Jon Lord: Durham Concerto meets Hammond Organ
Former member of iconic Rock band Deep Purple, Jon Lord, is about to release the recording of his classical composition “Durham Concerto” at the end of the month. “Durham Concerto” had been premiered to extremely positive reviews and a frenetic audience reaction on October 20th of last year and will now find a permanent home with record company Avie. The piece is a six-movement musical description of a day at Durham, commissioned by Durham University to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the renowned institution. Jon Lord has been working on “Durham Concerto” intermittently for six years, using the impressive Durham Cathedral as inspiration to speed up the process in the deciding stages: “When I first went to Durham, I was speechless. There is something about the space which is awe inspiring.” The set will follow Jon Lord’s 2004 work “Beyond the Notes” on EMI and, of course, his classic “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”, performed with his colleagues of Deep Purple all the way back in 1970.
Barry Schrader: Presents the Monkey King
American electroacoustic composer Barry Schrader has announced the world premieres of two new pieces. “Wu Xing” and “Monkey King” will receive their debut at the CalArts Institute on January 19th in the Roy O. Disney Music Hall at 8:00 P.M. Admission is free. Both pieces have a strong thematic correspondance with China. For “Wu Xing”, Barry Schrader set about to describe the traditional Chinese elements of Metal, Wood, Earth, Water and Fire and their relation to each other in the “Cycle of Destruction”. Each of the elements is presented through its motion, density, effect or philosophical connotations. It has turned out a work with a very minimal, dark and yet earth-coloured sonic palette which would have made for a perfect ballet score thanks to the contrasts between its agitated moments and utter stillness. Harpist Susan Allen and clarinetist William Powell have been invited by Barry Schrader to join the concert for this occasion. The second piece, “Monkey King”, meanwhile, deals with scenes from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West”, whose hero Barry Schrader describes as “one of the most fascinating fictional characters ever created.”
Julian Rachlin: Double Challenge with the Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields
Julian Rachlin is about to embark on a tour through Germany and Austria together with the musicians of the Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields. This 7-date tour is remarkable for the fact alone that Julian Rachlin will simultaneously be performing the duties of soloist and conductor. While many consider this one of the more difficult tightrope acts of the business, Julian Rachlin has previously shown his abilities to cope with this double challenge during the “Mozartwochen” (Mozart Weeks) of 2006 – both with the Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and of course the Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields. The “Piazzolla: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” tour will commence in Rosenheim, lead up to Vienna and then head up to Germany for gigs in Berlin and Nuremberg among others. Next to the Piazzolla piece mentioned in the tour’s title, Julian Rachlin will also be performing Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mozart*s Violin Concert No 5 as well as dances by Carulli.
Crouton Music: An Improvised Music Hub
With the latest series of announcements, American percussionist and composer Jon Muller has reinforced the site of his Crouton Music label as more than just a promotional platform. www.croutonmusic.com is now a multilayered hub, which offers its visitors articles from befriended musicians, limited edition downloads as well as a reprint of a long lost short stoy by Jon Muller written in 1999. In fact, it's such a rich ressource that it's easy to forget that its main purpose is of course still to sell records. So let's start with the current slew of releases from Crouton, which foremost include a new DVD by Jon Muller himself, recorded in cooperation with Jeph Jerman.
Mikhail Pletnev: Closes the Chapter on Beethoven
Russian Pianist, Conductor and Composer Mikhail Pletnev has released his rendition of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and thereby concluded a personal cycle of the composer's work. Now, Mikhail Pletnev has recorded all of the nine Beethoven symphonies, as well as all Piano Concertos for Deutsche Grammophon. What makes this cycle especially intruiging is the extremely short preparation and production time alotted to the project: All albums stem from the Beethoven Festival in Bonn and were therefore realised in a mere two days. What on the outside appeared to be an impossible task, was the perfect way for Mikhail Pletnev to pay hommage to Beethoven, whom he considers a god.
David Jackman/Organum: Discards 10 full albums, finishes "Holy" trilogy
David Jackman aka Organum has brought his „holy“/historical trilogy to a close. What started out in mid-2003 as a move away from noise and as a break with his past work turned into a painstakingly meticulous search for precision and new forms, which saw Jackman write thirteen album's worth of material and scrapping ten of those in the process („They were just not up to the mark“, David Jackman says in retrospect). The third and final installment in the series is called „Omega“and now available from „Die Stadt“ Records in Bremen in a first pressing of 600 copies. It contains three tracks around the 15-minute mark and follows „Amen“ (also on Die Stadt) and „Sanctus“ on Robot Records. Even though „Omega“ now effectively constitutes the envisioned final chapter, there are already plans to extend the series. Back in 2007, David Jackman talked about an offshoot from the sessions, called „Psalm“, to be released as a 3-inch CD in Spring, which however still waits to see the light of day. And then there is „Aeon“, which contains elements from all three previous recordings and could act as the big finale and transform the trilogy into a quadrilogy.
Warren Mailley Smith: Carnegie Hall Debut and Recording Plans
British Pianist Warren Mailley Smith has announced that he will be giving his Carnegie Hall Debut in April of this year. The program for this special occasion will include works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and the young Chopin. The latter of these three illustrous names has held a special place in Warren Mailley Smith's repertoire for years, clearly marking him as a Chopinist. And yet, he also belongs to the select group of young perfomers paying tribute to the work of greatly underestimated and all but forgotten composer-pianist York Bowen, whom he will be honouring with a rendition of Bowen's Sonata in Bb. To prepare for Carnegie Hall, Warren Mailley Smith will perform the same set in Manchester on January 31st. Despite the high profile nature of these appearances, they are merely two important dates among many others in a packed schedule for 2008, which furthermore includes a London recital in St John’s and sessions in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge – as well as a cruise on the QM2. Quite obviously, things are going well for Warren Mailley Smith, who has even managed to market his own classical ring tones entirely without the support of a major record company.
Hans Otte: In Memoriam
German composer and concert organisor Hans Otte died of a long illness on December 25th aged 81 years. His former employer, Radio Bremen, honoured him with a two-hour long special, summarising his life and work. Radio Bremen-Program Director Dirk Hansen praised Hans Otte as an outstanding innovative mind, who decisively built the good reputation of the broadcaster. Otte had worked at Radio Bremen between 1959 and 1984, a time in which he brought new American composers such as his friend John Cage to Germay and built two of the country’s most widely recognised music series, :“Pro Musica Antiqua” and “Pro Musica Nova”. His death follows a mere year after the completion of “»Hans Otte Klang der Klänge / Sound of Sounds«, a bilingual biography on Schott Music, which includes a CD and DVD and attempted to spread the word about Hans Otte’s unique and inspiring work as a composer – which had always remained in the shadows of his other achievements.
Yui Onodera: Upcoming soundartist of 2008?
With three new releases on some of the finest labels worldwide, Yui Onodera is marching triumphantly into 2008. A mere two years after his first release, Japanese Onodera is therefore quickly turning into a great promise in the drone scene for next year and some time to come. These three releases are “Rhizome” on Gears of Sand, “Substrate” on Belgian record company Mystery Sea as well as “Suisei” on Dale Lloyd’s prestigious outfit And/Oar and all of them deal with field recordings, deep-embracing dronespheres and delicate sound manipulations. Ben Fleury-Steiner of Gears of Sand put his feelings on Yui Onodera into clear words: “With all the amazing music this guy has released in such a short period of time, we may be witnessing the emergence of a Japanese Aidan Baker.” Quite obviously, Yui Onodera may be the man to watch over the next twelve months.
BUMA/STEMRA: Say Yes to Creative Commons Licences
Dutch performing and author’s rights organisation BUMA/STEMRA has announced a one year experiment, which will give its members the chance to make parts of their work available under Creative Commons Licences. This is effectively a world premiere, as all comparable organisations up to now did not allow composers access to this open and non-commercial market. The results of the policy were anything but pleasant: Right owners either had to forsake this promotion tool altogether or – one of the absurdities of the current regime – pay up to use their own music online. Netlabels such as Thinner, meanwhile, saw their back catalogue dwindle as more and more of previously Creative Commons Licence-artists turned towards professional author’s right organisations in later stages of their career – thus making it impossible to keep offering their older content for free. The BUMA/STEMRA experiment will now effectively test, whether a gradual easing of the policy will be of value to members. Best of all, getting started is extremely easy.
Stephen Hough: Snaps up Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance
Pianist Stephen Hough has been named winner of Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance. The yearly distinction, which was set up in 2005 by the Northwestern University School of Music, honours “pianists who have achieved the highest levels of national and international recognition”. Next to receiving a monetary bonus of $50.000, Stephen Hough will also be given the chance to give master classes, chamber music coaching and lectures at the Northwestern University School of Music, as well as performing himself during a public recital. For Stephen Hough, the latter aspects seemed to weigh in even more than the cash injection: “I am deeply honored to have been chosen for this prestigious prize. I am especially excited to have the opportunity to work with Northwestern students during the next couple of years, and to be involved in the life of one of the great American universities.” The residency of Stephen Hough will start in November of 2008, leading up to the announcement of next year’s laureate.
Gruenrekorder: Autumn Leaves are falling for free
The Gruenrekorder label has made its long awaited “Autumn Leaves” compilation available – for free. “Autumn Leaves” follows in the footsteps of "Autumn Leaves: Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice", a book on various aspects of Field Recordings and environmental sounds. The project arose from a collaboration between Gruenrekorder and Dr. Angus Carlyle, who currently holds a teaching position at the London School of Communications. Gruenrekorder and Carlyle invited respected friends and dear colleagues to share their views on the subject matter and put them into poignant and imaginative essays or photographic series. The result was one of two books which probably did more for the scene than any other publication in 2007 in terms of presenting underlying motivations (the other, of course, being “Extract” on Nonvisual Objects).
Autechre: Announce Quaristice on Warp
Sheffield-based electronics label Warp have announced the release of “Quaristice”, the new album by seminal act Autechre. “Quaristice” is slated for March 3rd 2008 and is apparently going to feature 20 tracks – by far the highest amount in the discography of duo Sean Booth and Rob Brown. The artwork for “Quaristice” (pictured) was done by The Designers Republic, a renowned design agency which have worked with Warp on numerous occasions (e.g. on the classic cover for Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker”) and have been featured in many overviews of the most influential cover artworks of the last century. Autechre themselves have collaborated with them right from the start of their career – their debut work “Incunabula” was highlighted by the graphics of The Designers Republic. To support “Quaristice”, Autechre have announced a European tour for February/March of next year.
Triple Bath: Happy Birthday
Next to Christmas and New Year’s Eve, there was yet another reason for Greek label Triple Bath to celebrate: The brainchild of Themis Pantelopoulos turned exactly 1 in November and completed the first twelve months of its existence with a moment of silence before preparing for yet another busy year in 2008. In this short time, Triple Bath has released nine albums of the most diverse music and established itself as a pluralistic force to be reckoned with in the otherwise strongly segmented market for experimental releases. Right from the very beginning, it was Themis Pantelopoulos’ idea to bring together various styles under a single roof. Up until now, Triple Bath has featured heavy noise, progressive soundscapes, drones, spacey dark ambient, improvised jazz, contemporary composition and cutup electroacoustics. The eclectic melange has been held together by a recognisable kind of ambition and seriousness inherent to all Triple Bath artists, while always striving for clarity in expression. No wonder, then that the Triple Bath influences include classic artists such as John Cage, Iannis Xenakis and Alfred Schnittke as well as young talents like Pawel Grabowski or David Behrman – as well as label boss Themis Pantelopoulos himself.
Fear Falls Burning: Changes his way of playing chords
Fear Falls Burning mastermind Dirk Serries has announced a change of technique in advance of fresh and highly anticipated studio sets for different labels. While all of his releases since 2005 were exclusively performed on guitar and various amplifiers and effect pedals, the new approach will include guest appearances by other musicians and therefore automatically add additional timbres to the sonic palette. To anticipate this small-scale revolution in method, the Fear Falls Burning studio has been completely turned around and Dirk Serries has even changed his “way of playing guitar chords”. For anyone interested in the outcome, the current Fear Falls Burning release “when mystery prevades the well, the promise sets fire” offers an excellent first example.
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