sound expanse

I hadn't realized just how long it had been since I last posted until I looked a moment ago. The blog has been dormant while some other things, especially work, took over. I have a big backlog of concerts, CDs, books, videos, and more to write about, and it will be coming, steadily I hope, over the next several months. In the meantime, there are a number of upcoming events for the summer that I want to point out. As always, feel free to let me know what I've missed. And if you make it to any of them, I would love to hear about it.

Spitalfields Festival
London

A Chris Newman Portrait
Michael Finnissy, piano
Chris Newman, vocals
Kürbis Ensemble

An Aldo Clementi Portrait
Aldo Clementi
ELISION Ensemble

Tide Trilogy
James Weeks: Tide Trilogy
Rytis Mažulis: Schisma
Anton Lukoszevieze, cello
Andrew Sparling, clarinet
Christopher Redgate, oboe d'amore
Paul Archbold, live electronics

Inside/Outside
Sheffield, UK
Bank St Arts
June 23rd
the great outdoors... near and far... echoing spaces... bat sonar...rambling... doppler... reflection... civic architecture... bus routes... everyday commerce... street song... bring ( ears ) and shoes......))...)..)).)))..)))))) )) )) )) ))
Featuring music by Michael PARSONS, John LELY, Alvin LUCIER, Ross PARFITT, Stephen CHASE and more.

music we'd like to hear
London
three concerts on three wednesdays curated by three composers

June 30th Clemens Merkel, violin
Wolff, Trunk, Parkinson, Lely

July 7th, music from the wulf
Winter, Kudirka, Susam, Schultz, Steenberge, Clark

July 14th, piano works
Cage, Shepherd, Patterson

Incidental Music
Gallerie Mark Müller
Zürich
July 5-8
Works by John Lely, Stefan Thut, Jason Brogan, James Saunders, Adam Overton, Sam Sfirri and G. Douglas Barrett

BR Symphonie Orchester
Munich
July 9th
*live broadcast
Barrett, Hölszky, Lim

Soundwaves Festival
Brighton, UK
July 16-18

Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt
Darmstadt, Germany
July 17-31

I'm making use of the unexpected free wi-fi at Logan Airport to check in for a moment on the way to London for Terrain, an ELISION concert at Kings Place. Following that is the MaerzMusik festival in Berlin. Hugely looking forward to all of it. More soon!

The coming weeks are especially rich with concerts. Here's what I know so far:

Wednesday, January 27th
Basel
Gare du Nord
For the first time in Europe:
Ben Johnston: The Demon Lover's Doubles for trumpet and microtonal piano
Paul Huebner, trumpet - Clemens Hund-Goeschel, piano

Wednesday, January 27th
New York City
The Gershwin Hotel
The ai ensemble presents a night of solo and chamber works of Feldman & Lucier.

Friday, January 29
Berlin
Ultraschall
Tristan Murail: Contes cruels (2007)
Seth Josel, E-Gitarre - Wiek Hijman, E-Gitarre
Mathias Spahlinger: akt, eine treppe herabsteigend (1997/98)
Carl Rosman, Bassklarinette - Michael Svoboda, Posaune
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Johannes Kalitzke, Leitung

Saturday, January 30
Berlin
Ultraschall
Clara Maïda: Shel(l)ter (2009), Zyklus für Ensemble und Elektronik
Ensemble L'Itinéraire, Jean Deroyer, Leitung

January 28, 29, 30
Montréal
Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal
alt:neu--Quatuor Bozzini plays Kagel, Brand, Walshe

Friday, February 5th
New York City
The Morgan Library and Museum
JACK Plays the complete Xenakis quartets

Saturday, February 6
Los Angeles
The Wulf
Music by Larry Polansky

Sunday, February 6th
Amsterdam
Muziekgebouw aan't IJ
Stockhausen + Kagel Retrospektive
MusikFabrik

Monday, February 8th
London
King's Place
Invisibility--ELISION ensemble (see the previous post and associated links)

Tuesday, February 9th-Wednesday, February 10th
New York City
Diapason Gallery
Over the course of the night that separates the 9th from the 10th of February, composer-musicians Jason Brogan, Sam Sfirri and Taylan Susam will take vigil in the relaxed, sympathetic setting of Diapason Gallery and incant the daybreak, performing pieces of their own composition and those by Wandelweiser composers such as Antoine Beuger and Michael Pisaro.

Saturday, February 13th
Düsseldorf
KaiserWellen, Lichtstraße 52
Performances and readings from Craig Shepard's Zu Fuss
Sandra Schimag, speaker - Antoine Beuger, flute - Jürg Frey, clarinet - Marcus Kaiser, cello - Tobias Liebezeit, percussion
In the 2005 sound project On Foot, Craig Shepard walked 250 miles across Switzerland. Every day he composed a new piece, wrote it down and performed it on the pocket trumpet at 6 p.m. All concerts took place out-of-doors in public spaces such as squares, harbors, intersections, sidewalks, and mountain-tops. The performance features pieces and readings from the book.

February 26, 27, 28
Austin
New Music Co-op at Ceremony Hall (with Greg Stuart and Michael Pisaro as guests)
Works by Pisaro, Keller, Malfatti, Weller, Hennies, Bridges, Fariss, Wolff

***

Let me know if I've missed something, and I'm likely to add it to the list. I've only included events between now and the end of February--the line has to be drawn somewhere. I have more information about most of these events, but didn't want to make the post overly long. Just send me a note if you have trouble finding any information that you need.

A number of days have gone by since my last post, and I've been hoping to write something substantial. But as it happens, some much-needed work has been keeping me very busy. If you'd like to read something like, say, an interview with a young and fascinating composer, complete with a score and sound excerpt, you could do no better than the inaugural post of Tim Rutherford-Johnson's 10 for '10 series on The Rambler. Included in that post is an interview with Evan Johnson, a complete score, and a sound excerpt from Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum), that will be performed by ELISION on February 8th at King's Place in London. Oh, and if you can make it to that concert, do. (See my earlier post for background or the rambler's recent plug for the relevant info.)

ELISION's November 20th performance of Richard Barrett's Opening of the Mouth is currently available on BBC's Hear and Now. It's the final broadcast of Huddersfield 2009, available through Saturday. Scroll directly to the 16:30 mark to start listening to the material about the piece. Following an interview with Barrett, the performance starts at 19:54.

1) In the very (very) near future, I will be adding an entry to my links page: Steven Kazuo Takasugi. There's one piece I love the most, but I'm not even going to tell you which. They are all astonishing.

Included at the end of his bio are instructions for listening:

Laptop (Computer) to Headphones = Not Ideal!
Laptop (Computer) to Stereo Amplifier to Headphones = Good!
(Volume and physicality of sound are of utmost importance)
Lights out.

2) I didn't know Jem Finer was a founding member of the Pogues when I came across Score for a Hole in the Ground. Now I want to go to this forest in Kent.

Finer is also involved in a thousand-year-long, multi-continental composition/trust/graphic score/assemblage of Tibetan bowls called Longplayer.



3) Eric Wubbels' excellent review of Nature/Culture, Peter Evans' latest solo CD.

4) One of the most interesting thinkers (and doers) in the sound arena shows up in the mainstream media. I was not expecting that. I'm not so sure that David Dunn would classify himself as an avant-garde composer as the subtitle does, but the content of this article, Beetle Mania, in The Atlantic is just fine, and actually quite funny at points.

5) A surprisingly engaging review in the LA Times of a Monday Evening Concert called "Mostly Californian."

6) A ticket. Boston to London, where I'll hear ELISION play a great program titled Terrain (after the Ferneyhough piece, which is included). Also on the program are works by Liza Lim, Aaron Cassidy, Bryn Harrison, Mary Bellamy, and James Dillon. Then from London on to Berlin for MaerzMusik, whose program has just been announced today.