The Squid's Ear Magazine

Frey, Jurg

120 Pieces of Sound

Frey, Jurg : 120 Pieces of Sound (elsewhere)

Two distinct works by Swiss composer and bass clarinetist Jurg Frey: the 1st, recorded in Connecticut, a quintet composition from 2009 for bass clarinet, cello, violin, keyboard and electric guitar, Frey's harmonies creating an open instrumentation for the clarinet and cello; the second a 1997 composition for multitimbral field recordings and bass clarinet.
 

Price: $14.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 1.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Jurg Frey-composer, bass clarinet, field recordings

Ordinary Affects-ensemble

Laura Cetilia-cello

Morgan Evans-Weiler-violin

J.P.A. Falzone-keyboard

Luke Martin-electric guitar


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: elsewhere
Catalog ID: elsewhere 003
Squidco Product Code: 26667

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2018
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Track 1 recorded at Wesleyan University, IN Middletown, Connecticut, on November 10th, 2017.

Track 2 recorded at Tonlabor, in Bern, Switzerland, in December, 2012.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Jurg Frey's unique compositional approach places him at the cutting edge of contemporary classical music while simultaneously maintaining a touch of impressionisticomantic aesthetics in its roots.

The album 120 Pieces of Sound contains two of Frey's significant compositions: "60 Pieces of Sound" (2009) and "L'ame est sans retenue II" (1997-2000). Frey and the Boston-based ensemble Ordinary Affects (Laura Cetilia, Morgan Evans-Weiler, J.P.A. Falzone, Luke Martin) performed and recorded "60 Pieces of Sound" in New England in 2017, in which Frey's clarinet and Cetilia's cello played the pitches in the two-part melody written in the score, while the rest played the open instrumentation part with undetermined sounds. The resulting music was a unique series of harmonies created by open instrumental sounds with a faintly recognizable melody hidden in the core of the ensemble's evenly tempered sounds. The impressions of the chords move along at the edge of consonance and dissonance with the afterglows of each chord in the subsequent silence, hovering somewhere between meditative calmness and disquieting shadow, while bringing an organic warmth and a feeling of breathableopen air into a minimal musical structure.

"L'ame est sans retenue II" was written for field recordings and bass clarinet. Frey first edited the field recording parts from the materials he recorded in Berlin in 1997, and later added his bass clarinet sound with a certain pitch as an underlying tone that would blend with the field recordings. Frey's bass clarinet is discreet and almost unrecognizable, often hidden under the complex layers of the field recordings, and yet clarifying the harmonization of the field recordings from inside.

Presenting these two pieces "60 Pieces of Sound" and "L'ame est sans retenue II" back to back on this album brings out the fundamental aesthetic of Frey's compositions in regards to how he approaches the 'harmonization' and 'openness' of the music."-elsewhere



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. Following his musical education at the Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, he turned to a career as a clarinetist, but his activities as composer soon came to the foreground. Frey developed his own language as a composer and sound artist with the creation of wide, quiet sound spaces. His work is marked by an elementary non-extravagence of sound, a sensibilty for the qualities of the material, and precision of compositional approach. His compositions sometimes bypass instrumentation and duration altogether and touch on aspects of sound art. He has worked with compositional series, as well as with language and text. Some of these activities appear in small editions or as artist's books as individual items and small editions (Edition Howeg, Zurich; weiss kunstbewegung, Berlin; complice, Berlin). His music and recordings are published by Edition Wandelweiser. Frey has been invited to workshops as visiting composer and for composer portraits at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the Universität Dortmund and several times at Northwestern University and CalArts. Some of the other places his work has developed are the concerts at the Kunstraum Düsseldorf, the Wandelweiser-in-Residence-Veranstaltungen in Vienna, the Ny music concerts in Boras (Sweden), the cooperation with Cologne pianist John McAlpine, the Bozzini Quartet (Montréal), QO-2 (Bruxelles), Die Maulwerker, incidental music, as well as the regular stays in Berlin (where during the last years many of his compositions were premiered). Frey is a member of the Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble which has presented concerts for more than 15 years in Europe, North America and Japan. Frey also organizes the concert series moments musicaux aarau as a forum for contemporary music."

-Other Minds (http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Frey.shtml)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Cellist and electronic musician Laura Cetilia is a performer, composer, educator, and presenter. A daughter of mixed heritage, she is at home with in-betweeness. As a composer, her music has been described as "unorthodox loveliness" by the Boston Globe and and her debut solo album was hailed as "alternately penetrating and atmospheric" in Sequenza 21. The Grove Dictionary of American Music describes her electroacoustic duo Mem1 as a "complex cybernetic entity" that "understands its music as a feedback loop between the past and present." Mem1 has held artist residencies and toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. In her viola/cello duo, Suna No Onna, she has worked closely with and premiered works by composers André Cormier, Jürg Frey and Antoine Beuger, among others. As a product of the now-dwindling public school music program, Laura believes in the right to accessible music education and is a Resident Musician at Community MusicWorks, a non-profit organization that provides free after-school music education programs for children in urban neighborhoods of Providence, RI. There she teaches cello, is co-director of the media lab and the curator of the Ars Subtilior experimental music series. She is also a proud mother of one."

-Laura Cetilia Website (http://laura.cetilia.org/about/)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Morgan Evans-Weiler, violinist, composer, improviser and teacher, is currently living in the Boston area working as a freelance musician and teacher.

He completed his bachelor's degree at Western Michigan University with a double degree in Music Composition and Performance studying with Renata Knific, Richard Adams, and Curtis-Curtis Smith. He studied violin further with Laura Bossert and jazz with Peter Cassino in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently he studies composition, theory, musicology, history and just about everything else with Peter Evans.

While in Michigan, he co-founded, performed with, and composed for the Nuevo tango band Barefoot Tango and the songwriting collective Blackwater Valley Songs. He also performed with the Traverse City and Battle Creek Symphony Orchestras, and the annual New Music Project. While in the Boston area, he has performed with the Modern American Music String Quartet, Longitude and various jazz and free-jazz groups. He has played in and composed music for performances at The Regattabar, Lilypad, and Pickman Hall (Longy School of Music) in Cambridge, as well as numerous halls and art spaces throughout Michigan.

Recently, he performed a full concert of music at Outpost 186 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The concert included performances of several of Morgan's new works as well as performances of the works of Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Steve Reich and Ornette Coleman.

He continues to compose and perform in the Boston area."

-Morgan Evans-Weiler Website (https://morganevansweiler.wordpress.com/about/)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"J.P.A. Falzone is a keyboard player and vibraphonist, a composer and song writer. He is the coordinator of Providence Research Ensemble and Providence Keyboard Ensemble."

-Squidco 11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Luke Martin is an experimental composer, performer, and writer living in Minneapolis, MN. He plays guitar and no-input mixing board, often with people in and around the Wandelweiser Group, and is part of the ensemble Ordinary Affects. Luke's work is mainly oriented toward thinking - particularly by way of silence as such - a positive relation between music and truth.

-Luke Martin Website (http://www.lukecmartin.com/about.html)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. 60 Pieces Of Sound 32:00

2. L'ame Est Sans Retenue II 40:03

Related Categories of Interest:


Avant-Garde
Quintet Recordings
Electro-Acoustic
Field Recordings
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Duo Recordings
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
New in Compositional Music

Search for other titles on the label:
elsewhere.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Evans-Weiler, Morgan
Correspondences
(Editions Verde)
The third release in Editions Verde's series "Seeing the Forest in a Tree" are three iterations of interpretations realized by Joseph Clayton Mills, Fraufraulein, and the duo Sarah Hughes and Patrick Farmer, who were invited to interact with Morgan Evans-Weiler's score intended to be interpreted as both sound and sculpture, presented in three unique sets of recordings.
Dykstra, Jordan
Globes (Original Soundtrack Album)
(Editions Verde)
The original score composed by Brooklyn violist and multi-instrumental Jordan Dykstra for the documentary movie Globes directed by Nina de Vroome, exploring the relationship between bees and humans through their history and affect on the global economy and our cultures, realized in a diverse set of contemporary musical forms from orchestral to electronica.
Lucier, Alvin
One Arm Bandits
(Important Records)
Using only their right arms and never fingering the strings with their left hand, this recording of Alvin Lucier's "One Arm Bandits" was recorded in Lucier's own dining room, the hour-long piece in four parts exploring the relationship between bow direction changes and shifts in phase, scored for four cellists and performed by Tyler J. Borden, Laura Cetilia, Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann.
Frey, Jurg / Reinier van Houdt
Lieues d'Ombres (3 CDs)
(elsewhere)
Translating to League of Shadows, Swiss composer Jürg Frey's sublime twilight compositions for solo piano are performed by Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt, presenting seven of Frey's works written from 1984-2018, including one previously unreleased composition, in all 20 movements spread over 3 CDs ranging in time from 1:47 to 40:34, a significant addition to both musician's oeuvres.
Frey, Jurg + Apartment House
Borderland Melodies
(Another Timbre)
Three chamber works in single and multiple movements by minimalist composer Jurg Frey, exploring time & duration, form & shape and a balance of material, performed by a core quartet from the UK ensemble Apartment House, orchestrated for clarinet and bass clarinet, violin and cello, the final work adding piano, viola and percussion in a septet reworking of a 2014 composition.
Dykstra, Jordan / Koen Nutters
In Better Shape Than You Found Me
(elsewhere)
The first album from the duo of American composer & violinist Jordan Dykstra and Dutch composer Koen Nutters, developed by exchanging material of ambient & spacious nature using slow chord development, field recordings, viola, pitch pipe, crotales, piano EBow and electronic programming, the resulting work diverse and constantly evolving through fascinating details.
Breylin, Aaron Foster / Luke Martin
Recursive Retent
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Excerpting part of an eight-hour performance recorded over an amplified live environment of a text score for two pianists using one piano, each positioned at the opposite registers of the piano, one player creating a block of note phrases using intervals of a 2nd or 3rd with each note allowed to decay before the next, repeated by the other player following a set of rules.
Falzone, J.P.A. / Morgan Evans-Weiler
Chordioid [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)
2 CDs of works for violin, piano & vibraphone, composed and performed by two young American composers and members of the ensemble Ordinary Affects, who have recorded music by the Jurg Frey, Magnus Granberg, Michael Pisaro, Eva Maria Houben, &c.; the 1st disc presents the Feldman-esque work of JPA Falzone, while the 2nd contains an exquisite new work by Morgan Evans-Weiler.
Dalibert, Melaine
Cheminant
(elsewhere)
A diverse set of compositions from and performed by French composer Melaine Dalibert in his third solo piano album, presenting active rhythmic to introspective work, exploring harmonics and chord evolution; artwork by David Sylvian, and one piece composed for Sylvian, alongside pieces for elsewhere label leader Yuko Zama, Peter Garland and pianist Reinier van Houdt.
Houben, Eva-Maria
Ensemble Works [2 CDS]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Three detailed and fragile compositions from German minimalist composer Eva-Maria Houben reveal themselves over two CDs, performed by the Boston-based experimental music ensemble, Ensemble Ordinary Affects, with Houben herself on organ recording at Memorial Chapel, in Wesleyan University, CT: three movements from "echo fantasy"; "gesang XI"; and "unter anderen".
Sanson, Gil / Lance Austin Olsen
Works on Paper [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
Two meticulous works in two parts each using layered collage of acoustic instruments, objects, electronics, field recordings, voices, fragments of past compositions and early classical music samples, with A.F. Jones providing voice narration, from Venezuelan composer/artist Gil Sanson and Canadian-based composer/painter Lance Austin Olsen: "Pra Min" and "Meditations".
de Asis, Clara
Without
(elsewhere)
French composer and guitarist Clara De Asis composed the extended soundwork "Without" for the duo of Erik Carlson (violin) and Greg Stuart (percussion), defining a precise framework for the position and duration of each sound section and silence, with outlines for texture, volume, use of tone or noise, and percussive materials, but leaving space for many of the performers' choices.
Frey, Jurg / Magnus Granberg
Early to Late
(Another Timbre)
New ensemble pieces by Jurg Frey and Magnus Granberg played by Ensemble Grizzana, commissioned by Another Timbre with the request that both start from the same two fragments of early music, one by Johannes Ockeghem, the other by William Byrd, each composer producing fascinatingly different pieces that both contain echoes of the source material.
Frey, Jurg
Collection Gustave Roud [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)
A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud, with performers including Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jurg Frey himself, 10 compositions that Frey wrote in the manner that Roud would, roaming with a sketchbook and developing the pieces based on impressions of his surroundings.
Nono, Luigi / Jurg Frey
Works For Violin Duos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Two works from two distinctive composers from different periods--Jurg Frey and Luigi Nono--both for two violins, Frey using the two violins in parallel to emphasize their distinction; Nono using powerful gestures of divergence and contrast in a dream-like duo.
Martin, Luke
So Softly That It Came, A Wild Dim Chatter, Meaningless
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Luke Martin began this work with a field recording at Mentryville Park in Southern California, which was transcribed by himself and Amy Golden, Ben Levinson, Davy Sumner, and Ryan Gaston using Martin's system of notating silence, then combined into the final score for this recording.
Zimmerlin, Alfred
Dunki . Frey . Aeschbacher . Capt . Hefti . Moster
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
German composer Alfred Zimmerlin presents 3 pieces that balance compositional and improvisational approaches, with a 7-part work for strings, a large Klavierstruck work for microtonal piano, and an improvised chamber work, "Klarinettenquintett," with Jurg Frey on clarinet.
Cage . Pisaro . Frey . Beuger
Accordion Music [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Four works interpreted for accordion performed by Edwin Alexander Buchhol, including John Cage's "Cheap Imitation"; Michael Pisaro-Liu's "Here (2)"; Jurg Frey's "Sam Lazaro Bros." and Antoine Beuger's "die geschichte des sandkorns".
Frey, Jurg
String Quartet No. 3 / Unhorbare Zeit
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Two works from composer Frey performed by Montreal's string ensemble Quatuor Bozzini: "String Quartet No. 3", a minimal work of colors, sensations, shadows, durations; and "Unhorbare Zeit" exploring durations without sound, or empty volumes, to achieve lucidity and transparency.
Frey, Jurg
Grizzana and other pieces 2009-2014 [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)
The Ensemble Grizzana (Ryoko Akama, Mira Benjamin, Richard Craig, Emma Richards, Philip Thomas and Seth Woods) performs a series of delicate and beautiful chamber pieces by Swiss composer and clarinetist Jurg Frey, who also performs on clarinet.
Frey, Jurg / Radu Malfatti
II
(erstwhile)
Two works, one each from trombonist Radu Malfatti and clarinetist Jurg Frey, also credited with "instruments", field recordings and couterpoints; electroacoustic reductionist work of beautiful character that unfolds slowly and rewards attentive listeners in morphing sound.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Sijstermans, Germaine
Betula [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
The solo debut album from Dutch composer & clarinetist Germaine Sijstermans: seven recent contemplative works in a Wandelweiser vein, composed between 2017-2019 and performed with six exemplary and complementary performers: Antoine Beuger (concert flute), Rishin Singh (trombone), Johnny Chang (viola), Fredrik Rasten (guitar, ebow), and Leo Svirsky (accordion).
van Houdt, Reinier
Drift Nowhere Past / The Adventure Of Sleep [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
Interested in compositional work involving sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise & environment, Dutch composer Reinier van Houdt shares six works developed for erstwhile record's festival AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine, each piece focused on a specific day of the month; and a complementary set of four compositions about everyday recurring situations.
Various
Amsterdam . Berlin . Moscow . Losoncy [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A double album of experimental works and songs, virtual meetings curated by composer Dante Boon, recorded in the performer's individual cities as ensembles formed from musicians who have never met, including the Moscow duo The Same Ensemble of Sasha Elina and Kirill Shirokov, Amsterdamn's Seamus Cater's Tree Space, Berlin's Konzert Minimal, and sound artist Gabi Losoncy.
Vandromme, Guy / Bruno Duplant
l'infini des possibles (12 etudes pour piano) [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
Twelve etudes for solo piano by French composer Bruno Duplant and interpreted by pianist Guy Vandromme, each etude consisting of eight lines of lowercase letters a-g representing white keys, with accents, uppercase shifts, apostrophes, &c. affecting those letters, the performer given an "infinity of possibilities" through choices of combinations and repetions of the score.
Frey, Jurg
Fields, Traces, Clouds
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Three compositions from clarinetist and Wandelweiser peer Jurg Frey, performed by Luke Martin on electric guitar, Laura Cetilia on cello, J.P.A. Falzone on piano & vibraphone, Morgan Evans-Weiler on violin, and Jurg Frey himself on clarinet; beautifully reflective music indicating Frey's working method and his relationship with wide, quiet sound spaces.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC