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June 2021 – single & track reviews – Gabriella Smith/Gabriel Cabezas’ ‘Lost Coast III’; Hot Mustard’s ‘Jerkwater Strut; Ada Moreau’s ‘My Shadow Halts’

Following up on last month’s twirling ‘Bard of a Wilderness’ single, Gabriella Smith and Gabriel Cabezas continue to bring voice, cello and found percussion items to bear on the theme of human responses to the wild spaces, and to the destruction wrought on Gabriella’s California home by last year’s wildfires. While building on the pattering jazz and classical extended-playing techniques which threaded through ‘Bard…’, ‘Lost Coast III’ also sidesteps the former’s barely-restrained murmur and its mingled mourning/accusatory wordings. Skipping across a triple-beat, it’s more of a fiery Latinized waltz heading out on an angry roadtrip – its rage barely constrained, its grief turned into a wild chattering momentum veering all over the tarmac.

This time, Gabriella ignores texts in favour of dance chanting and thermal-tossed multi-tracked vocalese. She plays against herself in what sounds like a wordless, impressionistic vocal ballet of fire-panicked neighbours chattering and arguing, sharing fears and concerns as they try to save themselves what they can. Mingling with this is a sense of boiling injustice, a fury at the fact that this is actually happening. Hands and bow beat on cello case and cans, while Gabriel’s rapid string melodies squeal, strum and chop against the rhythms (and the viola of Bedroom Community labelmate Nadia Sirota adds more midrange sinew).

Round about the halfway point, the piece erupts into a frantically hummed-and-sung chorale of overdubbed Gabriellas, the cello casting disaster drones across the voices. Towards the end, everything disintegrates into a tangled mass of cello frenzy, alarms and firebell rattles before soaring out into a finale which combines everything that’s gone before into a thrillingly twisted-up whole. The more times that you listen to this, the more it seems to reveal; as if it’s not just dealing with the impact of the 2020 fires but mining deeper into Californian history for a catalogue of misfortunes, oppressions, mismanagements and outright fuck-ups, giving voice to all of the indignations that came with them but which were brushed under the forest floor. Rousing stuff, in every sense.

The remaining two singles (this time around) are much more relaxed.

Mixing rare groove with early hip hop/boom bap, the debut Hot Mustard single ‘Jerkwater Strut’ is a bit of idealised, retro-fitted funky-sidewalk strolling. At the group’s core, Jack Powell and Nick Carusos create a Chic-ish dynamic of guitar and bass co-leadership, although the group’s rural South Carolina location (and Jack’s taste for softly melting wah-wah trickles and behind-the-beat pacing) locate it in a much lazier groove. Brooklyn’s Big Brass Beats horn duo (with their Antibalas and TV on the Radio connections) phatten it out, but with the outcome being more New Orleans and Memphis than it is Big Apple (though they do cite a little bit of Wu-Tang Clan as an addition to the mixture). I guess Charleston (a boat ride and a bump away from Hot Mustard’s Johns Island hangout) also gets a look in.

Wordless, thoughtful and quietly happy, ‘Jerkwater Strut’ is more urban than island. Yet, if so, it’s a window onto a different kind of city life in which the tourists are gone, the guests no longer need to be impressed, and an early evening can be spent on the stoop and the street at your own, relaxed pace.

We might be being softened up here, or we might be being let in on an open secret. I can’t really tell yet. That title (like a bit of ancient jazz-age mockery) and Jack’s Gilliam-esque animated video (full of fish, cryptids and marine mythology) are laden with clues which don’t ultimately lead anywhere. Eventually, it’s just sunshine, personal contentment, and the subliminal beat of the far-off city as a comfort, all subsumed into a relaxed neighbourhood vibe.

The third in a monthly progression of singles by Stockholm-based semi-ambient composer Ada Moreau, ‘My Shadow Halts’ leaves behind the gorgeous European fogginess of its predecessors. With that former chilly brume replaced by a more evanescent sonic misting, its descending temple-bell arpeggios, distant piano and even more distant mother-of-pearl synth-sheening lead it more into Asian temple haunts.

These days, there’s more of a risk involved in attempting this kind of thing. Even as ‘My Shadow Halts’ nods to the 1980s traveller’s-ambience of Harold Budd or Roedelius, it also risks summoning up the same kind of atmosphere as many a touristy New Age salute to Bhutan or Kyoto (narrowly skirting Chinoiserie and faux-Gamelan as it does so). Fortunately, despite sounds and intimations, Ada’s actual intentions are less to do with evoking place than in fixing a position of grace.

According to her, ‘My Shadow Halts’ is about “the subjective experience of time. When the light is just right, and everything seems to slow down to that moment, frozen in time. A sudden sense of a more elevated and peaceful reality. Your stress and aggression momentarily forgotten and left behind.”

With that in mind, listening reveals something better. By avoiding direct geographical or cultural tags, Ada allows the crass, picture-postcard aspects which can taint this kind of project – that collecting, spiritually acquisitive side of things – to gently drop away from the music. While still a little second-hand, the Asiatic touches become more like a thoughtful, mood-evoking temple print hung on the opposite wall, rather than a wholesale theft of scenery. As with Hot Mustard, I think Ada’s successfully blended her inspirations into something fresh enough to work. I’m also feeling that she’s narrowly dodged a genre bullet.

Gabriella Smith/Gabriel Cabezas: ‘Lost Coast III‘
Bedroom Community Records (no catalogue number or barcode)
Download/streaming single
Released: 7th June 2021

Get/stream it from:
Bandcamp, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon Music

Gabriella Smith online:
Homepage, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Last.fm, Apple Music, YouTube, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon Music

Gabriel Cabezas online:
Homepage, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Last.fm, Apple Music, YouTube, Deezer, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon Music

Hot Mustard: ‘Jerkwater Strut’
Color Red (no catalogue number or barcode)
Download/streaming single
Released: 4th June 2021

Get/stream it from:
Color Red store, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Youtube, Spotify, Amazon Music

Hot Mustard online:
Homepage, Facebook, Bandcamp, Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon Music

Ada Moreau: ‘My Shadow Halts’
ART:ERY Music Group, ART:ERY20210307
Download/streaming single
Released: 4th June 2021

Get/stream it from:
Soundcloud, Apple Music, Youtube, Spotify, Tidal , Amazon Music, Qobuz

Ada Moreau online:
Homepage, Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, Instagram, Amazon Music, Qobuz

Tags: Ada Moreau, Antibalas, Gabriel Cabez, Gabriella Smith, Hot Mustard, Johns Island (South Carolina - USA), music for cello, Nadia Sirota, New York City (USA), Oslo (Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), TV on the Radio

July 2018 – upcoming London classical gigs – Jennifer Ames Alexander and Colin Alexander play new music by Eva-Maria Houben, James Luff, Alex Nikiporenko, Amanda Feery and Garrett Sholdice for viola and cello (7th July); the London Symphony Orchestra present new works by Robin Haigh, Lillie Harris, Yvonne Eccles and Nick Morrish Rarity at Soundhub Showcase Phase I (14th July)

30 Jun

Two more quick boosts for imminent concerts…

* * * * * * * *

London-based concert series 840 specialises in new experimental and minimal music. Here’s what they’re offering this month:

“840 presents an evening of new music for viola and cello, performed by Jennifer Ames Alexander and Colin Alexander (Tre Voci). Showcasing the versatility of this duet format, the programme will feature intimate, resonant pieces from Eva-Maria Houben (Wandelweiser) and Marc Sabat alongside brand-new works from Colin Alexander and from 840 curators James Luff and Alex Nikiporenko.

“We are also excited to be featuring work by two wonderful Irish composers, with a piece from Amanda Feery in which disjointed fragments replace seamless transitions, and a newly-composed work from Garrett Sholdice, known for writing music of “exquisite delicacy” (‘The Irish Times’).”

840 presents:
840: New Music for Viola & Cello
St James’ Church Islington, Prebend Street, Islington, London, N1 8PF, England
Saturday 7th July 2018, 7.30pm -information here, here and here

* * * * * * * *

And a week later, there’s this…

“London Symphony Orchestra‘s Discovery’s Soundhub programme presents new music by first year composers, performed by LSO musicians and guests.

“Join us to hear ‘Twenty One Minute Pieces’, Robin Haigh’s survey of nine hundred years of musical language and instrumentation alongside Lillie Harris’ ‘My Last Duchess’ an interactive insight into coercion and control in a Gothic-Romantic monologue. Then take the fragile journey from sorrow to hope through music and dance with Yvonne Eccles’ ‘Towards hope’ before Nick Morrish Rarity explores ghostly sounds etched into the brittle grooves of shellac records in ‘the traces left behind’.”

Here’s the opening section of ‘My Last Duchess’:

The evening’s ensemble includes Early Music recorder specialist Tabea Debus, flute and piccolo player Stuart McIlwham, flautist/bass flautist Carla Rees (who’s appeared plenty of times in here with her ), clarinettist Heather Roche, percussionist Paul Stoneman and viola player Anna Bastow. Broadening the sonic perspective, violinist Julian Gil Rodriguez and cellist Jennifer Brown will both also be playing Stroh versions of their respective instruments, and acoustician Aleksander Kolkowski will be playing a phonograph and an assortment of antique shellac discs for the Rarity piece. (Presumably, that’ll be Rarity played using rarities. Don’t all of you laugh at once, now.)

A quick note – this is one of the few times I’ve heard of Stroh string instruments being used in classical concerts, although a century ago they’d have been quite common. Late Victorian devices, they’re trimmed-down solid-body versions of acoustic instruments (mostly from the orchestral string section, but also sometimes guitars and lutes) with their sounds amplified by built-in metal resonators and horns, like early phonograms. Designed to replace traditional string instruments which might be drowned out in noisy environments, they were used in early recording studios before being killed off by amplification technology and better microphones.

These days the ones which aren’t in museums or the backs of cupboards are mostly used to lend antique sonic retrofitting to experimental rock and pop songs. My guess is that for this concert they’re being used alongside the shellac to add compression and metal plating to the Rarity piece…

London Symphony Orchestra presents:
LSO Soundhub Showcase: Phase I
LSO St Lukes, 161 Old Street, St Lukes, London, EC1V 9NG, England
Saturday 14th July 2018, 7.00pm – information here, here and here

Tags: 840 (concert series), Aleksander Kolkowski, Alex Nikiporenko, Amanda Feery, Anna Bastow, Carla Rees, Colin Alexander, duo music, ensemble music, Eva-Maria Houben, Garrett Sholdice, Heather Roche, James Luff, Jennifer Ames Alexander, Jennifer Brown, Julian Gil Rodriguez, Lillie Harris, London Symphony Orchestra, LSO St Luke's (venue) - St Luke's - London, Marc Sabat, music for cello, music for violin, Nick Morrish Rarity, Paul Stoneman, Robin Haigh, Soundhub (concert series), Stuart McIlwham, Tabea Debus, The Wandelweiser Group, Tre Voci Cello Ensemble, unusual instruments, Yvonne Eccles

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Categories 2018, 20th century classical music, 21st century classical music, classical (Western art music), experimental music, instrumental music, plunderphonics, sound collage

June 2018 – upcoming London classical gigs – outstanding free late-lunch listening with Borough Music’s Series 9 (5th, 12th, 19th, 26th June) featuring Ret Frem Ensemble, Amy Jolly, Janet Oates and Aleksander Szram (plus reworked Britten and Finnissy and premiere pieces from Janet Oates, Janet Graham, Hollie Harding, Joel Järventausta, Frederick Viner)

3 Jun

Borough New Music‘s rolling programme of free concerts of new, recent and/or time-tested classical music continues with Series 9 this month.

* * * * * * * *

The first of the concerts, on 5th June, features the Ret Frem Ensemble. They’ll be performing a programme including ensemble leader Will Handysides‘ own ‘Geiterspeil’ (2017), the British premiere of Series 9 guest artistic advisor Hollie Harding‘s ‘by breath and bow’, Kaija Saariaho‘s ‘Cendres’ (from 1998) and Barry O’Halpin‘s ‘Catarrh’ (from 2014). The set’s completed by Wil Offermans‘ reworking of the traditional Japanese tune ‘Tsuro No Sugomori’ and by Michael Finnissy 2003 piece ‘June’ (in a new version which he specifically assembled for Ret Frem).

Here are versions of the Harding, Saariaho and O’Halpin pieces…

plus a previous giddy Handysides ensemble piece as a pointer…

* * * * * * * *

The 12th June concert is a solo instrumental event for cellist Amy Jolly. She’ll be playing Kaija Saariaho‘s 1997 piece ‘Spins And Spells’ and Per Nørgård‘s ‘Sonata for Solo Cello No.2 In Due Tempi’ (consisting of two pieces composed over a gap of twenty-seven years – 1953’s ‘Solo Intimo’ and 1980’s ‘Solo in Scena’).

In addition, she’ll be playing Benjamin Britten’s 1976 piece ‘Tema “Sacher”‘ and a pair of new Hollie Harding variations on it (‘Extension’ and ‘Motion’, both composed for Amy over the last two years).

Various previous renditions of the pieces concerned:

* * * * * * * *

The 19th June concert showcases the compositions of Janet Oates and features an ensemble built around the soprano vocals of Jill House, Olivia Moss and Janet herself, plus Janet’s flute-playing, piano from Ret Frem’s Clare Simmonds and cor anglais from Nancy Johnston.

Half of the programme are Janet’s own songs: the previously-performed ‘Atomic Songs and Fancies’ and ‘Blind Fool Love’, and the two world premieres ‘Arse-elbow’ and ‘A Lover’. The rest of it’s made up of recent classical song repertoire: the late Jonathan Harvey‘s ‘Ah Sunflower’ and Tansy Davies‘ ‘Destroying Beauty’ (both from 2008), plus Dai Fujikura‘s ‘Away We Play’. There’ll also be two further world premieres of as-yet-untitled works by Joel Järventausta and Frederick Viner.

Here are previous renditions of the Fujikura and Harvey pieces and one of Janet’s previous performances of ‘A Lover’; plus a couple of previous Järventausta and Viner pieces (along the same ensemble lines, at least, as the new ones to be performed).

* * * * * * * *

The last of the June concerts – on the 26th – is another solo instrumental concert, this time for pianist Aleksander Szram. He’ll be playing Harding’s ‘Suite P’, Daryl Runswick‘s ‘Scafra Preludes Book 2’, Haris Kittos‘ ‘Arthrós’ and Simon Katan‘s ‘Khepera’, as well as the world premiere of Janet Graham‘s new ‘Sonata for Piano’.

Here are various renditions of the Harding and Kittos pieces, plus the preceding piece in the Runswick ‘Scafra Preludes’ sequence:

* * * * * * * *

All events are at St. George the Martyr Church, Borough High Street, Borough, London, SE1 1JA, England: Dates and links below:

Series 9: Pot Luck! Ret Frem Ensemble – Tuesday 5th June 2018, 1.00pm – information here
Series 9: Featured Instrument – Cello – Amy Jolly – Tuesday 12th June 2018, 1.00pm – information
Series 9: Featured Composer – Janet Oates – Tuesday 19th June 2018, 1.00pm – information here
Series 9: Featured Performer – Aleksander Szram – Tuesday 26th June 2018, 1.00pm – information here

Tags: Aleksander Szram, Amy Jolly, Barry O'Halpin, Benjamin Britten, Borough New Music (promoter/concert series), Clare Simmonds, Dai Fujikura, Daryl Runswick, ensemble music, Frederick Viner, Haris Kittos, Hollie Harding, Janet Graham, Janet Oates, Jill House, Joel Järventausta, Jonathan Harvey, Kaija Saariaho, listening to women, Michael Finnissy, music for cello, Nancy Johnston, Olivia Moss, Per Nørgård, piano music, Ret Frem Ensemble, Simon Katan, St George the Martyr Church (venue) - Borough - London, Tansy Davies, Wil Offermans, Will Handysides

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Categories 2018, 20th century classical music, 21st century classical music, acoustic music, classical (Western art music), classical songs, instrumental music, New Music, previews, singer-songwriter, vocal music

May 2018 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Hen Ogledd’s freak-folk roar plus performances of Conlon Nancarrow, Alice Jeffries and original work by Naomi Sato, Lore Lixenberg and Serge Vuille at Kammer Klang (1st May); Tre Voci & Kit Downes EP launch (15th May)

21 Apr

Kammer Klang presents:
Hen Ogledd + Lore Lixenberg + Naomi Sato + Serge Vuille
Café Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London, E8 3DL, England
Tuesday 1st May 2018, 7,30pm – information here, here and here

Headlining this coming month’s Kammer Klang is the shifting noise-folk improv collective Hen Ogledd: named after the ancient Celtic kingdoms of northern Britain and centring on improvising harpist Rhodri Davies and the distorted bass and acoustic guitar of Richard Dawson (once described as “a one-man Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band“).

Richard and Rhodri initially used the name for a 2013 duo album before expanding it to a larger project. Writer-musician Dawn Bothwell (a sometime video-art-curator who also plays “altered electronic torch songs” as Pentecostal Party and drum machine experiments as half of Blep) joined as an equal partner in 2016, her vocals and electronic instrumentation (synths, loops, delay pedals, telephone) simultaneously pulling the project deeper into freak-noise and adding forthright song structures. On this occasion, Rhodri, Richard and Dawn will be accompanied by a fourth member – frequent Dawson collaborator Sally Pilkington – on keyboard, synth and voice; further thickening a startling brew of sound which seems to excavate, parasitize and transform ancient folk music with a roaring dirty-electric experimentalism.

The rest of the bill is solo sets of various kinds.

Outstanding avant-garde mezzo-soprano Lore Lixenberg will be flying in from her Berlin base to perform her own multi-tracked vocal version of Conlon Nancarrow‘s ‘Study for Player Piano No. 31’ (one voice live, the rest on tape). Nancarrow specialised in piano pieces with a forest of ecstatic multiple parts: impossible for one human to generate on a single standard piano with only ten fingers, but more readily performable via the automatic pedal-pumped player piano (whose system of playing programmed music from punched paper rolls like a computer or music box proved prime for hijacking).

Lore’s apparent aim is to demechanise the music – respecting its original method but bringing it closer to human performance. Though she’s jokingly dubbed this “Nankaraoke”, in a recent interview with NMC Records she also revealed “the idea is to keep the consistency of timbre of the player piano but with the liveness that Nancarrow couldn’t find in his lifetime. I was talking to David Alberman about the first time Nancarrow heard his music played in ensemble; apparently he nearly cried, having been told his whole life that his music was unplayable…”

Saxophonist and reedist Naomi Sato (of Duo X Project, Karooshi Vlinder Vangers and assorted orchestras) will be performing an unspecified solo set on shō (the Japanese 17-pipe bamboo mouth organ). To complete the evening, the Fresh Klang event of new and rare music will be performed by percussionist Serge Vuille – premiering a new work by emerging young British composer Alice Jeffreys, whose music “explor(es) emergent temporal paradoxes in listening”.

* * * * * * * *

I always seem to be doubling up news of Kammer Klang and Nonclassical events, and this time’s no exception. In mid-May, Nonclassical are putting on another Tre Voci gig as the cello ensemble launch their new ‘Auro’ EP with regular collaborator, jazz pianist and organist Kit Downes. (This follows up their previous shared concert) back in February.)

A quick burst of press release for the unfamiliar:

“Formed in 2012, Tre Voci is comprised of Norwegian cellist Torun Sæter Stavseng and British cellists/composers Gregor Riddell and Colin Alexander. Their repertoire ranges from medieval and renaissance vocal music to new commissions and their own compositions. The trio is also focused on structured improvisation, performing with live processed electronics as well as explorations of Scandinavian folk music.

“Kit Downes is a BBC Jazz Award winning, Mercury Music Award nominated, solo recording artist for ECM Records. He has toured the world with artists such as Squarepusher, Thomas Strønen, Aidan O’Rourke and Django Bates and written commissions for Cheltenham Music Festival, London Contemporary Orchestra, Stavanger Konserthus, Cologne Philharmonie, BBC Radio 3 and the Wellcome Trust.”

As is usual with Tre Voci concerts, there will be a mixture of site-specific improvisations plus written pieces, including original works by all performers. Presumably the setlist includes Kit’s Tre Voci ‘Auro’ commission ‘The Cult of John Frum’ plus the fifteenth century Josquin des Prez and Johannes Ockeghem pieces which also appear on the EP.

Nonclassical presents:
Tre Voci & Kit Downes
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 9ES, England
Tuesday 15th May 2018, 8:00pm – information here, here and here

Tags: Alice Jeffreys, Café Oto (promoter/venue), Colin Alexander, Conlon Nancarrow, Dawn Bothwell, Gregor Riddell, Hen Ogledd, Kammer Klang (event), Kit Downes, London (England), Lore Lixenberg, music for cello, music for shō, Naomi Sato, Nonclassical (event/promoter/record label), quartet music, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson, Sally Pilkington (Pentecostal Party), Serge Vuille, The Old Church (venue) - Stoke Newington - London, Torun Saeter Stavseng, Tre Voci, trio music

March/April/May 2018 – upcoming classical gigs in London and Oxford – three evenings of chamber music by female composers courtesy of the Scordatura collective (25th March, 20th April, 19th May), including a Polly Virr guest slot in May… plus the London New Wind Festival’s ‘New Music by Women Composers’ concert (23rd March)

10 Mar

From March to May, women’s music collective Scordatura continue their mission to present, perform and illuminate work by female composers, via a series of monthly concerts in London or Oxford.

The March date in London is “an evening of wind chamber music from some of Europe’s most exciting female composers.” Living composers will be represented by Judith Weir’s ‘Mountain Airs’ (a free adaptation of two traditional Scottish melodies, which dates back to 1988); but there’ll also be wind quintets by a pair of bold and prolific twentieth-century French composers (Claude Arrieu and Hedwige Chrétien) as well as by English serialist grande-dame Elisabeth Lutyens.

In addition, there’ll be a performance of ‘Trio For Winds’ by the late Prague-based Scottish composer Geraldine Mucha, whose work was obscured for much of her lifetime (partly due to Cold War politics and partly due to so much of her energy and social value having being subsumed into other work as chatelaine and foundation head for her talented father-in-law, the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha).

In April, three Scordatura members – cellist and artistic director Rachel Watson, clarinettist Poppy Beddoe, and pianist Cecily Lock – will be playing a set of chamber trios in Oxford. Two are by living composers – ‘Arenas d’un Tiempo’ by Cuban-Afro-American Tania León and ‘Canta, Canta!’ by Thea Musgrave.

The remainder are historical – ‘Passacaglia on an Old English Tune’ (by the slim-catalogued but accomplished post-Impressionist Rebecca Clarke); ‘Sonata for Clarinet and Cello’ (by the smart, witty and superbly spirited Phyllis Tate); ‘Andante for Clarinet and Piano’ (by the elegant twentieth-century neoclassicist Alice Mary Smith); and ‘Three Pieces for Cello and Piano’ (by Nadia Boulanger, whose exemplary work as a teacher of other composers from Philip Glass and Elliott Carter to Aaron Copland tends to overshadow her own compositional reputation).

Scordatura return to London (and the Old Church) in May for an evening of cello ensemble music. This will include pieces composed and performed by a guest – Manchester cellist Polly Virr (another latter-day tech-savvy polydisciplinary, who works with Rachel Watson in flashmob ensemble The Street Orchestra of London and whose work outside of the immediate classical sphere covers the string loop pedal duo Täpp as well as work with indie-folk band Ideal Forgery plus various Manchester singer-songwriters).

Landscape- and travel-inspired, Polly’s pieces include standard playing and cello-body percussion plus occasional extended technique and voice, in a similar manner to other post-classical/pop-friendly solo cellists like Laura Moody, Philip Sheppard, Zosia Jagodzinska and Serena Jost. She also draws additional inspiration from post-classical electronic dance artists such as Phaeleh. I’ve pasted in a couple of her Soundcloud shots below.

The other items on the programme include the Cello Quartet by Grażyna Bacewicz (a violin soloist and onetime Boulanger student who became one of the first internationally-recognised Polish female composers) and ‘Chant’ by the humble, undersung Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Marie Dare (for whom I’ve found a lone biography here) As with the other two concerts, there are a couple of pieces by living women, both of them cello quartets – the slow windings of Tina Davidson’s ‘Dark Child Sings’, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s ‘Las Sombras de los Apus’ (an early piece rising from dark tones to swarming explosions and dance rhythms, balancing – as with most of her music – the European and Latina aspects of her own multicultural heritage).

Dates as follows:

‘The Grand Tour: European Music for Wind Quintet’ – The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 9ES, England, Sunday 25th March 2018, 7.30pm – information here, here and here
‘Scordatura at St Michael’s’ – St Michael & All Angels Church, 33 Lonsdale Road, Summertown, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX2 7ES, England, Friday 20th April 2018, 7.30pm – information here and here
‘Celli! Music for Cello Ensemble’ – The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 9ES, England, Saturday 19th May 2018, 7.30pm – information here, here and here

* * * * * * * *

UPDATE, 16th March 2018 – …and, if you can’t wait that long, I’ve just found out that the people behind the London New Wind Festival are staging a London evening of new music by women composers, as part of International Woman’s Month; a couple of evenings before the first of the Scordatura concerts.

A loose on/off quintet of Simon Desorgher (flutes), Catherine Pluygers (oboes), Ian Mitchell (clarinets), Alan Tomlinson (trombone), and Robert Coleridge (piano) will be playing the following pieces:

Yuko Ohara – Rising Eels (for oboe & trombone)
Margaret Lucy Wilkins – “366” (for solo trombone)
Dorothee Eberhardt – Campion (for bass clarinet & piano) (UK premiere)
Violeta Dinescu – Lichtwellen (for solo B-flat clarinet) (UK premiere)
Michiko Shimanuki – First Snow (for solo piano) (world premiere)
Catherine Pluygers – Japan (for ensemble)
Janet Graham – From Dawn to Dusk (for flute, oboe and piano)
Erika Fox – Remembering the Tango (for flute and piano)
Ming Wang – Die Verwandelten (for solo bass flute)
Enid Luff – The Coming of the Rain (for solo oboe).

London New Wind Festival presents:
‘New Music by Women Composers’
Schott Music Ltd, 48 Great Marlborough Street, Soho, London, WIF 7BB, England
Friday 23rd March 2018, 7.30pm – information here, here and here

This music’s currently so obscure that this is the only soundclip I could find for it…

Tags: Alan Tomlinson, Alice Mary Smith, Catherine Pluygers, Cecily Lock, Claude Arrieu, Dorothee Eberhardt, Elisabeth Lutyens, Enid Luff, ensemble music, Erika Fox, Gabriela Lena Frank, Geraldine Mucha, Grażyna_Bacewicz, Hedwige Chrétien, Ian Mitchell, Janet Graham, Judith Weir, listening to women, Margaret Lucy Wilkins, Marie Dare, Michiko Shimanuki, Ming Wang, music for cello, Nadia Boulanger, Phyllis Tate, Polly Virr, Poppy Beddoe, quartet music, quintet music, Rachel Watson, Rebecca Clarke, Robert Coleridge, Schott Music (venue) - Soho - London, Scordatura Women's Music Collective, Simon Desorgher, St Michael & All Angels Church (venue) - Oxford, Tania León, The Old Church (venue) - Stoke Newington - London, Thea Musgrave, Tina Davidson, trio music, Violeta Dinescu, women of heart and mind, Yuko Ohara

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Categories 2018, 20th century classical music, 21st century classical music, acoustic music, chamber music, classical (Western art music), DIY music, electro-acoustic music, instrumental music, New Music, previews, singer-songwriter

May 2017 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Kammer Klang with Scenatet/Matt Rogers, David Helbich, Benjamin Oliver/Yshani Perinpanayagam (May 2nd); Ensemble in Process presents a showcase of modern American composers (May 15th)

27 Apr

Ensemble In Process presents:
Ensemble In Process: Americuration (featuring Zubin Kanga, Marsyas Trio, Jonathan Russell, Seth Bedford & Maria Fiore Mazzarini)
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, Waterloo, London, SE1 7LG, England
Monday 15th May 2017, 7.30pm – information

Formed just under a year and a half ago, Ensemble In Process has progressed from being a small chamber ensemble (formed to compete in Nonclassical‘s annual Battle of the Bands Competition) to being a multiple-direction contemporary music project. Now straddling London and New York – and planning performances, programming and networking across the UK, America, Europe and the wider globe – they have a particular focus on helping contemporary composers without sufficient UK resources to achieve performances of their work within the UK.

Their debut concert as both performers and organizers showcases American composers. Bookended by performances of well-established Steve Reich pieces (from the ‘Counterpoint’ series), it also features works by George Crumb, Michael Gordon, Timo Andres, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli and Jonathan Russell as well as premieres of music by Seth Bedford, Ryan Brown and Ian Dicke, and by EIP’s artistic director Brian Mark.

Participating are the three members of the Marsyas Trio – pianist Zubin Kanga, flautist Helen Vidovich and cellist Valerie Welbanks – and violinist Maria Fiore Mazzarini (plus Seth Bedford and Brian Mark, performing voice and piano respectively on some of their own works and on those of others).

Programme:

Steve Reich – Vermont Counterpoint (for flute & tape)
Timo Andres – At the River (for piano)
David Lang – Killer (for violin & electronics)
Ian Dicke – Get Rich Quick (for piano & fixed media) (UK premiere)
Seth Bedford – Three Cabaret Songs (for piano & voice) (UK premiere)
George Crumb – Vox Balaenae (for electric flute, cello and amplified piano)
Jonathan Russell – Assorted Past (for piano)
Missy Mazzoli – Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos (for piano & video installation)
Ryan Brown – Bedside Manner (for flute & cello) (UK premiere)
Brian Mark – Lucid Dreaming (for flute & cello) (world premiere)
Michael Gordon – Light is Calling (for violin)
Steve Reich – Piano Counterpoint (for piano & electronics)

Regarding the future, Brian claims that “Ensemble In Process… will be a rotating vehicle with respect to size, instrumentation, and nature of specific programming. Eventually, it will also feature a special annual transatlantic event, which will become a six-hour concert marathon that will take place between London and select US cities via live streaming. After its debut concert and the first year of operation, Ensemble in Process… will eventually launch into an annual series of multiple diverse concerts and other exciting outreach activities.”

Meanwhile, here are soundclips and video examples for the concert programme (where I could find them…):

* * * * * * * *

A little under two weeks previously, there’s another Kammer Klang session at Café Oto, presenting an evening of London loft music on the ground floor again. This time, the concert has a particularly strong theatrical tinge, though not necessarily in a conventional manner.

strong>Kammer Klang presents:
Scenatet performs Matt Rogers + David Helbich + Yshani Perinpanayagam performs Benjamin Oliver + Slips DJs
Café Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London, E8 3DL, England
Tuesday 2nd May 2017, 7.30pm – information here and here

The Fresh Klang performance this month is a new keyboard duet by Benjamin Oliver ‘Mr. Turquoise Synth’, which “explores how the contrasting sonorities of the piano (acoustic) and synth (low memory electronics) and modes of production (human/computer agency) can be combined and juxtaposed. Initially the duet partners are isolated but gradually become entwined in a playful and dynamic relationship.” It’ll be performed as a solo by pianist/keyboard player Yshani Perinpanayagam (Del Mar Piano Trio, Rambert Dance Company, and ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’) and features both the venue piano and a bespoke one-bit pulse synthesiser designed by chiptune jazzer Blake Troise (Protodome).

Brussels-based philosopher-composer David Helbich (perhaps best known for his ‘Belgian Solutions‘ project, which spots, photographs and documents various frequently absurd-but-human fixings and methods) goes beyond the territory of being a conceptual musician in order to explore and share along the very faultline which separates musical concepts from non-musical concepts. It’s worth noting that David is the kind of composer who chooses to write for air guitar. Having dispensed with instruments, sound and multi-media trappings, what he’s mostly now interested in is the audience, with whom he will be performing one of his “No Music” sessions,

“No Music is no music, but still a musical experience. No music, still for your ears. Since 2010 I have worked on scores for pieces that could be performed right at the spot, in whatever context, as long as one could freely use both hands and had two functioning ears. The pieces offer notated situations of organised listening and simple ear manipulations. I understand the this material more as a practice than as a series of composition, even though they can appear as such. Pieces appear in printed form as well as in spontaneous performances or entirely set theatrical or concert performances. These interventions are entirely personal and therefore not so much interactive as “inner-active”, self-performative. The reader as the performer as the listener.”

Below is an example from a performance in Brussels.

In between, there’s Scenatet – an ensemble working under the remit of “art music theatre in unusual spaces” and generally works with younger Danish composers, creating cross-genre performances involving elements of drama and “happenings” as well as music. Though the ensemble consists of twelve permanent musicians, for this concert, they’ll be down to a trio of Vicky Wright (clarinet), Mina Fred (viola) and My Hellgren (cello) in order to perform the world premiere of Matt Rogers‘ ‘Weep At The Elastic As It Stretches’ The piece is an attempt to “embody the attitudes and spirit” of N.F. Simpson’s 1958 absurdist play ‘A Resounding Tinkle’, which “ask(s) that we rejoice in all manner of unexpected objects, situations and concepts, taking great delight in the most categorical of descriptions and in a complete lack of distinction between the mundane and the exotic.”

This month’s Kammer Klang DJ set is provided by Tom Rose and Laurie Tompkins, the people behind the London/Berlin record label Slip (which specializes in “exploratory work which negotiates the fringes of new instrumental and electronic music” and is heavily involved with site-specific live events from instrumental performances through to club nights).

Programme:

Fresh Klang: Benjamin Oliver – Mr. Turquoise Synth
Matt Rogers – Weep at the Elastic as it Stretches (world premiere)
David Helbich – No Music (a performative rehearsal)
DJs: Slip

Tags: Benjamin Oliver, Brian Mark, Café Oto (promoter/venue), David Helbich, David Lang, duo music, Ensemble In Process, flute music, George Crumb, Helen Vidovich, Ian Dicke, IKLECTIK Art Lab (promoters), Jonathan Russell, Kammer Klang (event), London (England), Maria Fiore Mazzarini, Matt Rogers, Michael Gordon, Mina Fred, Missy Mazzoli, multimedia, music for cello, music for violin, My Hellgren, piano music, premieres, Protodome (Blake Troise), Ryan Brown, Scenatet, Seth Bedford, Slip (record label), Steve Reich, Timo Andres, Valerie Welbanks, Vicky Wright, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Zubin Kanga

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Misfit City

June 2021 – single & track reviews – Gabriella Smith/Gabriel Cabezas’ ‘Lost Coast III’; Hot Mustard’s ‘Jerkwater Strut; Ada Moreau’s ‘My Shadow Halts’

May 2018 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Hen Ogledd’s freak-folk roar plus performances of Conlon Nancarrow, Alice Jeffries and original work by Naomi Sato, Lore Lixenberg and Serge Vuille at Kammer Klang (1st May); Tre Voci & Kit Downes EP launch (15th May)

May 2017 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Kammer Klang with Scenatet/Matt Rogers, David Helbich, Benjamin Oliver/Yshani Perinpanayagam (May 2nd); Ensemble in Process presents a showcase of modern American composers (May 15th)

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June 2021 – single & track reviews – Gabriella Smith/Gabriel Cabezas’ ‘Lost Coast III’; Hot Mustard’s ‘Jerkwater Strut; Ada Moreau’s ‘My Shadow Halts’

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May 2018 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Hen Ogledd’s freak-folk roar plus performances of Conlon Nancarrow, Alice Jeffries and original work by Naomi Sato, Lore Lixenberg and Serge Vuille at Kammer Klang (1st May); Tre Voci & Kit Downes EP launch (15th May)

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May 2017 – upcoming London classical/experimental gigs – Kammer Klang with Scenatet/Matt Rogers, David Helbich, Benjamin Oliver/Yshani Perinpanayagam (May 2nd); Ensemble in Process presents a showcase of modern American composers (May 15th)

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