemporary and electronic music, Drum-Machines was created following a process of dynamic composition: the performers first proposed sound materials on two research residencies and then eRikm ensured the composition, the music production and mixing. Commissioned by Percussions de Strasbourg and GMEM, Drum-Machines was created on October 7 th, 2016 at Musica Festival in Strasbourg. «Les Percussions de Strasbourg perform augmented sound material that showcases the intuitive and sensitive universe of eRikm. Between rustling electric razors, the tingling of metal, swirling marbles and ballets danced by twigs, the performers caress, rub, react, transform, develop multiple modes of play and offer a fresh, delicate and unexpected exploration of sound. In a truly collective effort, both in terms of the making of materials and the design of the form and the execution of this unique piece of work, Les Percussions de Strasbourg have fully enjoyed their collaboration with one of the most recognized producers of electronic music of our time. Drum-Machines is a living sound installation marked by the imprint of five individuals that mixes sound mechanics with organic and subtle electronics, suggesting a reorganization of the boundaries of today’s forms of musical expression. » Minh-Tâm Nguyen
- Throughout the ages and their various uses, survival tools (rhombus wind instruments, flute-calls, etc.) have become musical instruments. In the context of this work, these vectors of affects co-exist side-by-side with an electro-acoustic system. This machine cannibalizes its own sound production while simultaneously thriving on sounds produced by the musicians. From this agora spring forth “multitimbral” landscapes whose edges dissolve into microtonal steppes, devoid of human action. From liminal pulsation to decimal infinity, the physicality of the sound summons an allegory to geology, from the infra thin (l’émoi – volute) to the supra massive (embâcle – doline). Drum-Machines consists of subconscious and collective archaic fields that reach all the way to the noise aberration of the contemporary world. The 21 st century begins in its great collapse, the imbalances and the disruptions of the sound masses deployed by (percussionist) organisms in movement compress time and sounds until their paroxysms. This work is the elaboration of a lengthy sifting approach in which process creates form through a dynamic composition. This process uses accumulation, manipulation and re-arrangement across several generations of sound data. Speed, pulse, timbre and instruments are subject to numerous distortions by real or virtual machines. The original intention is modified and transformed. Drum-Machines is polymorphic in its arrangement, suspended on a line of time and actions. » eRikm
This is the premiere recording of two of the great Danish composer Per Nørgård‘s most ground-breaking works for orchestra, both of which clearly show his unique position between minimalism and expressionism, or as he himself said – I stand with one foot in Western rationalism, and one in Eastern mysticism, and yet they both feel strange to me. I find myself, so to speak, at a third point.
- Works like Prisme, Luna, Iris and Voyage into the Golden Screen associate with colours and nature, and when Per Nørgård speaks about music, he also places great emphasis on the experience of nature and how we can learn something about ourselves by observing it. The basic idea in works like Iris and Voyage… is a complexity based on the widest possible simplicity. In order to understand it, one has to imagine a network of lines, each representing a rather simple melody or rhythm. The sounding result is a fascinating blend of motion and light in the wavy lines of sounds and rhythms that move towards a glittering highlight – to a synthesis of simple elements that, upon close inspection may seem irrelevant, but which nevertheless has decisive influence on the changes of the whole.
In the composer’s own words: It’s not too different from the daisy’s bloom, with 21 spiral lines moving in one direction and 34 for the other. It is fascinating to observe nature in this way. For why it is certainly very complicated, a great simplicity shines through. The same thing I strive for in my music.
Per Nørgård has always dreamed of iridescent music. As a common motif for Iris, Voyage…, and other works, he puts forth the rainbow – both because the rainbow a natural phenomenon, and because the spectator always experiences it solely from his own position. It “moves” in relation to from where we look at it. If this is transferred to the mental experience of a musical work, it means that every audience member in his own way shapes his own music. Such a large amount of “droplets” in the musical rainbow flow in every moment, so that the listener’s interpretation is highly dependent on identity and emotional state when listening. Thus, it is possible to follow the music from a self-chosen plane: one can be content with a kind of passive perception and enjoy the sound colours at a distance. Or you can immerse yourself in the work and follow the different melody lines.
The fascinating and lyrical music in Iris and Voyage into the Golden Screen is performed here, with both passion and precision by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and conductors Herbert Blomstedtand Tamás Vetö respectively.
Per Nørgård himself designed the cover of this record. We see a spiral which, when we look closer, proves to be a version of the composer’s “infinity series”. He describes the interpretation of the spiral in the following way:
1. If you play the notes in the spiral in order, from the inside out, you get the first 96 notes in the infinity series (G, A-flat, F-sharp, A, etc.) 2. If you play the notes in a vertical line, straight down from the first note of the infinity series, G, in the centre of the spiral, you also get the infinity series (G, A-flat, F-sharp, etc.) If you continue in the same way vertically down, but from the second note, A-flat, the infinity series also occurs, but turned around (A-flat, G, A, F-sharp, etc.) The same thing is true if you go vertically down from the third note, F-sharp. From the fourth note vertically down the infinity series occurs in its original order again (A, B-flat, A-flat, B, etc.) From each of the 16 notes of the innermost spiral, thus, the infinity series can occur, in the right or reverse order and in various transpositions. 3. Finally, if you follow one of the coloured lines, any of them, you will constantly pass notes which are related to one another, either in octave or major thirds. Follow, for example, the yellow line from the first G of the spiral diagonally down to the left. Then you meet the notes B, E-flat, G, B, G, G, etc.
Recorded Live at KPFA, Berkeley, CA on November 6, 1980 Jerry Hunt – electronics, percussion, piano, vocalizations Released July 27, 2018
Jerry Hunt is a unique and often misunderstood figure in New Music. His MH release from ‘Ground’ captures an excerpt from a performance of his avant-garde operatic piece Ground at KPFA’s studios in Berkeley, CA. In this unique expression of ritualistic music, the composer uses his voice and body to trigger electronic samples. Included are detailed liner notes by David Menestres. - Special thanks to Rod Stasick (aka. @rostasi ) and Michael Schell for their support and guidance
Other Minds’ Modern Hits (MH) collection continues with a new installment of four releases. Modern Hits is a series of digital-only releases focused on unearthing archival works by the unsung pioneers of electronic music from the Bay Area and beyond. Previous editions have included work by John Bischoff, Ramón Sender, Sheila Booth, and others. This latest edition features works by Tom Djll {pronounced Dill}, Jerry Hunt, Philip Bimstein, and Alden Jenks.
Further:
Philip Bimstein is a composer and politician based in a small town in rural Utah. His work often engages with the every day lives of those in the community around him. Angels, Cats & Shackles collects three vastly different works. Cats in the Kitchen is a piece for woodwind duo (expertly performed by Michele Fiala and Heidi Pinter) and an electronic accompaniment made from samples of everyday kitchen objects. Lockdown! is a haunting and moving piece made from recorded interviews with young men confined in Washington County Youth Crisis Center in St. George, Utah.
I’m very excited and honored that Other Minds (the San Francisco organization devoted to innovative music by composers from all over the world) has just released Angels, Cats & Shackles, a digital album of three of my alternative classical works, on their Modern Hits label.
"Cats in the Kitchen"—performed by Michele Fiala and Heidi Pintner—for flute, oboe, meows, purrs, cracked eggs, sliced onions, buttered toast, sizzling skillets, spoons, knives, pepper grinder, toaster oven, pots, pans, draining dishwater, and pretty much everything else in the kitchen "sync." The sound score also features feline duets and trios, cat food crunches, waterdrums, and my partner Charlotte Bell speaking to her beloved cat, Fiona McGee.
“Angels in the Cracks"—a soundscape composed from the mysterious beckoning sounds hidden within everyday things.
"Lockdown!"—composed from the voices of youths (expressing their feelings, fears, regrets, hopes and love for their mothers) who were confined in a youth crisis center, and the sounds of their jailed environment (such as slamming cell doors, locks, alarms, metal detectors, handcuffs and shackles). I composed this piece after three years of mentoring the youths on creativity and collaborative citizenship.
I hope you find delight in my music!
From Philip to me about everyone at Emusers:
Thank you very much for letting me know about Emusers; it's fascinating and it's so good to know there's such a vibrant community of new music listeners sharing their selections and opinions.
- And finally track 5 from the album:
A techno tone poem on the voices and sounds of youth in detention
Handcuffs, metal detectors and slamming cell doors become unusual musical instruments, and incarcerated teenagers become a streetwise chorus in composer Phillip Bimstein's three-movement musical work based on his volunteer work with youths confined in the Washington County Youth Crisis Center.
Bimstein was awarded the three-year New Residencies grant from Meet the Composer to write music about communities near his home in southern Utah. As an outgrowth of his arts residency Bimstein made weekly visits to the Washington County Youth Crisis Center, where he mentored the young inmates on creativity, leadership and collaborative citizenship (Bimstein also served two terms as the mayor of Springdale).
Bimstein was deeply affected by his work with the confined teenagers and felt their stories deserved be to be heard. During his visits Bimstein taped interviews in which the youths expressed their fears, regrets about past crimes, and hopes for the future. Later he transferred these recordings to his computer. With an ear to their pitches and rhythmic patterns he then wove their voices into a musical and narrative fabric.
He also recorded a wide range of sounds in the detention center: slamming cell doors, electronic locks, ratcheting handcuffs, metal detectors, alarms, and the guards’ walkie talkies. Bimstein digitally processed these sounds on his computer, exploring and mining their musical potential to create a full palette of tone and percussion. He then composed Lockdown! with funding from the Utah Arts Council’s Artist Grant program.
Bimstein’s “alternative classical” music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Abravanel Hall and London’s Royal Opera House. His works often explore social issues and tell stories in the subjects’ own voices. As a songwriter, records by his Chicago new wave rock band, Phil ‘n’ the Blanks, were college radio and MTV hits in the early 1980’s. Currently he writes songs for the chamber folk ensembles blue haiku and Red Rock Rondo. He combines these influences in Lockdown!
The third "Modern Hit":
On the aptly named Drones, Alden Jenks shares three longform pieces of
delicate synthesis recorded in the late 60s and early 70s. While the
pieces are hardly blissful, they represent somewhat of a link between
the avant-garde and New Age music scenes simultaneously percolating in
the Bay Area in that time period.
All music Composed and Conducted by Daníel Bjarnason Recorded at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik on November 27, December 17-18, 2015 & March 30-31, 2016
The Dreamers Ever Leave You is an extraordinary new dance experience, performed in a truly unique performance space in London’s Docklands. Rising star Robert Binet, a former Royal Ballet Choreographic Apprentice, has created an immersive work for the Printworks – a group of vast industrial spaces that once contained Europe’s largest printing facility.
In this remarkable venue, audiences will experience up close the full expressive power of the human form as they are allowed to pass between and around the dancers – drawn from both The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada – and observe the movement from a variety of perspectives. This beautiful work, inspired by the paintings of Canadian artist Lawren Harris, will be performed continuously in three loops throughout each evening to live music by Lubomyr Melnyk. The Dreamers Ever Leave You offers an unmissable opportunity to feel the immense and invisible power that nature holds to move us.
Graham Reynolds, Sarah Lipstate (Noveller), Paola Prestini, Foday Musa Suso, Felipe Pérez Santiago, Maja S.K. Ratjke & Yuka Honda
THE SOUND OF SCIENCE is a concert and album presenting eight pieces of music by seven celebrated composers.
Written for amplified cello and electronics, all pieces will be performed by world-renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, long time member of Kronos Quartet, cellist for John Zorn, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and many more. From West African storytelling and collaborations with Herbie Hancock, to radioactive medical procedures and tours with St. Vincent, each composer involved is celebrated for their unfettered originality, yet unique in their creative process and experience. The composers self-selected an array of scientific minds which intrigued them musically, and which represent a range of research that has shaped humanity as a whole.
All eight new works are inspired by and reflective of the scientist’s practice, and in some cases, even incorporate sounds sourced directly from their research. . .
The EP is the soundtrack of the namesake movie by Grímur Hákonarson. - About the movie:
In the Cold War, Iceland was a western democracy. The United States operated a base there and Iceland was a member of NATO. Coalitions of center-right parties ran the government and town councils all over the country. But there was one exception: In Neskaupstaður, a town of 1500 people in the east of the country, Socialists ran the show. They came to power in 1946 and kept control for 52 years. The town of Neskaupstadur has been undergoing a lot of transitions in recent years. For half a century the town was ruled by socialists and called “Little Moscow”. These days capitalism has taken over, companies have been privatized and a tunnel is being drilled through the mountain that will open the community to the outside world. Director Grímur Hákonarson tells the curious story of a town in the east of Iceland that until not very long ago was one of the most isolated places in the country.
. . . For the past 20 years, Horvitz has produced a significant body of work that is more “classical” in nature, composing five string quartets, an oratorio, two works for chamber orchestra, a work for sitting orchestra, and numerous chamber pieces. This is evident in his latest recording Those Who Remain on the newly launched label National Sawdust Tracks. The opening piece “Those Who Remain: Concerto for Orchestra and Improvising Soloist" (2015) is Horvitz’s first large- scale concerto, a two-movement, 16-minute composition for full orchestra plus improvisor. Commissioned and premiered by the Seattle Symphony and guitarist Bill Frisell, the studio recording features the Northwest Sinfonia and Frisell.
. . .Bookending Those Who Remain is These Hills of Glory (2004), Horvitz’s fourth string quartet, and the second to include improvising soloists. “These Hills of Glory" has been performed by the odeonquartet and soloists Bill Frisell, Ron Miles, Evyind King, Peggy Lee, Beth Fleenor and Carla Kihlstedt. The recording features the Seattle-based odeonquartet and clarinetist Beth Fleenor, who “provides a perfect contrast to the strings,” says Horvitz.
The Dutch-based Oerknal Ensemble celebrates it’s 5 year
jubilee with an album we believe sounds like a… big bang. Narrow
numerous brings you all new music partly commissioned for the ensemble
or often performed by them past 5 years. Artistic leader Gregory
Charette, together with 10 amazing international musicians, guides you
with great passion through the haunting world of new classical music.
Among: suffocating deep forest sounds in Nathan Heidelberger’s
‘Breather’, brutal virtuosic instrumental skills in Jason Eckardt’s ’16’
or the fascinating musical language of Jesse Broekman’s ‘Narrow
numerous’.
We’re positive this debut album of Oerknal will give you a
physical, visceral experience, just like we had during the creation of
it.
Composers: Claude Debussy, Leoš Janáček and Camille Saint-Saëns
The internationally highly regarded Ebonit Saxophone Quartet presents their new CD Arabesque on 7 Mountain Records! Debussy, Janáček and Saint-Saëns, they’re known, of course, but on four saxophones? It works brilliantly, period.
The arrangements, done by the quartet, let the bariton, tenor, alto
and soprano sax blend and combine like a piano. Fin-de-sciècle on
instruments that then nearly existed – some risks have been taken by
this brave ensemble!
Powerful and transparent, moving and massive, Ebonit has it all.
Enjoy music making by the finest young musicians around, they present
you a never static and always joyful listening experience.
No wonder this fairly young saxophone quartet gained so much positive
attention already. We’re immensely proud to present this album.
The NYU Percussion Ensemble focuses its' repertoire on
the seminal works of the 20/21st centuries. From the powerful works of
iconoclast Edgar Varese to his modern day counterpart, Frank Zappa, to
the cutting edge compositional styles of (NYU Composition and Music
Technology faculty member) Morton Subtonick.
Noted for their "Deft, skillful" performances (NY Times),
the NYU Percussion Ensemble explores the entire range of styles and
mediums, and provides a rich venue in which NYU student and faculty
composers' works are performed. To date, the ensemble has premiered over
50 new works by NYU student composers. They have collaborated with
several well-known artists including: Jan Williams, Javier Diaz, Joe
Passaro, Mike Rosen, and Robert Miller. Recent significant performances
have included George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, Alberto
Ginastera’s Cantata para América Mágica, Pierre Boulez’s Improvisations
sur Mallarmé I and II, the NY premiere of Elliot Carter’s Tintinnabulations, and Iannis Xenakis’ Persephassa.
Following their acclaimed reimagining of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives as Perfect Lives Manhattan, Varispeed tackle John Cage’s epic, rarely performed Empty Words. This overnight realization on Cage’s centennial is a meditation on the voice’s power to transform language into music. Varispeed’s new arrangement will lead audiences on a 12-hour journey of sound, from an ensemble of electronically manipulated and mutated song in the concert hall of Roulette to the noise of naked voices on the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn.
Written in the early 70’s, Empty Words stands as an epic culmination of Cage’s exploration of the “demilitar- ization” of syntax and the voice’s power to evacuate meaning and create music. Using Thoreau’s journals as his source text, Cage employed chance procedures to remove all syntax from the original, creating four separate movements through which the level of textual abstraction grows. Part One begins in the concert space of Roulette, employing multiple performers and theatrics to employ the musical extremes of language. The performance then moves to the new music community space Exapno, where Varispeed transform Part Two’s words, syllables, and letters into new spatial arrangements. Peppered with food (and perhaps a nap), Part Three employs participatory games and a solo lecture. In conclusion, listeners will become performers on a communal sound walk through Downtown Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise, vocalizing the letters of Part Four in equal partnership with the surrounding urban “silence.” Varispeed’s premiere performance of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives Manhattan was listed on Time Out New York’s Best of 2011 list and received praise in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Varispeed has worked to discover new inroads into contemporary vocal music and opera in creating site-specific, sometimes- participatory, oftentimes-durational, forevermore-experimental events. As individuals, they are all multi-facet- ed performers, composers, songwriters, and thinkers who collaborate in ensembles such as thingNY, Panoply Performance Laboratory, and Cough Button.
^^ Hmmm ? . . . I like it, but I guess it's a bit too far away from the original to be called a version. The Empty Words box was the first Cage work I bought (decades ago). I've never listened to it all the way through. I remember my first reaction was: What is the point in sitting in front of a small table reciting meaningless words for hours? - Except perhaps for the audience's reaction ? - perhaps I should give it another go.
Newish
The voice has a central place in Michael Finnissy’s output. His is an art of line, of connective lyric movement spun out over a breath; it is also a deeply humanist art, an art in ardent search of human connection, of which the voice, reaching out from the depths of the body into the world around us, is the primal vehicle. Finnissy’s work manifests across the decades an abiding concern with the complex nature of this most bodily, most physical, most personal of instruments – what it is to give voice, to vocalise, to speak or sing in different contexts and different ways, private or public, as an individual or as part of a collective.
The four works on this recording, spanning forty years, show Finnissian vocality at its most blazingly intense: displays of virtuosity that push mind and body to the limits of their flexibility, reach, stamina and control. The most recent work, Gesualdo: Libro Sesto, offers seven ‘fantasies…about music, about love and death, about the voice,’ as the composer writes, drawing on fragments of music and on texts from Gesualdo’s final madrigal book in a cycle of almost operatic scope. In the early ‘dramatic madrigal’ Cipriano, St Cyprian rigidly resists the carnal temptations of a Demon, played with flamboyant excess by the rest of the ensemble; Tom Fool’s Wooing (which lay unperformed for almost forty years before the present performance was recorded) is even more vocally extravagant, a celebration of marriage and the joys of eros, incorporating Eastern European love poetry, Spenser’s Epithalamion and an English mummer’s play. Kelir, the most abstract but also perhaps most rawly physical of the four, takes its title from the name given to the curtain onto which shadow-puppets are projected in Javanese wayang kulit (puppet theatre); by extension, writes Finnissy, ‘it is also a curtain onto which our interpretations of the world, and our fantasies, are projected.’
Oh! Don’t let anything I say about this recording sway you one way or the other. If you enjoy the sound of what you’re hearing then you should go right ahead with that. ... and if you disliked the live Italian performance on disc, then, there you go. I’m just saying that it’s not in any way Cage’s Empty Words. ... but I’m glad that I know such a thing exists. Knowledge of it is a good thing to have.
I interpreted the idea of not getting all the way through the recording as not liking it (and your first reaction as not understanding its nature), so I'm sorry if I misinterpreted that.
As for the things I have to say about a recording: well, that's just something coupled with my life experience and I can't ever really expect anyone else to come from the same direction, so I just observe and, maybe, offer some perspective. Unfortunately, my connection with Empty Words in particular (and Cage in general, I suppose) is so deeply multi-faceted that it's a bit difficult to disentangle all of it and lay it out as if it were, in some way, something that needed to be as meaningful to others. The closest I can come is to present the fact of a situation and let the observer use that info as a springboard for deciding how (s)he will respond to that situational event.
“If this music transports you into a haunting, mysterious dream world, don’t worry about it – it’s only doing its job.”
– Ingram Marshall
This CD presents the premiere recording of Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s
hauntingly immersive 70-minute "In Search of Lost Beauty…," performed by
the prize-winning Lithuanian piano trio FortVio (Indrė Baikštytė, Ingrida Rupaitė-Petrikienė and Povilas Jacunskas). This major work is
composed for piano, violin, cello, electronic soundtrack, and
synchronized video projections.
Martinaitytė remarks the work:
"In Search Of Lost Beauty..." is an hour-long sequence of audiovisual
novellas on the elusive subject of beauty. Here the experience of time
is slowed down as to transport us into an alternate dimension where the
commonly apprehended reality is inverted into the otherworldly mystique
of reflections and shadows. The amplitude of this ephemeral search for
beauty encompasses phenomena found in nature, everyday and art. There is
no particular narrative or story visualized in the piece. It is rather
an invitation to pay attention to commonly seen and familiar phenomenon,
which one could call beautiful but often wouldn’t bother to stop and
take a closer look.
“In Search Of Beauty...” was born as a
contradiction to an ever more increasing speed of our lives influenced
by technology. So often people look at the illuminated screens of their
devices rather than the surrounding world. This “search of beauty”
gently induces to slow down our usual perception and ever-fastening
mind, mostly operating in the mode of automatism, by bringing it to the
current Moment of Being.
Ingram Marshall concludes, “Martinaitytė has created a world of hidden beauty in a bridge-like form that begs you to enter.”
«The Percussions de Strasbourg embark on a journey through the enigmatic universe of Pierre Jodlowski’s ghosts. Ghostland is a troubling, intimate, uncertain, unstable and obscure territory in which a complex entity travels to the light. The voice of Katharina Muschiol, the electronic music and the fourpercussionists merge thanks to a subtle and precise writing. They compose a complex organism of sound evoking calm, anxiety, euphoria and madness at the same time.
The delicacy of this work relies on a daring and masterful performance, with whispers, squeaks, clatter of metal rods, synchronized gestures, groovesplayful drums, pulsed soundtracks and saturated guitars. Vibrant and full of sensations, this recording perfectly reflects the pleasure that this adventure represents for the Percussions de Strasbourg.
»Minh-Tâm Nguyen, Percussions de Strasbourg's Artistic director
Münchener Kammerorchester
Daniel Giglberger leader
Ensemble Modern
Johannes Kalitzke conductor
Psappha
Hebrides Ensemble
David Fennessy grew up in Maynooth, Co Kildare, playing electric
guitar in rock bands. He became interested in composition whilst
studying for his undergraduate degree at the Dublin College of Music,
and in 1998 he moved to Glasgow to study for his Masters Degree at the
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with James MacMillan. He is now a
composition lecturer there himself.
He has been described as a 'composer of deep sensitivity, style and a
knack for doing imaginative things with old samples' and this album
displays a broad range of Fennessy's music, from purely acoustic chamber
works to pieces for large ensembles involving electronics. The title
track Panopticon is scored for cimbalon and string ensemble;
the name refers to an 18th-century prison design in which cells were
arranged around a circular central chamber from where a governor could
keep an eye on prisoners at all times. Fennessy's Piano Trio
features conversations from the late 1960s between John Cage and Morton
Feldman, the music punctuating the extravagant gaps in the conversation.
13 Factories is performed here by Ensemble Modern under
Johannes Kalitzke and includes electronics plus 4 hand-held speakers
playing the sounds of old looms traditionally used in the Outer Hebrides
to produce Harris Tweed. Hirta Rounds conjures up the eerie
atmosphere of an abandoned island. Hirta is situated on remote St Kilda
archipelago on the West Coast of Scotland whose last inhabitants were
evacuated in the 1930s.
A 'live-soundtracking' performance to Dreyer's 1928 film "The Passion of
Joan of Arc" recorded live at Christuskirche in Bochum, Germany on Nov.
15, 2015 and released on CD by Substrata Sounds.
Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless,
semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor,
producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist,
amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A
relentless inquirer, she wanders recklessly across borders that separate
genre, discipline, time and geography, performing in clubs, cafes,
galleries, arenas, concert halls, sheds, ceremonies, barbecues, and
stadiums.
Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana,
Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David
Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Matana Roberts,
Dana Reason, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Mike Gamble, Mik
Quantius, Embryo, Secret Chiefs 3, Marisa Anderson, Trey Gunn and Pat
Mastelotto, Ô Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed
Pias, Byron Au Young, Christian Rizzo, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia
Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell and Lynn
Shelton.
Comments
Josep Pons conductor
Hallé Children's Choir
Hallé
Sir Mark Elder conductor
Both pieces on this album were inspired by scientific ideas about the world we live in. Title track A Brief History of Creation, commissioned by The Hallé Concerts Society for its Children's Choir, is a fantastic romp through 14 billion years of history, from cell division (the choir reduced to one single, tiny voice) to dinosaurs, sharks, monkeys and finally to man. The Guardian said of its premiere in 2016 'Dove has a remarkable aptitude for writing music that is challenging to sing, stimulating to listen to, yet simple to remember. The outstanding Hallé Children’s Choir covered almost 14 billion years entirely from memory'. Inspiration for the piece was sparked by a visit to a James Turrell art installation."It gave me the feeling of looking through space to the first stars: it started children’s voices singing in my mind’s ear, surrounded by twinkling percussion. I found myself wondering about the beginning of the universe ... I thought it would be fun to sing about the birth of the Earth and the beginning of life", Dove explains. Dove and the librettist Alasdair Middleton picked "the best bits of the story" and the children perform it on this live recording with gusto.
Gaia Theory was inspired by a trip Dove took to the Arctic – a project called Cape Farewell, organised to allow artists to witness climate change first-hand. Dove says the experience woke him up to the speed and scale of changes taking place: on return, he wondered how it might be possible 'to write about this without finger-wagging'. Dove turned to the work of scientist James Lovelock, who developed the idea that the Earth behaves as a self-regulating organism, which always maintains a balance favourable for life. Lovelock himself describes this relationship as a dance, making it natural for Dove to set to music. The resulting piece is a celebration of the resilience of life.
Adam Walker flute
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner conductor
Hallé
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor
Welsh-born Huw Watkins is one of today’s leading composer-pianists and this album (his second for NMC Recordings) showcases his vibrant, lyrical and impeccably crafted orchestral writing.
Both the Flute and Violin Concertos were composed for soloists with whom he already had a close working relationship. Adam Walker is the principal flautist for the London Symphony Orchestra, who Watkins describes as having an 'amazing sound and control of his instrument'.
The delicate orchestration in the Flute Concerto allows the solo flute to take flight as it weaves in and out with skittish motifs.
In this album's liner notes, Steph Power writes that Watkins has 'long seemed a symphonist in waiting, with a natural affinity for big-boned yet finely-wrought drama'. Cast in two movements, Huw Watkins’ Symphony does not strictly adhere to classical symphonic form. Rather, the composer interprets this great tradition through his development of ideas and use of the orchestra. The result is a thrilling, huge and percussive sound, brimming with excitement and energy.Alina Ibragimova is the soloist in the Violin Concerto, premiered at the BBC Proms in 2010. The piece harnesses Ibragimova’s dynamic and intense, fiercely intelligent playing, switching from attacking virtuosity and molten lyricism, often in an instant. The result is dramatic and utterly compelling.
Commissioned by Percussions de Strasbourg and GMEM, Drum-Machines was created on October 7 th, 2016 at Musica Festival in Strasbourg.
«Les Percussions de Strasbourg perform augmented sound material that showcases the intuitive and sensitive universe of eRikm. Between rustling electric razors, the tingling of metal, swirling marbles and ballets danced by twigs, the performers caress, rub, react, transform, develop multiple modes of play and offer a fresh, delicate and unexpected exploration of sound. In a truly collective effort, both in terms of the making of materials and the design of the form and the execution of this unique piece of work, Les Percussions de Strasbourg have fully enjoyed their collaboration with one of the most recognized producers of electronic music of our time.
Drum-Machines is a living sound installation marked by the imprint of five individuals that mixes sound mechanics with organic and subtle electronics, suggesting a reorganization of the boundaries of today’s forms of musical expression.
» Minh-Tâm Nguyen
- Throughout the ages and their various uses, survival tools (rhombus wind instruments, flute-calls, etc.) have become musical instruments. In the context of this work, these vectors of affects co-exist side-by-side with an electro-acoustic system. This machine cannibalizes its own sound production while simultaneously thriving on sounds produced by the musicians. From this agora spring forth “multitimbral” landscapes whose edges dissolve into microtonal steppes, devoid of human action. From liminal pulsation to decimal infinity, the physicality of the sound summons an allegory to geology, from the infra thin (l’émoi – volute) to the supra massive (embâcle – doline).
Drum-Machines consists of subconscious and collective archaic fields that reach all the way to the noise aberration of the contemporary world. The 21 st century begins in its great collapse, the imbalances and the disruptions of the sound masses deployed by (percussionist) organisms in movement compress time and sounds until their paroxysms. This work is the elaboration of a lengthy sifting approach in which process creates form through a dynamic composition. This process uses accumulation, manipulation and re-arrangement across several generations of sound data. Speed, pulse, timbre and instruments are subject to numerous distortions by real or virtual machines.
The original intention is modified and transformed.
Drum-Machines is polymorphic in its arrangement, suspended on a line of time and actions.
» eRikm
- Metamkine - Percussions de Strasbourg at Emusers
This is the premiere recording of two of the great Danish composer Per Nørgård‘s most ground-breaking works for orchestra, both of which clearly show his unique position between minimalism and expressionism, or as he himself said – I stand with one foot in Western rationalism, and one in Eastern mysticism, and yet they both feel strange to me. I find myself, so to speak, at a third point.
In the composer’s own words:
It’s not too different from the daisy’s bloom, with 21 spiral lines moving in one direction and 34 for the other. It is fascinating to observe nature in this way. For why it is certainly very complicated, a great simplicity shines through. The same thing I strive for in my music.
Per Nørgård has always dreamed of iridescent music. As a common motif for Iris, Voyage…, and other works, he puts forth the rainbow – both because the rainbow a natural phenomenon, and because the spectator always experiences it solely from his own position. It “moves” in relation to from where we look at it. If this is transferred to the mental experience of a musical work, it means that every audience member in his own way shapes his own music. Such a large amount of “droplets” in the musical rainbow flow in every moment, so that the listener’s interpretation is highly dependent on identity and emotional state when listening. Thus, it is possible to follow the music from a self-chosen plane: one can be content with a kind of passive perception and enjoy the sound colours at a distance. Or you can immerse yourself in the work and follow the different melody lines.
The fascinating and lyrical music in Iris and Voyage into the Golden Screen is performed here, with both passion and precision by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and conductors Herbert Blomstedtand Tamás Vetö respectively.
Per Nørgård himself designed the cover of this record. We see a spiral which, when we look closer, proves to be a version of the composer’s “infinity series”. He describes the interpretation of the spiral in the following way:
1. If you play the notes in the spiral in order, from the inside out, you get the first 96 notes in the infinity series (G, A-flat, F-sharp, A, etc.)
2. If you play the notes in a vertical line, straight down from the first note of the infinity series, G, in the centre of the spiral, you also get the infinity series (G, A-flat, F-sharp, etc.)
If you continue in the same way vertically down, but from the second note, A-flat, the infinity series also occurs, but turned around (A-flat, G, A, F-sharp, etc.)
The same thing is true if you go vertically down from the third note, F-sharp. From the fourth note vertically down the infinity series occurs in its original order again (A, B-flat, A-flat, B, etc.)
From each of the 16 notes of the innermost spiral, thus, the infinity series can occur, in the right or reverse order and in various transpositions.
3. Finally, if you follow one of the coloured lines, any of them, you will constantly pass notes which are related to one another, either in octave or major thirds. Follow, for example, the yellow line from the first G of the spiral diagonally down to the left. Then you meet the notes B, E-flat, G, B, G, G, etc.
Recorded at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik on November 27, December 17-18, 2015 & March 30-31, 2016
In this remarkable venue, audiences will experience up close the full expressive power of the human form as they are allowed to pass between and around the dancers – drawn from both The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada – and observe the movement from a variety of perspectives. This beautiful work, inspired by the paintings of Canadian artist Lawren Harris, will be performed continuously in three loops throughout each evening to live music by Lubomyr Melnyk. The Dreamers Ever Leave You offers an unmissable opportunity to feel the immense and invisible power that nature holds to move us.
- Royal Opera House - More Lubomyr Melnyk at Emusers
Lubomyr Melnyk
Written for amplified cello and electronics, all pieces will be performed by world-renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, long time member of Kronos Quartet, cellist for John Zorn, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and many more.
From West African storytelling and collaborations with Herbie Hancock, to radioactive medical procedures and tours with St. Vincent, each composer involved is celebrated for their unfettered originality, yet unique in their creative process and experience. The composers self-selected an array of scientific minds which intrigued them musically, and which represent a range of research that has shaped humanity as a whole.
All eight new works are inspired by and reflective of the scientist’s practice, and in some cases, even incorporate sounds sourced directly from their research. . .
- Jeffrey Ziegler - Golden Hornet
"The Sound of Science builds bridges between the musical and scientific worlds, celebrating their shared culture of inquiry"
Performed by Budapest Art Orchestra, Francesco Fabris, Daniel Pioro & Valgeir Sigurðsson.
The EP is the soundtrack of the namesake movie by Grímur Hákonarson.
- About the movie:
. . .Bookending Those Who Remain is These Hills of Glory (2004), Horvitz’s fourth string quartet, and the second to include improvising soloists. “These Hills of Glory" has been performed by the odeonquartet and soloists Bill Frisell, Ron Miles, Evyind King, Peggy Lee, Beth Fleenor and Carla Kihlstedt. The recording features the Seattle-based odeonquartet and clarinetist Beth Fleenor, who “provides a perfect contrast to the strings,” says Horvitz.
We’re positive this debut album of Oerknal will give you a physical, visceral experience, just like we had during the creation of it.
- 7 Mountain Records
The internationally highly regarded Ebonit Saxophone Quartet presents their new CD Arabesque on 7 Mountain Records! Debussy, Janáček and Saint-Saëns, they’re known, of course, but on four saxophones? It works brilliantly, period.
The arrangements, done by the quartet, let the bariton, tenor, alto and soprano sax blend and combine like a piano. Fin-de-sciècle on instruments that then nearly existed – some risks have been taken by this brave ensemble!
Powerful and transparent, moving and massive, Ebonit has it all. Enjoy music making by the finest young musicians around, they present you a never static and always joyful listening experience.
No wonder this fairly young saxophone quartet gained so much positive attention already. We’re immensely proud to present this album.
There seems to be no info on this one, but there's more Manoury at Emusers
- And Percussions de Strasbourg with eRikm here.
The NYU Percussion Ensemble focuses its' repertoire on the seminal works of the 20/21st centuries. From the powerful works of iconoclast Edgar Varese to his modern day counterpart, Frank Zappa, to the cutting edge compositional styles of (NYU Composition and Music Technology faculty member) Morton Subtonick.
Noted for their "Deft, skillful" performances (NY Times), the NYU Percussion Ensemble explores the entire range of styles and mediums, and provides a rich venue in which NYU student and faculty composers' works are performed. To date, the ensemble has premiered over 50 new works by NYU student composers. They have collaborated with several well-known artists including: Jan Williams, Javier Diaz, Joe Passaro, Mike Rosen, and Robert Miller. Recent significant performances have included George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, Alberto Ginastera’s Cantata para América Mágica, Pierre Boulez’s Improvisations sur Mallarmé I and II, the NY premiere of Elliot Carter’s Tintinnabulations, and Iannis Xenakis’ Persephassa.
Part One begins in the concert space of Roulette, employing multiple performers and theatrics to employ the musical extremes of language. The performance then moves to the new music community space Exapno, where Varispeed transform Part Two’s words, syllables, and letters into new spatial arrangements. Peppered with food (and perhaps a nap), Part Three employs participatory games and a solo lecture. In conclusion, listeners will become performers on a communal sound walk through Downtown Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise, vocalizing the letters of Part Four in equal partnership with the surrounding urban “silence.”
Varispeed’s premiere performance of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives Manhattan was listed on Time Out New York’s Best of 2011 list and received praise in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Varispeed has worked to discover new inroads into contemporary vocal music and opera in creating site-specific, sometimes- participatory, oftentimes-durational, forevermore-experimental events. As individuals, they are all multi-facet- ed performers, composers, songwriters, and thinkers who collaborate in ensembles such as thingNY, Panoply Performance Laboratory, and Cough Button.
Horribly done, but it's nice to know about it.
The Empty Words box was the first Cage work I bought (decades ago).
I've never listened to it all the way through. I remember my first reaction was:
What is the point in sitting in front of a small table reciting meaningless words for hours?
- Except perhaps for the audience's reaction ?
- perhaps I should give it another go.
Newish
The four works on this recording, spanning forty years, show Finnissian vocality at its most blazingly intense: displays of virtuosity that push mind and body to the limits of their flexibility, reach, stamina and control. The most recent work, Gesualdo: Libro Sesto, offers seven ‘fantasies…about music, about love and death, about the voice,’ as the composer writes, drawing on fragments of music and on texts from Gesualdo’s final madrigal book in a cycle of almost operatic scope. In the early ‘dramatic madrigal’ Cipriano, St Cyprian rigidly resists the carnal temptations of a Demon, played with flamboyant excess by the rest of the ensemble; Tom Fool’s Wooing (which lay unperformed for almost forty years before the present performance was recorded) is even more vocally extravagant, a celebration of marriage and the joys of eros, incorporating Eastern European love poetry, Spenser’s Epithalamion and an English mummer’s play. Kelir, the most abstract but also perhaps most rawly physical of the four, takes its title from the name given to the curtain onto which shadow-puppets are projected in Javanese wayang kulit (puppet theatre); by extension, writes Finnissy, ‘it is also a curtain onto which our interpretations of the world, and our fantasies, are projected.’
If you enjoy the sound of what you’re hearing then you should go right ahead with that.
... and if you disliked the live Italian performance on disc, then, there you go.
I’m just saying that it’s not in any way Cage’s Empty Words.
... but I’m glad that I know such a thing exists. Knowledge of it is a good thing to have.
As for the things I have to say about a recording: well, that's just something coupled with my life experience and I can't ever really expect anyone else to come from the same direction, so I just observe and, maybe, offer some perspective. Unfortunately, my connection with Empty Words in particular (and Cage in general, I suppose) is so deeply multi-faceted that it's a bit difficult to disentangle all of it and lay it out as if it were, in some way, something that needed to be as meaningful to others. The closest I can come is to present the fact of a situation and let the observer use that info as a springboard for deciding how (s)he will respond to that situational event.
– Ingram Marshall
"In Search Of Lost Beauty..." is an hour-long sequence of audiovisual novellas on the elusive subject of beauty. Here the experience of time is slowed down as to transport us into an alternate dimension where the commonly apprehended reality is inverted into the otherworldly mystique of reflections and shadows. The amplitude of this ephemeral search for beauty encompasses phenomena found in nature, everyday and art. There is no particular narrative or story visualized in the piece. It is rather an invitation to pay attention to commonly seen and familiar phenomenon, which one could call beautiful but often wouldn’t bother to stop and take a closer look.
“In Search Of Beauty...” was born as a contradiction to an ever more increasing speed of our lives influenced by technology. So often people look at the illuminated screens of their devices rather than the surrounding world. This “search of beauty” gently induces to slow down our usual perception and ever-fastening mind, mostly operating in the mode of automatism, by bringing it to the current Moment of Being.
Ingram Marshall concludes, “Martinaitytė has created a world of hidden beauty in a bridge-like form that begs you to enter.”
Performed by the ensemble FortVio: Indrė Baikštytė (piano), Ingrida Rupaitė-Petrikienė (violin) and Povilas Jacunskas (cello).
– pleasantly disorienting cello . . .
Jean D.L.: Guitar & Tape Machine
Sandrine Verstraete: Field Recordings
ACL review
Münchener Kammerorchester
Daniel Giglberger leader
Ensemble Modern
Johannes Kalitzke conductor
Psappha
Hebrides Ensemble
David Fennessy grew up in Maynooth, Co Kildare, playing electric guitar in rock bands. He became interested in composition whilst studying for his undergraduate degree at the Dublin College of Music, and in 1998 he moved to Glasgow to study for his Masters Degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with James MacMillan. He is now a composition lecturer there himself.
He has been described as a 'composer of deep sensitivity, style and a knack for doing imaginative things with old samples' and this album displays a broad range of Fennessy's music, from purely acoustic chamber works to pieces for large ensembles involving electronics. The title track Panopticon is scored for cimbalon and string ensemble; the name refers to an 18th-century prison design in which cells were arranged around a circular central chamber from where a governor could keep an eye on prisoners at all times. Fennessy's Piano Trio features conversations from the late 1960s between John Cage and Morton Feldman, the music punctuating the extravagant gaps in the conversation. 13 Factories is performed here by Ensemble Modern under Johannes Kalitzke and includes electronics plus 4 hand-held speakers playing the sounds of old looms traditionally used in the Outer Hebrides to produce Harris Tweed. Hirta Rounds conjures up the eerie atmosphere of an abandoned island. Hirta is situated on remote St Kilda archipelago on the West Coast of Scotland whose last inhabitants were evacuated in the 1930s.
Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, she wanders recklessly across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography, performing in clubs, cafes, galleries, arenas, concert halls, sheds, ceremonies, barbecues, and stadiums.
Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Matana Roberts, Dana Reason, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Mike Gamble, Mik Quantius, Embryo, Secret Chiefs 3, Marisa Anderson, Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto, Ô Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Byron Au Young, Christian Rizzo, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell and Lynn Shelton.