★Another Timbre
Among the Tarnished Stars / Quatuor pour la fin du temps
The UK ensemble Apartment House performs two works: Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps in six movements, and Linda Catlin Smith's Among the Tarnished Stars, taking a fresh modern approach to the Messiaen, drawing out its experimental character, and the sense of drama and intricate gradations of sonority in Smith's rich and mysterious work.
Point/Wave
The first piece composer Catherine Lamb has written specifically for acoustic guitar was commissioned by Chilean guitarist Christián Alvear. Extending concepts from an installation piece titled Secondary Rainbow with Bryan Eubanks, Lamb employs electronics over an infinite cycle of four "environmental chords" which overlap and resonate with one another.
Breaths
Three works from Italian composer and pianist Federico Pozzer in his "breathing" series, compositions where the musicians follow the concept of inhaling, exhaling, and pausing, set against certain fixed actions or interactions as they devise their own musical actions."My first 'breathing pieces' were written at the end of 2016... I was looking for a solution that could overcome both the players' freedom in decision-making and the strictness of the score. What I wanted was to lead musicians towar…
Awirë
Cyril Bondi, Pierre-Yves Martel and Christoph Schiller formed a trio in 2017 and recorded a set of studio pieces which became the CD Tse, which was released on Another Timbre in 2018. The CD was very successful and has nearly sold out. On the back of that CD, the trio did a brief tour of Europe in October 2018, and played at Cafe OTO in London together with violinist Angharad Davies. The trio played a set, followed by a solo by Angharad, and then for the final piece the trio joined forces with A…
Windfell
James Weeks’ major work for singing violinist, Windfell, has been released on the leading British experimental music label Another Timbre. Written for and performed by Canadian violinist Mira Benjamin, Windfell debuted in October / November 2017 at concerts in London and in Durham University’s Klang series. Lasting almost an hour, Windfell arose from ‘an image of the violin surrounded by space and open air: on top of a hill, high-up and remote, played only by the wind. On this ‘wind fell’ the br…
Femenine (Apartment House)
Apartment House give new life to Julius Eastman’s irrepressible ensemble piece from 1974. Unbounded energy and clarity of sound. Unmissable. Read the following interview with the Apartment House's director, cellist cellist Anton LukoszeviezeWhen did you first play Julius Eastman's music, and when had you become aware of it?I first performed Eastman's music in 2016, which was a revelation for me, as the extant scores are rather fragmentary and incomplete, some are even just transcriptions from ar…
Dethick
Another church, another country, and another unique collaboration. Angharad Davies combines with Japanese sound artist Rie Nakajima and the virtuoso cellist from Distractfold ensemble, Alice Purton, in a series of explorations in the small church in the Derbyshire village of Dethick. The trio improvised, then developed and refined ten short pieces across two days, producing music which is as good as improvisation gets.
Beissel
A collaboration between Austrian composer Klaus Lang and the ensemble Golden Fur (James Rushford, Judith Hamann & Samuel Dunscombe). Together they developed a piece in the abbey at Sankt Lambrecht in Austria, using music by the eighteenth century religious composer Johann Beissel, who developed a compositional system which he claimed to have received from angels, and which has been described as a very early precursor of serialism. The result is an extraordinary piece of music: fragility blown th…
Nun, Es Wird Nicht Weit Mehr Gehn
A really beautiful new release from Skogen, taking a song from Winterreise as its starting point, but transformed in Magnus Granberg’s usual magical way into a shifting, shimmering ocean of sounds.
Viola Torros
4 compositions from violist/composers Catherine Lamb & Johnny Chang, the 1st focusing on the mysterious compositions of Vedic-era composer Viola Torros, exploring monady, melody and harmony; the second, one composition each from Chang performed with the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, and from Lamb using the secondary rainbow synthesizer she developed with Bryan Eubanks..The summer I arrived in Berlin, I began meeting with Johnny around music-related things and he started mentioning a composer he w…
Un Lloc entre Dos Records
Submerging the listener into the immediacy of pure perception through the economy of materials and atemporality, Catalan guitarist Ferran Fages presents the 3rd piece of his trilogy for guitar and sinteones, referencing Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier and Chiyoko Szlavnics as he specifies tunings for the guitar accompanied by pure resonating sinetones used as memory vehicles or shadows.
Aftermaths
Works for solo piano by Mark R Taylor, beautifully played by Teodora Stepancic, the first CD release by a remarkable but neglected English composer whose piano works present a metrically rhythmicized exploration of a generative spectrum, here featuring works dating between 1979 and 2018 and performed by Serbian pianist Teodora Stepancic.
Lines and Tracings
Two compositions, one by composer Michael Pisaro and performed by the electroacoustic ensemble "Ordinary Affects" including violinist Morgan Evans-Weiler, then an acoustic composition from Evans-Weiler himself performed with violin, clarinet, cello, harpsichord and piano; both exquisite works that draw out tone and time in patiently unfolding fluidity.
Momentary Encounters
Finally the second batch of CDs in the highly-acclaimed Canadian Composers Series is here.Momentary encounters(5) (2015) by Heather Roche (clarinet). Any three players (2016) by John Lely (melodica), Simon Limbrick (vibraphone), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello). A grey, bent interior horizon (2016) by Cristian Alvear (guitar), Distributed tourism (2014/17) by Mira Benjamin (violin), Simon Limbrick (vibraphone), Heather Roche (clarinet), Nancy Ruffer (flute), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello).Four fine, delic…
O Zomer!
Finally the second batch of CDs in the highly-acclaimed Canadian Composers Series is here.O Zomer! (2007) by Apartment House, Philip the Wanderer (2012) by Philip Thomas (piano) & Clemens Merkel (whistling). For Mira (2012) by Mira Benjamin (violin). Duet for Cello and Orchestra (2015) by Charles Curtis (cello), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducor Ilan Volkov.Two ensemble works and two solo pieces by Christian Wolff’s favourite contemporary composer, who is blazing a very personal trail th…
Just So
Finally the second batch of CDs in the highly-acclaimed Canadian Composers Series is here.Just So (2008/18). 5 Warblework (2011). About Bach (2015). Leaving (2011) by Quatuor Bozzini with Clemens Merkel & Alissa Cheung (violins), Stephanie Bozzini (viola), Isabelle Bozzini (cello).Another disc of extraordinary music by Cassandra Miller, this one containing four string quartets superbly played by Quatuor Bozzini.
Two2 (2CD)
Landmark recording of John Cage's late work for two pianos, played by Mark Knoop and Philip Thomas. Uniquely for Cage's number pieces, Two2 doesn't use time brackets, so duration is open and left to the musicians' 'inner clock'. Previous recordings have lasted between 35 and 74 minutes, but this new version stretches across two CDs and lasts 128 minutes, revealing new depths and sonorities in the music. "A major achievement.”Brian Olewnick, Just Outside
Es Schwindelt Mir, Es Brennt Mein Eingeweide
Hot on the heels of his wonderful piece on the Early to Late CD released earlier this year, a new hour-long work for an ensemble of six musicians by Swedish composer Magnus Granberg. The piece borrows material from a song by Schubert, but transforms it into Granberg's typically taut and focused soundworld: "The expressiveness of the song has been subdued or silenced, and has become something which takes place somewhere beneath the surface of the music.
Tse
Beautiful and thoughtful music by the trio comprised of Cyril Bondi (indian harmonium, pitch pipes), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, pitch pipes), Christoph Schiller (spinet). Improvised, but on the basis of a pre-agreed sequence of pitches, allowing the musicians to explore melody in a way that is rare within improvisation. "Five pieces by a new trio, who improvise but on a pre-agreed sequence of pitches, allowing a much greater use and exploration of pitch and melody than is usual in impro…
H
Cristián Alvear & Taku Sugimoto (guitars). Recorded live in concert at Ftarri, Tokyo, November 2017. This piece was originally composed for ‘Songs’, a duo project with Minami Saeki, a female singer who I have been working with recently, when we had a tour in Europe last October. The piece, ‘h’, was actually completed in an airplane flying from Denmark to Finland where we were to have some concerts. We simply needed a new song (or more) which would be different from what we had played on the tour…