State-X New Forms Festival: Highlighting the Scandinavian Scene
In just under two weeks, The Hague in the Netherlands will host the State-X New Forms Festival. Recognised as a daring and truly individual approach to programming, the 2007 edition of the State-X New Forms Festival again boasts a line-up which will have open-minded music fans baiting and battling for tickets. With styles ranging from Jazz to Rock, from the Avantgarde to Atmospherics and from Electronic to Acoustic, the roster is eclectic in the original sense of the word. The organisors have also invited as many big names (involving giants such as Aphex Twin and Motorpsycho) as complete unknowns, serving a highly stimulating cocktail. Bearing this in mind, the State-X New Forms Festival easily lives up to its own motto of “X-Plore, X-Plain and X- Pect”. As in previous editions, there will be a seasonal focal point. This year, special attention will go out to the contribution Scandinavian countries have made to the experimental scene. Expect to be surprised as we’ll bring you full coverage of both days at the State-X New Forms Festival on December 14th and 15th here on tokafi.
Herbert von Karajan: DVD Box sets for his 100th birthday
Sony BMG Masterworks have announced the release of 3 special DVD sets to commemorate the 100th birthday of Herbert von Karajan. The DVD boxes will be released on April 5th of 2008 and comprise video footage of Herbert von Karajan conducting all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven, symphonies 4, 5 and six by Tchaikovsky as well as Richard Strauss’ Tone Poems. The label announced the DVD sets as a visually appealing extravaganza, which had received additional audio treatment through a very special re-recording procedure: “With an intricate speaker matrix, a well-levelled signal was generated on stage to trigger the room acoustics”, Sony BMG Masterworks explained. “In direct relation to the source material the room signals were then re-recorded with an orchestra-like microphone array and newly balanced – a technology spearheaded by a team around sound engineers Philipp Nedel and Michael Brammann at the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna – two main performance sites of Karajan’s career and also two halls world-renowned for their acoustics.” Almost 20 years after his death in 1989, Herbert von Karajan thus continues to be one of the record company’s and the entire classical scene’s most profitable brands.
Paavo Järvi: Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik
Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie have secured one of the awards at the prestigous annual German Critics' Prize “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”. Compared to the Echo, which traditionally draws a larger crowd but also heavy criticsm for its close relationship with the big record companies, the competition has a much more indendent ring to it and has been known to value musical quality higher than sales figures. Paavo Järvi snatched up the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” for his recordings of Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 3 and 8 for RCA Red Seal. “Out of the abundance of Beethoven symphony recordings, this SACD production clearly stands out as a prelude to a new complete works.”, the jury stated in its judgement, “This recording is both original and rousing in its transparency and its luminous impact, in its chamber-musical sophistication and its balance of analysis and emotion.” The award comes as a special treat for this site as well, as tokafi team member Dirk Fischer was part of the production as recording engineer.
Roger Doyle: Prize-winning "The Ninth Set" out
Irish composer Roger Doyle ‘s prize-winning “The Ninth Set” has been made available to the public by German record company “Die Stadt”. The Hamburg-based label announced the CD has been designed as a full-colour digipack in a first edition of 600 copies. Parts four and five of “The Ninth Set” had secured the Magisterium Prize at this year's Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition. Open only to composers with a minimum of 25 years of experience to their credit, the competition aims to pay hommage to works with the potential of turning into future classics of electro acoustic music. Next to a cash injection of 1.200 Euros, the prize included a promotion campaign for Roger Doyle, with a fourty-minute concert at the "Synthèse Festival 2007" as well as a sponsored CD release. Doyle didn’t have to think too long whom to turn to for the latter part of the bargain. “The Ninth Set”, after all, follows his involvement in another “Die Stadt” project, the incredibly succesful and widely applauded “Huge” by Clodagh Simmonds’ Fovea Hex.
Raphal Blechacz: Platinum Power
Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz has attained Platinum-honours with his debut album in his homecountry. In fact, sales were so high that Blechacz even stormed into the pop charts, scoring a golden disc in the first week of its release. EMPIK, Poland’s largest distributor of CDs and DVDs (compare it to WOM in Germany, FNAC in France and Tower Records in the USA) reported the album reached the top ten of its internal charts, climbing as high as 6. This is all the more sensational, since Rafal Blechacz went for traditional repertoire on his first CD, recording Chopin’s complete Preludes as well as the Nocturne op. 62 – not exactly surprising pieces for a classical Pianist and works which have been recorded by the greatest of the great among the trade. The Platinum distinctions were officially announced and presented to Rafal Blechacz last Sunday, after a concert at the Mickiewicz University Aula in Poznań, where he performed the composer’s Piano Concerto (in fact, a much more seldomly performed piece and one of the more unusual Piano concertos). It is just one of the signs that Rafal Blechacz is quickly turning into a media star in Poland – where he already has a fan club dedicated exlusively to him.
Steve Roach: Builds an Arc of Passion
Steve Roach has announced “Arc of Passion”, a new two-disc set, which is already hailed as a potential classic. Built around three tracks, “Arc of Passion” is said to “weave elements of his three definitive styles into a continuous, evolving flow”. Steve Roach himself describes the style as the “deeper end of my tribal ambient sound” and draws paralells to previous albums like “Proof Positive” and “Mystic Chords”. A striking similarity between the latter and “Arc of Passion” can certainly be seen in the fact that they both feature a string of medium-length tracks alongside a key piece of over an hour. In the case of “Arc of Passion”, that key piece is the title track, which Projekt, the label Steve Roach has worked with intensively since “Lost Pieces” in 1995, describes as follows: “Waves of emotion from intertwining sequencers provide the foundation for the evolving trance patterns that develop into full mesmerizing, passionate form.” Steve Roach has furthermore revealed a few details of the sessions to us.
Anne-Sophie Mutter: Simply Anne-Sophie
After decades at the fore of classical music, Anne-Sophie Mutter has announced “Simply Anne-Sophie”, a double-disc feature based around her work of the past years. “Simply Anne-Sophie” is not to be seen as a hurriedly compiled “Best Of” by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Instead, this combination of Audio Disc and DVD wants to take a short leave from the break-neck tempo with which she has established herself as the archetypical violinist of her generation. This is probably, why “Simply Anne-Sophie” may well be considered as the most commercial album she has ever recorded. Anne-Sophie Mutter performs Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Beethoven and shows her interest in 20th century works with an interpretation of “Porgy and Bess”. And for all those who have followed the life and times of Anne-Sophie Mutter all the way to the tabloids, it may be an interesting detail that “Simply Anne-Sophie” also contains a piece dedicated to her by former husband Andre Previn , whom she was married to until 2006.
Mirko Uhlig & Dronaement: Walk the Farewell Fields
German sound artists Mirko Uhlig and Dronaement (aka Marcus Obst) have announced the release of a Split CD on Czech label Nextera as a first document of their nascent collaboration. “Farewell Fields” will be a two-track affair and directly or indirectly focus on the live repertoire of both of the musicians. In the case of Dronaement, the case is more obvious: “Fields” is a long, floating track recorded on the spot at the “ETA Festival” at the AZ Conni club in Dresden. It features all of the different shades that have made Dronaement stand out from the fold: Glistening chord progressions, drones, field recordings and even some pulsating rhythms create a dense, yet open space for both dreaming and concentrated listening. There is a subtle Krautrock-feeling to “Fields” as well (a genre Marcus Obst has a long-standing interest in), which awards the track the position of an ideal overview of his entire ouevre. Mirko Uhlig, on the other hand, offers “Para Puri”, a piece which has been part of his concert repertoire for the past year in various alternative forms. Built around a deep, breathing bass resonance and a line of vocal samples, the work establishes an ambiance of longing and absolute tranquility, in which time seems to stands still. Thanks to the excellent distribution network of Nextera, the album will now be available worldwide.
Gabriela Montero: Live in my Living Room
After infusing the entire classical scene with energy, Pianist Gabriela Montero is now allowing everyone into her most private spaces. “Live In My Living Room” is the name of her latest project and it will bring the talents of the Venezuelan to households everywhere by using the internet as its highway. For “Live In My Living Room”, Gabriela Montero will be hosting a free monthly concert from her house on her personal website. These concerts will consist of the very improvisations Gabriela Montero has become famous for and which she has continously presented alongside the classical standard repertoire both in her concerts and on CD. The basis for these improvisations will be themes suggested by fans and the general public. Topics can range from “Emotions, beautiful visions, inspirations from other composers” to “a film or television show that touched you”. Gabriela Montero has asked for submissions to be sent to her directly and without delay - the first volume of “Live In My Living Room” is scheduled for December already.
My Cat is an Alien: Get cosmic with Keiji Hano & Steve Roden
My Cat is an Alien, an Italian improvisational duo, have stepped up the gear in their ongoing “Cosmic Debris” series by releasing two new volumes at the same time – one with Japanese icon Keiji Hano and the other other with American sculptor and sound artist Steve Roden. The contrasts between the two CDs could hardly be more extreme. Keiji Hano is considered one of the biggest names in his country’s underground scene and regards high volume an important aspect of his work (“A lack of boundaries means something can go anywhere; that's why my music is loud.” and “I use the electric guitar as a weapon to express myself,” are two excellent quotes to describe his style). On "Cosmic Debris Vol. III", Keiji Hano and My Cat is an Alien openly eschew folk and fragility, engaging in a musical dialogue their label describes as “a cosmic bomb exploding in your brain”. Staying true to the philosophy of the “Cosmic Debris” series, this is no collaboration in the conventional sense of the word, but rather a combination of two live improvisations – which sees My Cat is an Alien perform in their homebase in Turin and Keiji Hano in Tokyo. In direct comparison, the “Cosmic Debris Vol. II” with Steve Roden sounds like an inverted picture.
Trio Mediaeval: Folk Songs and Joke Ballads
The Trio Mediaeval have said goodbye to their mediaeval roots for an album of Nordic Folk. “Folk Songs”, as always with their longterm partner ECM Records, places the Trio Mediaeval next to Birger Mistereggen, one of the few active musicians in the Norwegian folk drum tradition, and features a total of nineteen tracks. With titles such as “I don’t think much of these boys” on the one hand and “Beloved Jerusalem” or “Saviour of the nations, come”, the direction the Trio Mediaeval are taking on this album is clear: “Fun Ballads” on the one hand and serious, spritual pieces on the other.
Olga Neuwirth & Vinko Globokar: New works with col legno
Two composers of very different generations and with very different backgrounds are about to release their latest albums with specialist record label col legno. Austrian Olga Neuwirth, just back from her performance at the Dokumenta in Kassel, will present “...ce qui arrive... Verfremdung/Enfremdung”, while veteran Vinko Globokar, an artist at the intersections of Jazz and contemporary music, is looking forward to “Der Engel der Geschichte/Les Ortages”, a massive double SACD set taped on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 2004. Both releases are scheduled for Autumn of this year and again serve as reminders of the colourful repertoire policy of col legno, which seeks to fuse inspiring interpretations of classical pieces with 20th and 21st century scores.
Julia Fischer & Sol Gabetta: Gramophone & Echo Award
A double strike by two young performers has heralded a turn of the tides on the classical scene. At the beginning of this month, German violinist Julia Fischer secured herself the title of “Artist of the Year” at the Gramophone Awards. Now, just three weeks later, Cellist Sol Gabetta took home similar honours ("Instrumentalist of the Year") on the night of the highest German distinction in the field of classical music, the Echo. For both Julia Fischer and Sol Gebatta, the awards crown highly succesful recording and touring sprees and were won against a fierce lineup of competitors. Julia Fischer, for exampe, lept ahead of long-standing stars such as Rolando Villazon, Bryn Terfel and the freshly appointed Messenger for Peace Daniel Barenboim, as well as up and rising talents such as Joyce DiDonato.
Cyclic Law: Gives birth to a sister (and she's screaming!)
Canadian label Cyclic Law, seminal in the field of moodful ambient, is preparing for one one the biggest steps in its history: Launching a fully-fledged sister company. “Twilight Foundation” will be geared more towards the Metal market and highlighting genres such as Black Metal and Doom Metal next to the styles typically associated with Cyclic Law: Dark Ambient and mysterious, spaceous electronics. To make this an impressive start in every possible way, Cyclic Law and Twilight Foundation’s Frederic Arbour has chosen to release the debut album by his compatriots “Towards Darkness”, "Solemn" is a work full of crunching guitar chords, distorted screams and – to top things off – majestic atmospheric synthesizer pads. The latter can be attributed to the inclusion of Keyboarder Simon Carignan, who has now complemented the ranks of Towards Darkness.
Anthony & Joseph Paratore: Gershwin, Schönberg
Anthony and Joseph Paratore have announced the release of two new CDs: This means that one of the leading Piano duos of our time is back with a typical blend of contemporary and classical repertoire, as well as their very personal take on Jazz. Having said this, “Anthony & Joseph Paratore Play George Gershwin” is actually a re-release of their 1995 CD with German label Koch, with entirely new packaging and photography. After featuring their soulmate Dave Brubeck on their previous output, Anthony and Joseph Paratore are back with yet another moonwalker between the genres: George Gershwin. The disc not only presents popular favoruties such as the “Fantasy On Themes From "Porgy And Bess" as well as the “Rhapsody in Blue”, but is also dedicated to the much less well-known “Piano Concerto in F”, which has been arranged For Two Pianos – well worth a discovery for anyone who missed the first pressing. The second album, “Transkriptionen für vier Hände” (“transcriptions for four hands”), however, is a fresh and new publication. Here, the Paratore Piano Duo offer a daring splits between the styles: Saint Saens transcriptions of Liszt and Beethoven as well as the Chamber Symphony of Schönberg arranged by Alban Berg.
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