Nine compositions from Ryoko Akama commissioned by Another Timbre while she was doing research at the Krzysztof Kieslowski archive in Poland, the scores based on fragments of notes and objects from that archive, realized here by the Apartment House ensemble as a beautiful set of floating works invoking "clouds, as shape, as light, as colour, as body, as element".
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Sample The Album:
Kathryn Williams-alto flute
Anton Lukoszevieze-cello
Heather Roche-clarinet
Ryoko Akama-composer
Apartment House-ensemble
Cristian Alvear-guitar
Lucio Tasca-piano
Kerry Yong-piano
Philip Thomas-piano
Simon Limbrick-vibraphone, percussion
Mira Benjamin-violin
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Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at146
Squidco Product Code: 28332
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Dethick Church, in Derbyshire, UK, on June 24th, 2019, and at St Paul's Hall, the University of Huddersfield, on June 25th, 2019, by Simon Reynell; track 4 recorded live at Cafe Oto, London, on May 22nd, 2019, by Paul Skinner.
Another Timbre Interview with Ryoko Akama
How did these pieces come about?
- When Simon Reynell commissioned me to write some pieces for Apartment House, it was at a time when I was more involved with sound installations and live performances than composition. But somewhere in my mind I had many ideas for writing scores for musicians again, though I didn't yet know how to execute these vague and ungraspable ideas. At the same time, I was making a new installation the way they are for a group exhibition Associated Matters (Bothy Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2019), which gave me an opportunity to visit the archive of the Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski. I spent several days at In Situ in Sokolowsko, looking through his archive, and suddenly had the idea of creating a series of short compositions based on Kieslowski's original sketches and manuscripts. In Situ had an old piano in the dining room. I sat down one day with the director's little baby Iwo on my lap. That was when the melody for the piece I'm just so-so was made. Everything else started from that moment.
Why the interest in Kieslowski?
- I was introduced to his works in my early 20s, initially the Decalogue and the Three Colours trilogy, followed by other films of his. He never described his works as something experimental or avant-garde, but for me, they were. In that period I watched a lot of world cinema alongside cutting edge experimental films from Austria and the UK. I like films that are slow, or tell stories of everyday lives. For me watching the story of a person next to me is more interesting than Hollywood action movies. Delivering such an ordinary plot is rather delicate and difficult, but some film directors achieve magical moments, as Kieslowski can. I love his particular usage of conversations and interactions, and the cinematography in his collaborations with other professionals such as Piotr Sobociński - colour, reflection, magnification, distance, perspective... His understanding of human gestures and habits in order to tell a story is extraordinary.
How does Kieslowski's work affect the music?
- I don't know how his work directly affects the music. But there are many things taken from Kieslowski that structured the scores. For example, I wanted this album to be like a collection of short stories with a coherent plot / theme. And the title comes from a conversation in one of my favourite films, Przypadek - Blind Chance (though Kieslowski always maintained that this film was a poor work). I wrote six compositions based on things that I found in the archive, and then added another three extremely short compositions (horse, marble and sugar cube), which are like the superfluous - unnecessary but eventually very necessary - objects that Kieslowski often added to his film scenes. I didn't want to create music that would make someone jump with surprise, or start analysing why and how. The idea for these compositions was much simpler. The music here is like you are floating on the ocean, looking at clouds above your head. Your head is empty, with no thoughts. You are experiencing the clouds as clouds, as shape, as light, as colour, as body, as element. I wanted this album to address this sense of you, and this possibility.
Is this the first time that you have focused so much on pitch when composing, and how did that turn out for you?
- Yes, it's the first time I've focused on pitch in this way, but I completely omitted any academic thoughts. I just pulled myself back to being a person who sits down at the piano for the first time and is mesmerised by the sound it makes. In transforming what I was looking at (the archive) into scores, I tried to be as straightforward as possible, loyal to what the objects from the archive look like, with a hope that I would be making music which I wanted to listen to over and over again.
Recently, I was at GMEA with Manfred Werder, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Marc Sabat, Rebecca Lane and Julia Eckhardt discussing our current interests, aesthetics and creative practice. When it was my turn, I talked about this, repeating that 'I just wanted to make music' - which has become such a baffling thing to say because nowadays, of course, it leads to the question 'well, what is music?' I tried to find another way to explain my thoughts, but I couldn't. This was the way it was - just like the title of my installation the way they are! While writing the pieces I just had a basic and simple thought about 'making'.
How was it working with Apartment House?
- To be honest, I was very scared of the recording sessions. I knew that they would perform these scores wonderfully, so the uncomfortableness didn't come from a fear of failure of any kind. But I can never get used to sitting down as a composer with performers performing my works in front of me. It is beyond what an introverted person like me can take.
The scores were transformed into music more beautifully than I'd ever expected. I'm so grateful to the musicians. They are miracle performers. There was even a moment where I wanted to cry with joy. I was experiencing a power of music through simple melodies, like a scene from a summer in Japan with a wind chime making a tiny sound, or children humming a nursery rhyme. I really wanted to achieve this kind of pure listening experience. Thanks to Apartment House for making me emotional with my own music! No-one has ever done that before.
The Squid's Ear!
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Kathryn Williams "Kathryn Williams is a flautist who performs solo recitals, chamber music, and with orchestras with a particular interest in new and experimental music. Recent performances include a Stockhausen masterclass with Kathinka Pasveer at Theater Basel, solo and chamber music performances with Ensemble Linea Academy at Cité de la musique et la danse Strasbourg, and a concerto with Manchester Camerata. She has performed with various orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, The Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Sinfonia Cymru and plays regularly with new music group The House of Bedlam. Kathryn's current project, Coming Up for Air, has been selected for YCAT's Sounding Board: Project Mentoring. As a music educator Kathryn specialises in experimental performance practice and early-years education. Recently this has included guest lecturing at the Royal Northern College of Music, contributing to courses with Aldeburgh Young Musicians, delivering performances and workshops for Live Music Now, and long-term residencies at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Manchester Museum and in a central Manchester nursery school. Kathryn earned a BMus, MMus, and International Artist Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music with teachers Peter Lloyd, Richard Davis, Katherine Baker, Stephen Preston, Karin de Fleyt and others. Prizes include RNCM Bach Prize, RNCM Concerto Competition (on two occasions), British Flute Society Young Artist Competition, and National Foundation for Arts Award (USA)." ^ Hide Bio for Kathryn Williams • Show Bio for Anton Lukoszevieze "Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965 in the UK) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. Anton has given many performances at numerous international festivals throughout Europe and the USA (Maerzmusik, Donaueschingen, Wien Modern, GAS, Transart, Ultima, etc.etc.). He has also made frequent programmes and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio, SR2, Sweden, Deutschland Rundfunk, WDR, Germany and ORT, Austria. Deutschlandfunk, Berlin produced a radio portrait of him in September, 2003. Anton has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the 2001 Aldeburgh festival and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with many composers and performers including David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Amnon Wolman, Pierre Strauch, Rytis Mazulis, Karlheinz Essl, Helmut Oehring, Christopher Fox, Philip Corner, Alvin Curran, Phill Niblock and Laurence Crane, He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. From 2005-7 he was New Music Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and Kettles Yard Gallery. Anton is the subject of four films (FoxFire Eins) by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker. A new film Trilogy with compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, George Aperghis and Laurence Crane premieres at The London Film Festival, October 2008. In November will premiere a new hour long work by Christopher Fox for cello and the vocal ensemble Exaudi commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and will also present new solo works for cello and live electronics. Anton is also active as an artist, his work has been shown in Holland (Lux Nijmegen), CAC, Vilnius, Duisburg (EarPort), Austria, (Sammlung Essl), Wien Modern, The Slade School of Art, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge Film Festival and Rational Rec. London. His work has been published in Musiktexte, Cologne, design Magazine and the book SoundVisions (Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrucken, 2005). Anton Lukoszevieze is founder and director of the ensemble Apartment House, a member of the radical noise group Zeitkratzer and recently made his contemporary dance debut with the Vincent Dance Company in Broken Chords, Dusseldorf." ^ Hide Bio for Anton Lukoszevieze • Show Bio for Heather Roche "Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche trained in England, lived in Germany for 7 years and now lives in London. She has performed at some of the major European festivals, including musikFest (Berlin), BachFest (Leipzig), Musica Nova (Helsinki), Acht Brücken (Cologne), the International Computer Music Conference (Huddersfield, Ljubljana), the Dias de Música Electroacústica (Seia, Portugal) and the Agora Festival (Ircam, Paris). She has also performed solo programmes at the Zagreb Music Biennale, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the New York Electroacoustic Symposium, at CIRMMT (Montreal), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Eavesdropping (London), and with the Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST). She has performed with ensembles and orchestras including Musik Fabrik (Cologne), the WDR Orchestra (Cologne), mimitabu (Gothenburg), the London Symphony Orchestra (London), ensemble Garage (Cologne), ensemble interface (Berlin), the Riot Ensemble (London), the Alisios Camerata (Zagreb), and ensemble proton (Bern). She also plays across the UK in a trio with Carla Rees (flutes) and Xenia Pestova (piano) and in 2015 formed an duo with the accordionist Eva Zöllner, with whom she has played across Germany, the UK and in Portugal. She is a founding member of hand werk, a 6-person chamber music ensemble based in Cologne, and worked with the group from 2010-2017. She has solo CDs out on the HCR/NMC and Métier labels. Please see the Discography for further details. In 2014 she was awarded a DIVA (Danish International Visiting Artists Fellowship), and lived in Copenhagen for two months. Since 2016 she has acted as the Reviews Editor for TEMPO, a quarterly journal for contemporary music published by Cambridge University Press. Her website is host to one of the most widely read new music blogs on the Internet. In 2017 it had 75,000 hits from around the world. She successfully crowdfunded in 2014 in order to host her first composition competition. Six young composers were chosen out of 270 applicants to write new pieces, which were premiered in 2016. She is a fervent advocate of collaboration, and her PhD research at the University of Huddersfield (under the supervision of Dr. Philip Thomas) explored the nature of dialogue within performer-composer relationships. She has given workshops in instrumental technique and/or iPad use in performance all over Europe, for example in London, Munich and Copenhagen. Heather completed her Masters of Music (Orchestral Training) in 2006 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying under Joy Farrall and Laurent Ben Slimane, in addition to conducting with Sian Edwards. Following her degree she completed residencies with the International Ensemble Modern Academy, at IMPULS in Graz and with ensemble recherche in Freiburg, the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2008 and 2010 and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Innsbruck, Austria. She has performed in masterclasses with Michael Collins, Ernesto Molinari and Shizuyo Oka, to name a few. She completed her BMus in 2005 at the University of Victoria, Canada, studying under Patricia Kostek." ^ Hide Bio for Heather Roche • Show Bio for Ryoko Akama "Ryoko Akama was born in 1976 in Japan, and currently lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. She is a member of The Lappetites, Rolex2$, Syth;s. She is a sound artist/composer/performer, who approaches listening situations that magnify silence, time and space and offer quiet temporal/spatial experiences. Her sound works are connected to literature, fine art and technology, and employ small and fragile objects such as paper balloons and glass bottles, creating tiny occurrences that embody 'almost nothing' aesthetics. She composes text events and performs a diversity of alternative scores in collaboration with international artists. Her works and projects have been funded by Arts Council England, Japan Society, Daiwa-Anglo Foundation, University of Huddersfield, Kirklees Council, Pro Helvetia and more. She is also active as a curator: collaborates with festivals, runs melange edition label and co-edits reductive journal/mumei publishing." ^ Hide Bio for Ryoko Akama • Show Bio for Cristian Alvear Chilean musician dedicated to the performance, premiere and recording of new music. He serves as co-curator of the Experimental Music Festival Relincha, in Valdivia, Chile. Since the beginning of his career he has been constantly performing in the main auditoriums and concert halls of his country, as well as international festivals and concert venues. In recent years he has concentrated its efforts in performing educational concerts in rural areas of the Los Lagos region, in Southern Chile. His work has been published by edition wandelweiser records (germany), irritable hedgehog (usa), cathnor (uk), rhizome.S (france), potlatch (france), 1000fŸssler (germany), lengua de lava (mexico), caduc (canada), melange editions (japan), b-boim records (austria) and erstclass (usa)." ^ Hide Bio for Cristian Alvear • Show Bio for Lucio Tasca "Lucio Tasca is a composer, guitarist and improviser born in Palermo (Sicily), based in UK. His practice attempts to create immersive listening experiences, exploring the objectivity of formal repetitive processes and the use of fragile and unstable material to foster a subtle dialectical layer of nuances and little imperfections." ^ Hide Bio for Lucio Tasca • Show Bio for Kerry Yong "Kerry is a musician who lives in east London. He trained as a pianist and now also performs on keyboards and live electronics. Kerry has performed at Audiograft, Chisenhale Arts Club, Kämmer Klang, Rational Rec, Borealis Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Kings Place, City of London Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, Nonclassical and in groups Apartment House, ELISION, Plus-Minus Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring. Kerry studied piano with Stephanie McCallum at the University of Sydney (where he also studied composition) and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music where he studied piano with Andrew Ball and researched Performance practices of music for piano with electroacoustics. He has also dabbled with the other side, playing with bands Apopalyptics, Casiokids and Half-handed Cloud and the Welcome Wagon. Kerry also directs music at Grace Church Hackney (which meets in Hoxton), where they are happy to use ancient chants, traditional hymns and new works with choirs, bands, electronics, objects and the like." ^ Hide Bio for Kerry Yong • Show Bio for Philip Thomas "Philip Thomas (b.1972, North Devon) specialises in performing new and experimental music, including both notated and improvised music. He places much emphasis on each concert being a unique event, designing imaginative programmes that provoke and suggest connections. He is particularly drawn to the experimental music of John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, and composers who broadly work within a post-Cageian aesthetic. In recent years he has been particularly associated with the music of Christian Wolff, giving the world premiere of his Sailing By in 2014 and Small Preludes in 2009, the UK premiere of Long Piano (Peace March 11), having co-edited and contributed to the first major study of Wolff's music, Changing the System: the Music of Christian Wolff, published by Ashgate Publications in 2010, and currently recording all of Wolff's solo piano music for sub rosa. He is an experienced performer of John Cage's music, having performed the Concert for piano and orchestra with both Apartment House and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as well as most of the solo piano and prepared piano music, including a unique 12-hour performance of Electronic Music for piano He has commissioned new works from a number of British composers whose ideas, language and aesthetic have been informed in some ways by the aforementioned American composers, such as Stephen Chase, Laurence Crane, Richard Emsley, Christopher Fox, Bryn Harrison, John Lely, Tim Parkinson, Michael Parsons, and James Saunders. In recent years Philip has pursued a passion for freely improvised music, after significant encounters with the music of AMM and Sheffield-based musicians Martin Archer, Mick Beck and John Jasnoch. He has worked with improvisers in a variety of contexts and recently devised a programme of composed music by musicians more normally known as improvisers as well as others who have been influenced by improvisation in some form. This led to a CD release, Comprovisation, which featured newly commissioned works by Mick Beck, Chris Burn and Simon H Fell. Other CD releases include music by Martin Arnold, Laurence Crane, Christopher Fox, Jürg Frey, Bryn Harrison, Tim Parkinson, Michael Pisaro, James Saunders, Christian Wolff, as well as with improvisers Chris Burn and Simon H Fell. Philip is a regular pianist with leading experimental music group Apartment House, with whom he has performed in festivals across the UK and Europe. He has also performed with the Quatuor Bozzini, and in duos with Mark Knoop, Ian Pace and John Tilbury (piano duet and two pianos) and James Saunders (electronics). In 1998 Philip was awarded a PhD from Sheffield University in the performance practice of contemporary piano music. Between 2000 and 2005, he was Head of the Sheffield Music School whilst pursuing an active performing and teaching career. He joined the staff team at the University of Huddersfield in 2005, and became Professor of Performance in 2015. Philip is one of the Directors of CeReNeM, the University's Centre for Research in New Music. He continues to live in Sheffield, where he premieres the majority of his programmes, with his wife Tiffany and children Naomi and Jack." ^ Hide Bio for Philip Thomas • Show Bio for Simon Limbrick "Simon Limbrick's involvement in music embraces performance, composing and education.
He was a member of the cult systems orchestra The Lost Jockey and Man Jumping, recording for EG Editions and creating scores for leading dance companies, Second Stride, London Contemporary Dance, Rosemary Lee and Sue MacLennan. He has been in demand as a percussionist performing all over the world with the Nash Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Endymion Ensemble, Composers' Ensemble and Fibonacci Sequence as well as recording with artists such as Alabama3, Gavin Bryars Pete Lockett and for Blue Note Records. He has been guest principal with the LSO and worked under conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Oliver Knussen, Simon Rattle and Tom Ades. He has featured on film and television including documentaries about Steve Reich and Kenneth MacMillan's award winning Judas Tree.Compositions created for him include works by Javier Alvarez, Brian Elias (Kenneth MacMillan's last ballet The Judas Tree), Vic Hoyland and Andrew Poppy. He has performed the world-premieres of solo pieces by James Dillon, Frederic Rzewski , Claude Vivier, Philip Cashian, Thea Musgrave, Harry de Wit, Howard Skempton, Michael Wolters and Ed Kelly. His solo performances have been broadcast by the BBC, RAI, Radio France, Dutch TV and radio. Recently, he performed his own concerto Bulls Yard and Stockhausen's Zyklus at the Sage, Gateshead,(see review) solo steel-pan in Brian Elias' Judas Tree at Royal Opera House, London, in 2010 and directed his mixed-media project, dot-machine, a web-based musical construction accessible on www.marimbo.com. He created a 24 hour long piece surfaces with the composer James Saunders, with financial assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain and premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2011. In education, Simon has led workshops since 1982, and been a returning resident artist in festivals and organisations, including Blackheath Concert Halls, Aldeburgh Music, Sound It Out , Spitalfields Festival. Workshop projects have been led by him throughout Europe. As a fully-qualified teacher, he has led Music and Performing Arts in Secondary Schools for five years. He has led school and community projects for Aldeburgh Music. As Artistic Director, he helped establish In Harmony Norwich, creating mixed-ability orchestral pieces for professional and young student players. Until the School of Music closed in June 2014, he was Director of 'Musician in the Community' and 'Creative Leadership' courses at University of East Anglia.
As a composer, Simon has gained an MA in Electroacoustic Composition from City University and collaborated as a composer on a number of large scale works, including a project at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, with Rosemary Lee and site-specific work with Dutch composer/sound sculptor Harry de Wit in Holland and Brussels.He has produced film scores for TV and film festivals and composed music for theatre productions at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Companies. Groups he has created pieces for include Mary Wiegold's Songbook, Roger Heaton Group, Ensemble Bash, Network of Sparks, Endymion Ensemble, Richard Durrant, Ritmatic, Hooloo. The Brighton Youth Orchestra performed machina lumina , for string ensemble and vibraphone throughout 2009. His composition Machine for Living for Landesmusikrat/Splash was recorded at Deutschlandradio. He has produced recordings for wergo and others.Currently composing a large piece for jazz brass and marimba. He has created the CDs, Steam, Hooloo, Clean, Ritmatik, Dot-Machine, Hammer, Rise and Fall, , between and Relay, which are frequently broadcast and available on well-known download sites. NEW RELEASE of a double CD RELAY, of contemporary steel-pan music in Sept 2014. Sound Composer for the film 3 Church Walk by the director Emily Richardson premiered on 18th Oct 2014 at The London Festival, BFI, London." ^ Hide Bio for Simon Limbrick • Show Bio for Mira Benjamin "Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator. She performs new and experimental music, with a special interest in microtonality & tuning practice. She actively commissions music from composers at all stages of their careers, and develops each new work through multiple performances. Current collaborations include new works by Anna Höstman, Scott McLaughlin, Amber Priestley, Taylor Brook and James Weeks. Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD - a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada's rich art culture. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. Since 2014 she has resided in London (UK), where she regularly performs with ensembles such as Apartment House, Decibel, and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, and is currently the Duncan Druce Scholar in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield. Mira is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The prize is awarded annually to a Canadian musician in recognition of their contribution to the artistic life in Canada and internationally." ^ Hide Bio for Mira Benjamin
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Track Listing:
1. If Your Tooth Hurts It Hurts The Same 8:30
2. Stay In The Background 9:54
3. Horse 1:26
4. A Sense Of Coming Back 9:46
5. I See Everything As A Failure 13:32
6. Marble 1:29
7. I'm Just So-so (For Iwo) 3:36
8. These Very People 8:30
9. Sugar Cube 1:22
10. A Sense Of Coming Back (Second Version) 5:07
11. If Your Tooth Hurts It Hurts The Same (Second Version) 10:37
Compositional Forms
Ambient & Minimal Music
Large Ensembles
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
New in Compositional Music
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