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press release: Jürg Frey: l'air, l'instant - deux pianos (elsewhere 014)
Jürg Frey’s unique compositional approach places him at the cutting edge of contemporary classical music. Since the late 90's, Frey started to work with 'lists' as a basis of his compositions, sometimes words, sometimes chords, from which he developed and organized musical materials. In recent years, Frey's focus on 'lists' has extended more toward the connections of items with each other, forming melodies.
Frey wrote two compositions for two pianos in 2017-2019: ‘Entre les deux l'instant’ (2017/2018) and 'toucher l’air (deux pianos)’ (2019). ‘Entre les deux l'instant’ was world-premiered by Dutch pianists Reinier van Houdt and Dante Boon at Splendor Amsterdam and was later recorded there together with 'toucher l’air' by the same two pianists in the presence of Frey in Amsterdam in 2019.
The first piece on this album, 'toucher l’air (deux pianos)', was composed in close connection to Frey’s previous composition 'Entre les deux l'instant'. This piece consists of seven movements, written for two parts for piano 1 and piano 2, in which two pianists play each part at the same time with subtle similarities but in different tempos. The interaction between the two is only vaguely shown in the score, giving this piece a mixed sense of openness and closeness, separation (or aloneness) and intimacy.
The second piece on this album, 'Entre les deux l’instant', consists of two parts: ‘Melody’ and ‘List of Sounds’. Melody starts with pianist 1 (Van Houdt), then continues with pianist 2 (Boon), going back and forth between two pianists to the end. When one pianist plays Melody, the other plays a note(s) from List of Sounds given in order in the score. The pianist can also add extra notes to the Melody, to double these notes, but slightly later and softer than the sounds of Melody, like adding a slightly ‘off’ shade to it. Two parts are played simultaneously by two pianists but the timings are flexible, up to each pianist to decide, not pre-arranged nor intended to coincide precisely.
Van Houdt and Boon conveyed every fine nuance of Frey’s two piano pieces with their extraordinary sensitivity and masterful skills, organically filling the two pieces with a clean tranquility and airy feeling.
The album cover features French contemporary artist Sylvain Levier's minimal artwork, which perfectly resonates with Frey's extremely subtle yet profoundly captivating pieces for two pianos.
(Release date: November 10, 2020)
FACTS
Jürg Frey was born in Aarau in 1953. After finishing his studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, he began his career as a clarinetist. Until the age of 40, his work as a composer remained mostly private, taking a back seat to his activities as a clarinetist, family man, festival organizer and clarinet teacher for children. In the early 1990’s he became a member of the Wandelweiser composer collective, which has been an experience of inspiration, challenge and long lasting friendships.
Around the same time, he also began his international activities. He developed his own language as a composer and sound artist via the use of wide, quiet sound spaces. His work is marked by a fundamental non-extravagance of sound, a sensibility for the qualities of the material, and a precision of compositional approach. Sometimes his compositions bypass instrumentation and duration altogether, instead touching on aspects of sound art. He has created compositional series, with sounds as well as with language and text.
He has often been the guest of small creative concert organizers such as Klangraum Düsseldorf, music we’d like to hear (London), Ny Musik Boras (Sweden), The Dog Star Orchestra (Los Angeles), heim.art Neufelden (Austria) The Miniaturist Ensemble (New York), Klang im Turm (Munich), a.pe.ri.od.ic (Chicago), Louth Contemporary Music Society (Ireland),the wulf (Los Angeles), and Ordinary Affects (Boston).
Jürg Frey has also received invitations from more established institutions such as MaerzMusik (Berlin), the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Interpretations (New York), the Centre Culturel Suisse (Paris), Constellations (Chicago), Time:Spans (New York) and Donaueschingen Musiktage (Germany).
Reinier van Houdt is a Dutch composer/pianist based in Rotterdam. He started working with tape recorders, radio's, objects and various string-instruments at a young age. He studied piano at the Liszt-Akademie in Budapest & the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He developed a fascination for matters that escape notation: sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise, environment - points beyond composition, interpretation and improvisation.
Aside from his own music, he premiered music by Robert Ashley, Alvin Curran, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Francisco López, Charlemagne Palestine, Nomi Epstein, Yannis Kyriakides, Maria de Alvear, Jerry Hunt, Michael Pisaro, Walter Marchetti, Alessandro Bosetti. He has also worked with John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Luc Ferrari, Peter Ablinger and Christian Marclay. Van Houdt plays in David Tibet's Current 93, with whom he made 8 albums with contributions by people like Nick Cave, John Zorn, Antony Hegarty, Tony McPhee, Jack Barnett, Ossian Brown. He is also one of the moving forces behind the experimental music collective MAZE.
Reinier van Houdt released 14 solo albums and performed on festivals like Meltdown London, Märzmusik and CTM Berlin, Angelica Bologna, Unsound Krakow, Riverrun Albi, Huddersfield hcmf, Blurred Edges Hamburg, Alternativa Moscow, Art Basel Hong Kong, Primavera Barcelona and many others.
Dante Boon is a Dutch pianist and composer based in Amsterdam. He became a member of the Wandelweiser composers collective in 2012. He has performed at venues across Europe, East Asia, Canada and the US, and recorded numerous albums, solo and otherwise, for labels such as Another Timbre, A New Wave of Jazz, and Edition Wandelweiser Records. He was a guest lecturer at the 13th Wiener Tage für zeitgenössische Klaviermusik hosted by the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. A three-concert musical portrait of Dante Boon was presented in 2012 at Düsseldorf's Klangraum. In 2013, he was a special guest at Michael Pisaro's Dog Star Orchestra festival of experimental music. In the same year, a retrospective of Boon's music was presented at the Los Angeles performance space the wulf. In 2016, Boon was featured as a performer and composer at Quatuor Bozzini's Performer's Kitchen (Montreal).
Dante Boon's CD ‘clarinet (and piano)’, released in 2016, which features clarinetist Jürg Frey, was recommended by Andy Hamilton in The Wire's Top 10 albums of contemporary music. The New Yorker called him a pianist with an "uncommon affinity for music that demands patience, steady hands, and a subtle touch.”
1. toucher l’air - part 1
3. toucher l’air - part 3
4. toucher l’air - part 4
TRACK INFO / CREDITS
1-7 toucher l’air (deux pianos) (2019)
8 Entre les deux l'instant (2017/2018)
1. toucher l’air - part 1 (2:38)
2. toucher l’air - part 2 (3:00)
3. toucher l’air - part 3 (2:28)
4. toucher l’air - part 4 (1:20)
5. toucher l’air - part 5 (5:07)
6. toucher l’air - part 6 (3:25)
7. toucher l’air - part 7 (8:49)
8. Entre les deux l'instant (33:53)
compositions by Jürg Frey
Reinier van Houdt - piano 1
Dante Boon - piano 2
recorded by Luke Deane and Hans van Eck at Splendor, Amsterdam, September 9, 2019
mixed and mastered by Taku Unami
cover art by Sylvain Levier
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
p+c 2020 elsewhere music
www.elsewheremusic.net
Jürg Frey's music is published by Edition Wandelweiser.
www.wandelweiser.de
Jürg Frey official website
www.juergfrey.com
(CD preorder and the digital album are now available on Bandcamp and the label’s website.)
press release: Shira Legmann - Giacinto Scelsi: Suite No.9 / Quattro illustrazioni / Un Adieu (elsewhere 013)
Shira Legmann is an Israeli concert pianist, with a wide repertoire from Baroque to contemporary and experimental music. This album contains three piano works by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi's: 'Suite No.9 "Ttai"' (1953), 'Quattro illustrazioni' (1953), and 'Un Adieu' (1978/1988). 'Suite No.9' and 'Quattro illustrazioni' were recorded live at two different concerts in 2014, while 'Un Adieu' was recently recorded in a studio in June 2020. This is Legmann's second CD on Elsewhere Music, following the 2019 album 'Barricades' in which she was the pianist for Michael Pisaro's composition for piano/electronics.
"Scelsi's music is something that 'grows' on us both as listeners and musicians. When I first discovered his music about ten years ago, I just dove into studying it, not knowing too much about it, and the connection grew slowly while getting into more and more nuances in the playing. For a few years, I've been fascinated by these three pieces, and have performed them in Israel. It was not an immediate 'crush' but something that has gradually matured in me."
“Scelsi was said to be a modest artist. He believed that as a composer, he is merely a mediator. For a substantial period, he composed his piano pieces by improvising: he conceptualized them and then improvised while recording. Later, with the help of friends and assistants, he notated from the recordings and that was his written composition. Since these compositions derive directly from improvisations, I felt the best representation of them would be as recordings of live performances, where there is also an element of risk, surprise, and spirit." - Shira Legmann
"A whole chapter of recent musical history must be rewritten: the second half of this century is now unthinkable without Scelsi... He has inaugurated a completely new way of making music, hitherto unknown in the West." - Harry Halbreich
Legmann's clean, supple yet solid piano sounds, which create a perfect balance of coolness and warmth, build a narrative flow with a stunning dynamic range, bringing these rarely performed piano works of Scelsi's back to life into the twenty-first century as timeless masterpieces.
The cover photograph was contributed by David Sylvian. The desolate image of abandoned old piano keys echoes the mysterious Zen silence and discreet yet profound beauty of Scelsi's piano works.
(Release date: November 10, 2020)
FACTS
Shira Legmann (born 1981 in Aachen, Germany) is a concert pianist with a wide repertoire – from Baroque to contemporary music – and an interdisciplinary artist who creates new compositions and soundtracks based on graphic novels, animation and video art. In recent years, she has performed piano recitals that span Bach's Goldberg Variations, Olivier Messiaen's Vingt Regards, György Ligeti's keyboard music, Morton Feldman’s late repertoire and Giacinto Scelsi's piano music, among others.
Legmann performs frequently as a soloist in Israel, Europe and the U.S. Some of the concert halls she has recently performed in include Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and La Foundation Suisse in Paris, Jordan Hall in Boston, An Evening with Steinway series, the Tel Aviv and Haifa Museum of Arts and more.
Alongside her activity as a soloist, Legmann served for the last seven years as co-artistic director and active member of Musica Nova Ensemble, a unique collective comprised of musicians and sound artists dedicated to contemporary and experimental music. She was also invited to perform as a guest pianist with the Israel Contemporary Players ensemble, conducted by Ilan Volkov and Zsolt Nagy and with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, with conductor Ariel Zuckermann and others.
In addition to concert performances, Legmann has presented original compositions at the Tectonics Music Festival in Tel Aviv, the fifth Biennale for Drawing in Jerusalem, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Legmann collaborates with artists from the fields of plastic art, dance and design. Notable among these are projects with British photographer and video artist Katerina Jebb for Comme de Garcons and Victoria Beckham fashion brands; video and plastic artist Hilla Ben-Ari, painters Adi Kaplan and Shahar Carmel, choreographer Anat Shamgar, and more.
Legmann holds an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Mass., and a Masters from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at the Tel Aviv University, where she graduated with honors. Shira studied under the guidance of pianists Alexander Korsantia, Natasha Tadson and Michael Bugoslavsky.
In 2019, Legmann has released her first two albums: Barricades, together with American composer Michael Pisaro, and J.S. Bach: Keyboard Partitas Nos. 1, 3, 4 (self-released). In August 2020, Legmann composed and recorded a 12 minute piece 'The Ganges', inspired by a painting-score "The Ganges" by Matvay Shapiro, in which she played accordion and cello, to contribute to the Sound Art Exhibition in Israel and also the worldwide online festival AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine.
1. Suite No.9 Ttai, I. Calmo. senze espressione
2. Suite No. 9 "Ttai", II. Lentissimo
12. Quattro Illustrazioni, III. RAMA – AVATÀRA
TRACK INFO / CREDITS
1-9. Suite No.9 "Ttai" (1953)
"a succession of episodes which alternatively express time - or more precisely, time in motion and man as symbolized by cathedrals or monasteries, with the sound of the sacred 'Om'" (Giacinto Scelsi)
1. Calmo, senza espressione (3:50)
2. Lentissimo (4:18)
3. Uguale, senza espressione (2:40)
4. Non molto legato, ma sempre appoggiando profondamente (5:21)
5. Uguale, scorrevole (3:02)
6. Lento (2:17)
7. Uguale, inespressivo (3:23)
8. Lento (5:06)
9. Molto p eguale, non troppo legato (3:08)
10-13. Quattro illustrazioni (1953)
“four illustrations of the metamorphoses of Vishnu”
10. SHÉSHA - SHÀYÍ VISHNU (3:57)
11. VARAHA - AVATÀRA (3:51)
12. RAMA - AVATÀRA (3:09)
13. KRISHNA - AVATÀRA (3:09)
14. Un Adieu (1978/1988) (6:25)
compositions by Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
Shira Legmann - piano
Suite No.9 "Ttai" - live concert, recorded and mixed by Itzik Mizrahi at Clairmont Concert Hall, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, December 9, 2014
Quattro illustrazioni - live concert, recorded and mixed by Ronald Boersen at HaTeiva, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, February 27, 2014
Un Adieu - recorded by Rafi Eshel at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, June 19, 2020, mixed by Taku Unami
mastered by Taku Unami
photography by David Sylvian
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
special thanks to: Fondazione Isabella Scelsi
p+c 2020 elsewhere music
www.elsewheremusic.net
Q&A about Scelsi’s piano works with Shira Legmann
(CD preorder and the digital album are now available on Bandcamp and the label’s website.)
press release: Melaine Dalibert - Infinite Ascent (elsewhere 012)
This is French composer/pianist Melaine Dalibert’s fifth solo album since 2015, all featuring his own compositions. This time, the album consists of melodically structured song pieces, an area that Dalibert has been exploring in the last couple of years as a new compositional approach outside his signature algorithmic method of composition. This series of eight short pieces appeal in a new way from his previous music, and shows his maturity as a composer. Dalibert wrote all eight pieces in 2019 and recorded them in December 2019 on a Steinway at the chapel of the Rennes Conservatory where he teaches.
"I wouldn't have thought it two years ago, but I started to step aside from my algorithmic systems to write very intuitive music, kind of pop-songs. It is surely a transient phase, but it seems to me to be necessary so as not to lock myself into certain procedures. It’s very important for me to feel free to write outside of any academy or tradition.” - Melaine Dalibert
‘Litanie’, one of the most evocative pieces on this album, was world premiered by Serbian-American Paris-based pianist Ivan Ilić in October 2019 at Bargemusic in NYC.
The album title 'Infinite Ascent' was conceived by David Sylvian who also contributed his artwork for the album cover, in addition to the two album covers of Dalibert’s previous solo CDs ‘Musique pour le lever du jour’ and ‘Cheminant’ on Elsewhere Music, for which he dedicated two other artworks.
"On listening to the album for first time I felt what I’d describe, for want of better terminology, a 'cosmic expansiveness'. Vibrational waves traversing the universe, a lone satellite, released from earth’s gravitational pull, spinning infinitely into the bright darkness. I ascribed to it a somewhat solitary migration. Not despite, but because of this, I found it a profoundly moving listening experience." - David Sylvian
(CD release date: November 10, 2020)
FACTS
Melaine Dalibert (born 1979), a French composer/pianist, has been increasingly recognized for his compositional piano works as well as his interpretations of works by Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D’Angiolini, Tom Johnson, Peter Garland and many others. Trained as a classical pianist in Rennes (where he teaches now), Dalibert studied a large repertoire of contemporary composers' works at the Paris Conservatories. Being involved with experimental music at his young age, Dalibert found a way to compose music through mathematical concepts.
Fascinated by natural phenomena which are both expected and unpredictable, and also inspired by the work of the Hungarian-born French media artist Véra Molnar, Dalibert has developed his own algorithmic procedures of composition which contain the notion of stretched time evoking Morton Feldman, minimal and introspective, adopting a unique concept of fractal series. His piano music has been released on four CD recordings to date: ‘Quatre pièces pour piano’, self-released in 2015, ‘Ressac’, released from Another Timbre in 2017, ‘Musique pour le lever du jour’ released from Elsewhere in 2018, and ‘Cheminant’ from Elsewhere in 2019. He was featured as a solo pianist in the album of French-born Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos' ‘piano works’ released on Elsewhere in February 2020. His short pieces ‘Maelström’ and ‘Piano Loop’ were released as digital single tracks in March 2020.
His creations have been radio transmitted (France Musique, BBC, RAI, KEXP, RTBF) and played in many French and foreign festivals, museums and contemporary art centers.
2. Flux / Reflux
5. Litanie
6. Horizon
TRACK INFO / CREDITS
- Introduction (2:35)
- Flux / Reflux (5:45)
- Grasses in Wind (1:39)
- Lullaby (4:08)
- Litanie (4:48)
- Horizon (5:50)
- Piano Loop (3:25)
- Song (5:02)
all compositions and piano by Melaine Dalibert
recorded by Melaine Dalibert at the chapel of the Rennes Conservatory, in France on December 11, 2019
mixed and mastered by Taku Unami
artwork by David Sylvian
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
p+c 2020 elsewhere music
(CD preorder and the digital album are now available on Bandcamp and the label’s website.)
Melaine Dalibert - elsewhere CD Release Concerts in NYC (2/13, 2/14)
French composer/pianist Melaine Dalibert has released two remarkable solo piano albums on elsewhere music since 2018, with a third on the way. For these two CD release concerts, Dalibert will play some pieces from his recent albums: Anastassis Philippakopoulos: piano works (elsewhere 010) and his 2019 solo album Cheminant (elsewhere 007), and also some of his newest compositions, which will be included in his next solo album on elsewhere label for late 2020 release, as well as the works of Sébastien Roux and Michael Vincent Waller.
Melaine Dalibert (born 1979) has been increasingly recognized for his compositional piano works as well as his interpretations of works by Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D’Angiolini, Tom Johnson, Peter Garland, and many others. Trained as a classical pianist in Rennes (where he teaches now), Dalibert studied a large repertoire of contemporary composers' works at the Paris Conservatories. Being involved with experimental music at his young age, Dalibert found a way to compose music through mathematical concepts.
Fascinated by natural phenomena which are both expected and unpredictable, and also inspired by the work of the Hungarian-born French media artist Véra Molnar, Dalibert has developed his own algorithmic procedures of composition which contain the notion of stretched time evoking Morton Feldman, minimal and introspective, adopting a unique concept of fractal series. His piano music has been released on four CD recordings to date: Quatre pièces pour piano, self-released in 2015, Ressac (2017) on Another Timbre, Musique pour le lever du jour (2018) and Cheminant (2019) on elsewhere music. His next solo album with his newest compositions for solo piano is scheduled to be released on elsewhere music in autumn 2020.
His creations have been radio transmitted (France Musique, BBC, RAI, KEXP, RTBF) and played in many French and foreign festivals, museums and contemporary art centers.
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PROGRAM 1: Thursday, February 13: Areté Venue and Gallery, Brooklyn NYC (7:30-8:30 PM)
Starts 7:30 PM
$10 at the door
Anastassis Philippakopoulos - five piano pieces 1-5, piano pieces 2018a, 2018b, 2019
Sébastien Roux - Canons de Vuza
Michael Vincent Waller - Aim, Flashes II
Melaine Dalibert - percolations, Etude II, litanie, and some more new works
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PROGRAM 2: Friday, February 14: Daniel Goode's Loft, SoHo (8:00 PM)
Starts 8:00 PM
$10 at the door
Anastassis Philippakopoukos - piano pieces 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Sébastien Roux - Canon de Vuza
Michael Vincent Waller - Aim, Flashes II
Melaine Dalibert - litanie, maelström, and some more new works
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Melaine Dalibert's CDs, including the upcoming CD Anastassis Philippakopoulos - piano works (elsewhere 010), will be available at the venues on both days.
http://www.elsewheremusic.net
https://elsewheremusic.bandcamp.com
photo (c) Fersen Sherkann
press release: The Giving Shapes - Earth Leaps Up (elsewhere 011)
The Giving Shapes is a collaborative project between harpist/vocalist Elisa Thorn and pianist/vocalist Robyn Jacob that formed in fall 2017 at the Banff Centre for the Arts. This is the duo’s first release.
This project triangulates aspects of new music, creative music, and song-writing, combining their classical training and their involvement with the Canadian creative and indie music scenes. Though they originally met while both pursuing degrees in classical music at UBC in 2007, they share an interest in many musical styles. Their sound reflects broad influences from artists including Nico Muhly, Bjork, Jonny Greenwood, David Lang, and Caroline Shaw.
Thorn and Jacob are interested in merging the familiar with the new, and draw from their wide range of influences to create music that is honest. Their approach involves equal parts of intellect and feeling, pursuing both accessibility and experimentation equally. The process of songwriting varies from song to song, but usually one of them brings in a kernel, and the two develop parts together, parts on their own, then back to different possibilities together.
“The piano and the harp are a really interesting match because they are so related in timbre and function, but individual enough to offer each unique sound palate. The possibilities of blend, texture, and harmonic depth are really exciting. Robyn is an endless inspiration to me in all the things that she does. We have quite different approaches to writing (Robyn is more rhythm and pattern-based, whereas I am driven mostly by melody and harmony) so the collaborative writing process is really interesting and stimulating.” (Elisa Thorn)
"I like Elisa's integrity and devotion to her artwork, and her attitude in general as a musician and an artist. Also, it is a privilege to be able to make art with one of your best friends." (Robyn Jacob)
The Giving Shapes is a synthesis of their shared musical aesthetic and curiosity with their long-standing relationship as co-curators and presenters. Music from the duo’s projects has been featured in jazz festivals such as the Montreal and Toronto Jazz Festivals, new music festivals like Music on Main, and indie pop festivals including the Campbell Bay Music Festival.
The duo's sincere yet polished, cool yet warm, celestial yet humane approach towards sounds is integrated into a single intimate world of music with everything impeccably balanced. Thorn's and Jacob's ethereal voices convey subtle emotions, gently unfolding the narrative of their personal world into a unique space where the acoustic beauty of classical music and the accessibility of pop music humbly entwine around each other.
(CD release date: February 24, 2020)
FACTS
Elisa Thorn is a harpist, composer, and teacher based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Thorn is poised to emerge as a radical harpist, composer, and interdisciplinary arts innovator” (Georgia Straight, 2015)
Since graduating from the UBC School of Music in 2011, Elisa Thorn has become a much sought after addition to the Canadian creative music scene, known for her skilled use of extended techniques, electronic effects, and unconventional uses of the harp. With the generous support of the British Columbia Arts Council she has studied composition with Dr. Lisa Cay Miller, music technology with Scott Morgan, and attended the International Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music at the Banff Center.
Her music, which combines influences of post-rock, jazz, classical and indie, is propelled by two artistic objectives: firstly, how to create music that is both abstract and accessible; and secondly, how to lead a band with harp in a way does not compromise sensitivity with its boldness, or aesthetic beauty with its curiosity. Interested in the intersection between composed and improvised music, she is involved with many projects including HUE, The Giving Shapes and Gentle Party, who released an album under the Phonometrograph label that was longer-listed for the Polaris Prize in 2017.
Her values in the community have led her towards work as a curator and presenter, and much like her artistic musical inquires as a music creator, her inquisitions as a presenter focuses on how to create accessibility of challenging and/or abstract art through intentional methods of presentation. She ran an experimental interdisciplinary concert series called Sound(e)scape from 2013-14, co-curates a bi-annual mixtape called Bitch Tapes that features womxn-identifying artists, and has been running an outdoor house concert series called Woodland Patio Series since 2014.
An avid collaborator, Elisa has worked with many diverse artists and has appeared on recordings from Tonye Aganaba, Mother Mother, Loscil, Khari McClleland, Foothills, and David Ward. In 2019 she enjoyed a tour of Japan with electronic artist Lief Hall, and will be in Stockholm in February 2020 to collaborate with the Like The Mind ensemble. She was recently selected for a residency with master artist Vijay Iyer at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in May 2020.
Robyn Jacob is a pianist, singer, composer and educator who lives and works on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She has been defying categorization both in Canada and internationally with her avant-pop project Only A Visitor, and has self-released five albums including Tower Temporary (2015,) Lines (2017) and Technicolour Education (2019).
Committed to writing and performing avant-garde music, her recent composition projects explore writing for unusual ensembles, as well as collaborations with visual artists and instrument makers. She is currently the Emerging Composer in partnership with Chicago based Third Coast Percussion. As a music educator she believes in discovery through teaching, and learning through discovery, and has taught youth workshops on free improvisation and deep listening.
Since 2012 she has been part of the multi-disciplinary arts collective Publik Secrets, currently artists in residence at the Hadden Park Field House with the City of Vancouver. In 2013 she toured Bali with Gamelan Gita Asmara, and since then has been performing with Gamelan Bike Bike. For four years she hosted The Rib on CiTR 101.9FM, a show dedicated to the dissemination of local experimental musical talent. Robyn has received a Bachelo's degree in Music from the University of British Columbia, and has completed residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Joya AiR in Spain. She has been teaching music and piano privately for over 10 years.
TRACKLIST
1. Dousing (4:53)
2. Tessellate (4:48)
3. Sightlines (4:22)
4. Gravity (3:57)
5. Upstream (6:02)
6. Shadow's Hue (4:34)
7. Faces (4:20)
8. Mirror and Echo (4:16)
9. Earth Leaps Up (3:20)
CREDITS
all songs by Robyn Jacob and Elisa Thorn
piano, vocal by Robyn Jacob
harp, vocal by Elisa Thorn
recorded, mixed and mastered by Chris Gestrin in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
cover art by Meghan Hildebrand
designed and produced by Yuko Zama
p+c 2020 elsewhere music
The Giving Shapes
(CD preorder and the digital album are now available on Bandcamp.)
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.
press release: Melaine Dalibert - Anastassis Philippakopoulos: piano works (elsewhere 010)
Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos has been a member of the Wandelweiser composers collective since 2003. When examining post-Cage 21st-century classical music, there was a transition in compositional styles from decomposition to recomposition of the new tonal music deeply associated with each composer’s individuality. Philippakopoulos' work is one of the most intense forms of this style: a unique blend of the icy, sharp edges of minimalism, the warm colors of modern romanticism, and the introspective depth of Zen.
In Philippakopoulos' piano works, each tone is closely connected with the previous and the subsequent tones via long resonances, forming a simple yet poignant melody that contains a magnetic power to draw the listener’s ears. The intensity of a single tone of his piano pieces often evokes a beautiful stone, organically formed over the course of a very long time. In fact, Philippakopoulos takes several months to a year to compose one short 2-4 minute piece.
On this album, Philippakopoulos' twelve solo piano pieces (composed from 2005-2018) are performed by a rising French composer/pianist Melaine Dalibert, who is known for a unique algorithmic compositional style as well as his interpretations of works by Giuliano D’Angiolini, Tom Johnson, Peter Garland, and many others. Here Dalibert realized the transient, meditative beauty of Philippakopoulos' piano works by inducing rich harmonics in the tranquil afterglows mysteriously tinged with shadows, brilliantly conveying the immense and profound world of Philippakopoulos' music narratively and poetically.
Melaine Dalibert will perform some of these pieces at two CD release concerts in NYC in February 2020:
Thursday, February 13: Areté Venue and Gallery, Brooklyn (7:30-8:30 PM)
Friday, February 14: Daniel Goode's Loft, SoHo (8:00 PM)
(Release date: February 14, 2020)
FACTS
Composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos was born in 1969 in France. Between 1989 and 1994 he studied composition at the University of Arts (Universitaet der Kuenste) in Berlin with W. Szalonek and F.M. Olbrisch. Since 2003 he is a member of the Wandelweiser composers collective. In 2005 his first CD “solo pieces” was released on Edition Wandelweiser Records (EWR).
His music has been performed in Europe and the US by musicians including conductors Mark Menzies with the Calarts String Orchestra, Alexandre Myrat with the TSSO and the Camerata Athens, flutists Antoine Beuger, Manuel Zurria, Wilfrido Terrazas, Katrin Zenz, Ruth Molins, Natalia Gerakis and Christine Tavolacci, oboists Kathy Pisaro and Kostas Tiliakos, clarinetists Juerg Frey, William Powell, Germaine Sijstermans and Yannis Samprovalakis, guitarist Denis Sorokin, pianists John McAlpine, Melaine Dalibert, Guy Vandromme, Teodora Stepancic, Erato Alakiozidou, R. Andrew Lee, Panagiotis Krabis, Mark So and Manfred Werder, organist Eva-Maria Houben, singer Irene Kurka and others.
In 2012 he visited California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles as an invited artist. He presented his music in lectures and concerts together with composers Michael Pisaro and Michael Jon Fink. In 2014 his CD “songs and piano pieces” was released on EWR.
Melaine Dalibert (born 1979), a French composer/pianist, has been increasingly recognized for his compositional piano works as well as his interpretations of works by Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D’Angiolini, Tom Johnson, Peter Garland, and many others. Trained as a classical pianist in Rennes (where he teaches now), Dalibert studied a large repertoire of contemporary composers' works at the Paris Conservatories. Being involved with experimental music at his young age, Dalibert found a way to compose music through mathematical concepts.
Fascinated by natural phenomena which are both expected and unpredictable, and also inspired by the work of the Hungarian-born French media artist Véra Molnar, Dalibert has developed his own algorithmic procedures of composition which contain the notion of stretched time evoking Morton Feldman, minimal and introspective, adopting a unique concept of fractal series. His piano music has been released on four CD recordings to date: Quatre pièces pour piano, self-released in 2015, Ressac (2017) on Another Timbre, Musique pour le lever du jour (2018) and Cheminant (2019) on Elsewhere Music.
His creations have been radio transmitted (France Musique, BBC, RAI, KEXP, RTBF) and played in many French and foreign festivals, museums and contemporary art centers.
TRACK INFO
Anastassis Philippakopoulos - piano works (2005-2018)
1. piano piece (2013) 2:32
2. piano piece (2014) 3:07
3. piano piece (2015) 3:32
4. piano piece (2016) 2:52
5. piano piece (2017) 3:07
6. piano piece (2018a) 3:27
7. piano piece (2018b) 3:06
8. five piano pieces - 1 2:39
9. five piano pieces - 2 3:05
10. five piano pieces - 3 2:26
11. five piano pieces - 4 2:31
12. five piano pieces - 5 2:19
CREDITS
compositions by Anastassis Philippakopoulos
piano by Melaine Dalibert
recorded by Herve Jegaden and David Launay at HD Studio in Saint Maugan, Britain, France on July 24, 2019
mixed and mastered by Taku Unami
cover art 'sea' by Denis Sorokin
inside photograph by Anastassis Philippakopoulos
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
p+c 2020 elsewhere music
www.elsewheremusic.net
Anastassis Philippakopoulos' music is published by Edition Wandelweiser.
(Thanks to David Sylvian for his valuable advice at the final mixing stage as always.)
(CD preorder and the digital album are now available on Bandcamp and the label’s website.)
Looking back on the year 2019...
Four releases on elsewhere (Gil Sansón / Lance Austin Olsen, Melaine Dalibert, Reinier van Houdt / Bruno Duplant, and Shira Legmann / Michael Pisaro) in 2019, all of which I am extremely happy with. Starting the new 'elsewhere piano series' has opened up an exciting direction for my label.
Besides elsewhere, I greatly enjoyed the two epic 5 CD box set productions for Erstwhile Records and Gravity Wave: Toshiya Tsunoda 'Extract From Field Recording Archive' (ErstPast 001-5) and Michael Pisaro 'Nature Denatured and Found Again' (GW016-020).
Also, I finally completed the English translation of Ami Yoshida's 2007 autobiographical novel 'Summer Spring', which will be published in February 2020 (thanks to Matthew Revert!). It has been a long-term personal project of mine, and I am so glad that it is finally coming to the world.
Due to my busy work with these consuming projects throughout the year, I had to skip many of the live concerts that I had planned to attend (VPO, NYP, BSO, Mitsuko Uchida’s Schubert Sonatas, etc.), but I have no regret since all the above-mentioned productions were extremely satisfying and fulfilling to me on a creative level. (Also for the same reason, I did not have a chance to listen to many of the new releases on other labels, so I made no year end list this year.)
As for some of the few live concerts I was able to attend, the Mahler 5th Symphony by The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst at Carnegie Hall in October was my favorite. It was a sublime performance of the 5th Symphony.
Another memorable concert was Ivan Ilic performing new and recent works by Melaine Dalibert among the works of Debussy, Satie, and two other contemporary composers at Bargemusic in Brooklyn in October. Ivan Ilić's 2019 album of the piano transcriptions of Haydn's symphonies (Chandos Records) and his albums 'Reicha Rediscovered, Vol. 1' (2017) and vol. 2 (2018) were also an eye-opening discovery of the great music by the composer Antoine Reicha (1770-1836) who I have never heard before.
Shira Legmann's new self-released CD 'J.S. Bach - Partitas 1, 3, 4' was a refreshing new interpretation of Bach Partitas, which I enjoyed a lot also.
My current great interest is Jürg Frey 'Elemental Realities' for orchestra (2019) and 'Grounds of Memory' (2019), both of which were world premiered in Europe this autumn. I am very much interested in having a chance to listen to these recent orchestral and opera works of Frey.
What I am personally listening to most frequently these days is Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (1969) and Pink Moon (1972), which I came to know just recently but am deeply immersed in now.
I am also working on five new release projects on elsewhere for 2020, which I am excited about:
The Giving Shapes (Vancouver-based piano/harp duo of Robyn Jacob / Elisa Thorn) - Earth Leaps Up (elsewhere 010)
Melaine Dalibert - Anastassis Philippakopoulos: piano works (elsewhere 011)
Melaine Dalibert - Infinite Ascent (elsewhere 012)
Shira Legmann - Giacinto Scelsi: Suite No.9 / Quattro illustrazioni / Un Adieu (elsewhere 013)
Jürg Frey - l'air, l'instant - deux pianos (elsewhere 014)
Thanks to Jon Abbey for his generous support to let me focus on my label and my works throughout the year, and to David Sylvian for his continued, warm support for my label as an invaluable adviser, and all the wonderful musicians who shared great music with me to enrich my life and elsewhere.
Happy New Year 2020 to you all!
press release: Shira Legmann / Michael Pisaro - Barricades (elsewhere 009)
This album contains LA-based composer Michael Pisaro's recent composition 'Barricades,' a 63-minute piece for piano and electronics. Consisting of thirteen studies (piano pieces, some with electronics) and two electronic interludes, the piece is performed by Israel-based pianist Shira Legmann, with Pisaro on electronics.
"Barricades has a distant but decisive relationship to the keyboard music of Louis and François Couperin. The title refers to 'Les Barricades Mystérieuses' by François Couperin – and to the technique of overlapping, interlocking voices, creating a thicket or web-like texture. I have loved the music of the Couperins since college, but it was when Shira sent me some of her favorite music to play, and 'Les Barricades Mystérieuses' was among the scores, that the idea for this piece began to crystallize. The process of writing and working on the piece with Shira was one of watching the barricades, which I pictured as a network of twisted vines, unravel." (Michael Pisaro)
Legmann's clean, supple yet solid piano sounds, employing a wide dynamic range, add a sense of organic life to the composition. Her whispery nuances and mysterious atmosphere, intertwining with Pisaro's underlying sine tones, create a compelling balance between coolness and emotion, distance and closeness, and result in a tranquil yet captivating contemporary work with an echo of the French Baroque.
(Release date: June 22, 2019)
FACTS
Shira Legmann (born 1981 in Aachen, Germany) is an Israel-based concert pianist devoted to classical and experimental new music. Legmann is also a co-artistic director and member of Musica Nova Ensemble, Tel Aviv, a unique collective comprised of musicians and sound artists. Her activity expands to the fields of improvisation, composing, and the curating of concerts.
Aside from being dedicated to performance, Legmann is passionate about interdisciplinary creation. Among her recent projects are: 'Please act naturally', a cinematographic adaptation to a Graphic Novel, 'is-slottet', a chamber poem for choral painter and ensemble, and 'Jerusalem my highest bliss', a chamber piece based on Paul Klee’s diary drawing.
Her debut classical solo piano album 'J.S. Bach: Keyboard Partitas Nos. 1, 3, 4' will be self-released September 2019.
Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer and a member of the Wandelweiser collective. While, like other members of Wandelweiser, Pisaro is known for pieces of long duration with periods of silence. In the past fifteen years his work has branched out in many directions, including work with field recording, electronics, improvisation, and large ensembles of very different kinds of instrumental constitution.
Pisaro has a long-standing collaboration with percussionist Greg Stuart, with over thirty collaborations (pieces and recordings) to date, including their 3-disc set,Continuum Unbound from 2014 and a new piece for amplified percussion and orchestra (to be premiered by the La Jolla Symphony in February, 2020).
Recordings of his work have been released by Edition Wandelweiser Records, Erstwhile Records, New World Records, Hubro, Potlatch, Another Timbre, meena/ftarri, Senufo Editions, Intonema, winds measure, HEM Berlin, and on Pisaro's own imprint, Gravity Wave.
Pisaro teaches composition and experimental music at the California Institute of the Arts.
TRACK LIST
Michael Pisaro Barricades (2018-2019)
1. Study No. 1 (5:38)
2. Study No. 2 (3:20)
3. Study No. 3 (1:53)
4. Study No. 4 (2:01)
5. Study No. 5 (2:15)
6. Study No. 6 (2:04)
7. Interlude No. 1 (2:03)
8. Study No. 7 (4:47)
9. Study No. 8 (6:41)
10. Study No. 9 (3:42)
11. Study No. 10 (10:30)
12. Study No. 11 (1:42)
13. Study No. 12 (3:37)
14. Interlude No. 2 (4:45)
15. Study No. 13 (8:29)
CREDITS
Shira Legmann - piano
Michael Pisaro - electronics
composed by Michael Pisaro
recorded by Michael Pisaro at The Wild Beast (CalArts, Valencia, California) in March-April, 2019
piano: Yamaha CF III S, Serial No. 5543100
mixed and mastered by Michael Pisaro
photography by Michael Pisaro
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
with special thanks to Fred Tauber & the Avaloch Farm Music Institute
p+c 2019 elsewhere music
www.elsewheremusic.net
press release: Reinier van Houdt - Bruno Duplant - Lettres et Replis (elsewhere 008)
This album contains six pieces written by French composer/artist Bruno Duplant, all composed and realized by Dutch pianist/composer Reinier van Houdt. Duplant's scores 'Lettres (pour Reinier van Houdt)' (2017) are three letter-form scores personally addressed to van Houdt containing letter sequences distributed across the page. 'Trois replis d'incertitude' (2018) are also three letter-form scores but with the notion of 'repli' (meaning 'fold' in a Deleuzian postmodern baroque sense as well as 'withdrawal' of incertitude and reactionaries toward the neglect of ecology, humanism, and culture). Duplant's scores also reflect Mallarmé's notion of textual space and chance, leaving a large room for the interpreter/performer.
Van Houdt’s realization of these scores are like his ‘reading’ and ‘replying to' Duplant’s scores, with composing three ‘Lettre’ pieces with multi-layered recordings of his piano sounds, and three ‘Repli’ pieces with his piano recordings and his field recordings. Van Houdt’s delicately nuanced piano sound, translucent overtones and rich resonances increase nostalgic colors and melancholic shadows as the record develops.
“I composed my realizations around the fundamentals of reading and writing. The Lettres are connected to melody spelled out and read in all directions propulsed by memory and gaze. The Replis are connected to the harmonies from a place as they permeate and unravel through the metaphorical holes made by writing, linearly arranged again with recordings of a walk along the river that traverses this place. Letters cannot be erased, they affirm the materiality of language. Words (like music) are not envelopes containing clear messages, nor are they loaded guns as Sartre would have it. The possibility of meaning is rooted in the dark side of language where destruction and meaninglessness precede all possible worlds.” (Reinier van Houdt).
(Release date: June 22, 2019)
FACTS
Reinier van Houdt started working with taperecorders, radio's, objects and various string-instruments at a young age. He studied piano at the Liszt-Akademie in Budapest & the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He developed a fascination for matters that escape notation: sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise, environment - points beyond composition, interpretation and improvisation. He has built himself an unusual repertoire that consistently resulted from personal quests; from collaborations with composers & musicians, from research in archives, from the composing and staging of music-performances or from unorthodox studies of classical music.
Aside from his own music he premiered music by Robert Ashley, Alvin Curran, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Francisco López, Charlemagne Palestine, Yannis Kyriakides, Maria de Alvear, Jerry Hunt, Michael Pisaro, Walter Marchetti. He has also worked with John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Luc Ferrari, Peter Ablinger and Christian Marclay. Reinier van Houdt plays in Current 93, recently releasing an album with contributions by Nick Cave, John Zorn and Antony Hegarty. He is also one of the moving forces behind the experimental music collective MAZE.
Bruno Duplant is a prolific composer and a musician (organ, double bass, percussion, electronics, field recordings) living in the north of France. He has collaborated with many musicians around the globe and has also made solo works. His recordings have been published by various labels including Another Timbre, Ftarri, B-Boim, Diafani, Notice Recordings, Suppedaneum, Unfathomless, Dinzu Artefacts, Aussenraum, Moving Furniture, Verz, Mappa, Hemisphäreの空虚, Falt, and his own label co-curated with Pedro Chambel, Rhizome.s.
For Duplant, composing and playing music is similar to imagining, creating, and sometimes decomposing new spaces/realities, and new entities. But it is also a reflection on memory, not the historic one, but memories of things, spaces, and moments. His music is strongly inspired by the writing (Francis Ponge, Gaston Bachelard among others) and some artists/musicians (John Cage, Luc Ferrari, Eliane Radigue, Rolf Julius).
TRACK LIST
1. Lettre 1 11:02
2. Replis 1 9:44
3. Lettre 2 8:31
4. Replis 2 8:08
5. Lettre 3 8:00
6. Replis 3 12:47
CREDITS
Lettres et Replis (2017-2018)
scores by Bruno Duplant
composed and realized by Reinier van Houdt
piano recorded by Kees van de Wiel at Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch on January 22, 2019, and Reinier van Houdt in Rotterdam on August 8, 2018
field recordings by Reinier van Houdt made on John Cage's 100th birthday on September 5, 2012 along the Maas Harbour in Rotterdam
mixed by Reinier van Houdt
mastered by Bruno Duplant
design by Yuko Zama
produced by Yuko Zama
p+c 2019 elsewhere music
www.elsewheremusic.net