Andrew Liles: Fovea Hex EP collaboration confirmed
After a lot of speculation, Andrew Liles has finally confirmed that he has completed a collaboration with Clodagh Simonds' Fovea Hex project. Almost casually, Liles included the announcement in his latest newsletter, tucked away in the middle section, mentioning it as one of many Vinyl projects scheduled for 2008: „An abundance of vinyl is either going to press as I write or has been planned or slated for release in the coming months“, Andrew Liles said, „including a Wardrobe 7", an Andrew Liles & Fovea Hex 7" in gatefold sleeve, 'Auto Manipulator', 'Anal Aura Gram' with screen printed cover and pressed on lilac vinyl, a deluxe edition of 'An Un World' on coloured double vinyl and in 2009 an elaborate triple L.P box set for Vinyl on Demand.“ While there is no official information on the exact coordinates of the joint project, we surely intend to bring it to you as soon as possible. With regards to the fact that Janet Records, who released previous Fovea Hex efforts, had already mentioned this project some time ago, it seems likely that the EP will be published by them (don't take our word for it, though, and don't hassle them for any copies yet).
CeC & CaC 2008: India's Multimedia Carnival
India is preparing for its annual event of nultimedia exhibitions, music performances and various forms of arts-related exchange: CeC & CaC that's the Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave) 2008 will take place February 15th, 16th and 17th „across several venues of India International Centre, in New Delhi, India“. Organised by one of the country's key figure in electronic culture, Shankar Barua, whose CD- and DVD collection ammased through his work in the field „is now regarded in some quarters to be one of the most significant collections of electronic arts in the early twenty-first century“ according to himself, and who has gone from complete computer-newbie to professional musician, designer and writer in about 15 years, CeC & CAC 2008 will be packed with information, gigs and video presentations. The event is supported by the India International Centre and the Academy of Electronic Arts and will, as always, have plenty of fascinating material from India's blurgeoning music scene on offer – such as electronic Sitar performances and talks on the preservation of North Indian music
Philharmonia Orchestra: Olivier Messiaen Cycle & Video Clip Bonanza
London's Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen are about to launch a short, but concentrated cycle dedicated to Olivier Messiaen this February. The program will include some rarely performed works, as well as the Turangalila symphony, one of the more exotic and controversial pieces of the 20th century. Among the less well-known pieces is „Oiseaux Exotiques“, an imaginary portrayal of bird life in which Messiaen mixed the sounds of Asian and American animals to arrive at a music which contained „all the colours of the rainbow“. „Oiseaux Exotiques“ will be presented side by side with Stravinsky's „The Rite of Spring“, a work which has often been likened to the Turangalila Symphony in its relentless thirst for renewal and the devastating criticsm it received upon its premiere. To inform potential listeners about the background to Olivier Messiaen and these particular scores, the Philharmonia is offering visitors to their site a plethora of videos and texts, which provide plenty of material to start your journey into the phenomenon of the French composer. It is a trip well worth taking, because as Esa-Pekka Salonen, points out in a video-interview: „At the verymoment that I heard Turangalîla, it was an amazing shock. It was one of those moments when a completely new landscape opens up in front of you, because nothing was like it should have been.“
SCREAM 2008: Piano and Electro-Acoustic Music Submission Call
The „Southern California Resource for Electro-Acoustic Music“, is sending out a call for composition submissions for this year's edition of their annual festival, SCREAM 2008. SCREAM 2008 will be based around the theme of combined works for piano and electroacoustic works, allowing for various performance techniques, approaches and visual elements. One select piece from the entries will be awarded a prize of $500 and receive a performance from the hands of well respected Pianist Vicki Ray. Despite the diverse forms the winning composition may take on, one thing's for sure: Since all submissions must be „new and previously unperformed“, the concert, which will take place at Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in Los Angeles (pictured) in late 2008, will be a world premiere. For anyone interested in participating, here are the guidelines for submissions at SCREAM 2008:
Russel Haswell & Florian Hecker: UPIC Warp Tracks in the footsteps of Xenakis
Russel Haswell and Florian Hecker will release extracts from their work with Iannis Xenakis' UPIC composition tool on February on 4th February via Warp Records. The aptly titled „UPIC Warp tracks“ will feature three compositions from the sessions and document experiments which have kept the duo busy for the past four year. Xenakis finished conceptual work on UPIC in 1977 and since then, it hasn't only popped up in his own scores, but in those of others as well. The tool allows users to feed waveforms into a computer and then use vector displays to draw scores in a both playful and precise way. Ever since their first steps in the project, Florian Hecker and Russel Haswell have made use both of UPIC's qualities as a composition program and a live instrument, which allows for plentiful real-time manipulations (see the video below). Their work has taken place at the home of UPIC, CCMIX Paris, and been featured on Warner Classic's „Blackest Ever Black: Electro acoustic Upic Recordings“ - a full length effort which went deep to explore the machine's potential. „Upic Warp Tracks“ will now take things one step further, as it follows in the wake of „live multi channel electroacoustic diffusion concerts“ making use of surround sound and laser lighting to create „an immersive multi-sensory environment".
Sebastien Roux & Bidibop: Urban Field Muzick Reunion
Former band colleagues Sebastien Roux and Vincent Nicolas have been quietly reunited – by releasing their latest album on the same day with the same title and on the same label. As of now, Sebastien Roux' „Urban Field Muzick“ and Vincent Nicolas' err... „Urban Field Muzick“(under the moniker of bidibop) will be available from Field Muzick. Despite this outward harmony and the obvious thematic similarities, the underlying differences are imanent: On the one hand, Sebastien Roux offers listeners one long composition culled from a sound installation, created for the ososphere festival (held in Strasbourg in September of 2006). In the best Musique Concrete tradition, he binds aural impressions from his past three vacations together, establishing a soft and simmering narrative. On the other hand, Vincent Nicolas merely uses field recordings as starting points for sweet trips into a delicious dreamland. His „ACE Train Song“, for example, seems to take a similar route as Roux, but then adds layers of melody and drones to arrive at a gripping piece of new romanticism. Both publications will as always arrive with the trademark heavy cardboard photocover and as red or black 3'' Mini-CDs.
James Beaudreau: Recording Session Revelations
Guitarist James Beaudreau is currently in the final stages of writing and recording the follow-up to his remarkable and widely applauded solo debut „Java Street Bagatelles“. In between the sessions to the as yet untitled work, Beaudreau was kind enough to satisfy our curiosity and reveal a little inside information: „So far there's 8 tracks (totalling over 30 minutes) that are done, but need to be mixed - and I'm working on some other pieces now“, James Beaudreau said, „ The finished album should clock in somewhere between 38-45 minutes.“ There were discreet and yet important changes in approach: „One rulethat I held to during the making of Java St Bagatelles was that recordings couldn't be layered: there could only be one guitar present at a time, so as to present the image of a real performance, even when there were edits. I let go of that rule in this new album: editing has become freer and recordings layer on top of one another in many places, sometimes dramatically and sometimes subtly.“ Beaudreau made sure to dispel any auggestions of the album going in a completely different direction from the spontaneous, softly avantgardistic, jazz-flavoured guitar impromptus and compositions of its predecessor: „There will still be a few solo guitar improvisations on the album too.“
Autechre: First "Quaristice" Review Exclusive
Autechre have released their new full-length „Quaristice“ as an MP3- or FLAC-download from online retailer BLEEP. The twenty new tracks of „Quaristice“ will be accompanied by track-to-track artwork courtesy of the Designer's Republic, also in charge of the cover graphics. On March 3rd, the Web-release will be followed by the physical formats: A standard CD, a Vinyl LP and a limited Edition Double-CD. The latter will be adorned by a 68 minute Bonus Disc, featuring „different version of selected tracks from Quaristice“ and come in a photo-etched, steel slip case plus gatefold wallet not to be had anywhere else. At just 1000 copies worldwide, the special edition must be seen as an extremely rare item, which is sure to fetch high prices at Ebay soon – fans are hereby warned to make use of the preorder option on the Autechre site. Because the release can be scanned in its entirety at BLEEP, here's a tentative first review of what „Quaristice“, one of the most eagerly anticpated electronic albums this year, sounds like:
Midori: Gets extrovert on Bach
Violinist Midori will release her new CD in February. Already launched in her home of Japan on December 19th of last year, the album will contain Bach's Sonata No. 2 in A minor BWV 1003 and the Sonata No. 1 by Bartok – the latter a collaboration with Pianist Robert McDonald, who has been a longstanding touring partner. The Bach Sonata is a piece for solo violin, which has accompanied her for years. In a short movie by Robert Abramovic (already shot in 2005), Midori talks about her relationship with the composer and the Bach Sonata No. 2 in particular: „It's incredibly difficult and challenging - and rewarding“ Midori said, revealing that she has wished to be able to perform these pieces since her childhood, “It's probably the most extrovert of his sonatas“ The film was shot in Dubrovnik and features short, but intense extracts from live performances of the sonata by Midori – and can be watched through a link on her homepage.
Ingrid Fliter: Chopin as an Aphrodisiac
It’s finally here: Ingrid Fliter’s solo debut for EMI. “Chopin: Piano Works” is now available worldwide and has turned into a highly personal album for the Argentinian Pianist: “It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that if it had not been for Chopin's music I wouldn't have been born”, Ingrid Fliter recounts, “My mother noticed my father for the first time while he was playing some Chopin waltzes during a party!” The album comes only a month after her recording sessions with British broadcaster BBC as part of their BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists project and is bound to catapult Ingrid Fliter into the top of today’s classical performers. Previous releases were live recordings and DVDs distributed by American specialist label VAI and secured her a sort of cult following – next to collecting strong live reviews almost anywhere she performed. The EMI deal did therefore not come falling from the sky completely – even though things had to wait until the announcement that Ingrid Fliter would be the recipient of the 2006 Gilmore Award before the deal could finally be struck.
Morton Feldman: Competition on the Record Market
Morton Feldman remains as inspiring as ever, with plenty of recent and upcoming releases dedicated to the great late American composer. HatHut Records from Switzerland especially have made a name for themselves by presenting his work in typographically excuisite and monetarily affordable editions performed by some of the big names in new music. One of their eagerly awaited titles early this year is Morton Feldman’s “String Quartet”. With this disc, the Dutch Ives Ensemble follows up on their recording of the “String Quartet II”, a 4CD boxset released in 2001. For the occasion, the ensemble returned to the HR Sendesaal in Frankfurt for a rendition which will be a nice addition to the version by the “Group for Contemporary Music” – possibly the only widely commercially available CD of the piece at the moment.
Klavierfestival Ruhr: From Lang Lang to Stockhausen
Tickets for the 2008-edition of the Klavierfestival Ruhr are now officially on sale. Since the 26th of January, fans of Piano music in all different shapes and sizes can choose from a mouthwatering program and some of the finest performers of their trade: The Klavierfestival Ruhr has been known as the biggest Festival of its sort and gained a reputation for combining the unusual event locations of its industrially influenced heartland and ambitious concepts with the traditions and serious ambiance of a big classical music event. This year's version, will have no less than three thematic focal points: China, Schubert and the 20th anniversary of the Klavierfestival Ruhr itself. The bill for 2008 includes highlights from all corners of the Piano world: Lang Lang, Martha Argerich, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder, Chick Corea, Nelson Freire, Pavel Gililov, Marc-André Hamelin, Graham Johnson, das Klavierduo Labèque, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Radu Lupu, Gabriela Montero, Oleg Maisenberg, András Schiff, Grigory Sokolov, Andreas Staier, Martin Stadtfeld und Krystian Zimerman – the list goes on.
Hasu Patel: Sitar meets Symphonic Orchestra
Indian composer Hasu Patel is about to embark on a short, but intense tour, in which she will collaborate with orchestra musicians in a combination of Eastern and Western styles. Starting in February, Hasu Patel will perform in her current home of the USA and then move on to China, where she will also give Sitar workshops with the students of the Conservatory of Music at the University of Beijing. The encounter with Symphonic Orchestras fits in perfectly with Patel's open-minded philosophy, which never surrenders the purity of her unique „Gayaki Ang“ style of playing the Sitar and has still seen her engage in various collaborational projects with Western performers, exploring genres like Jazz. „One has to respect and honor each other's music“, Hasu Patel said about her approach to these intercutural encounters. This humble stance has kept her music fresh over the years and awarded her a slot at the Woodstock Reunion Festival, which she still likes thinking back to: „It was truly an honor and a great experience as a female performer. I still feel the vibrations of the place and music.“
Richie Hawtin celebrates: No releases! No concerts! No appearances!
Richie Hawtin has declared the festvities for the tenth anniversary season of his Minus label as opened by announcing there will be no new releases, no performances and no appearances by Minus artists in the first ten weeks of 2008. This moment of silence, possibly the first ever since Richie Hawtin first set foot in the record business in 1990, will then lead into a year of celebration which will further extend the label’s artist-roster and present “new localized technology”. In a long letter, sent out to friends and supporters, Hawtin took a look back into his personal history and that of his two record companies, both of which have massively influenced the direction electronic music in general and techo in particular have taken over the past years. “Reflecting on all of these experiences makes me realize how much time and energy has gone into building the foundation of what Minus has become today”, Richie Hawtin wrote, “however, at the same time it feels as if things came together in a blink of an eye.” Minus was Richie Hawtin’s second label, after founding “Plus 8” together with equally durable friend and producer John Acquaviva.
Alexander Prior: Teenage composer presents Mowgli
15-year old Russian composer, singer and conductor Alexander Prior will present his new ballet “Mowgli” at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow on February 3rd. Commissioned by choreographers Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vassilev, the performance will be realized in conjunction with the Moscow State Classical Ballet and the New Opera Orchestra. While Alexander Prior had already tentatively conducted “Mowgli” in June of last year, the Kremlin event will represent the official world premiere of the piece, extracts of which will later in the year also be presented at London’s Barbican Centre. The over one and a half hours long ballet is obviously based on “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling and already available as a CD via the website of Alexander Prior.
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