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The Squid's Ear Magazine

Davies, Rhodri
An Air Swept Clean of All Distance

Davies, Rhodri: An Air Swept Clean of All Distance (Amgen Records)

First release on the Alt.Vinyl label in 2014, this album finds harpist Rhodri Davies performing on the same instrument as his prior album Wound Response, but here with no amplification, preparations or distortion, improvising through "tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms", in a compelling album of assertive and joyful playing.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Rhodri Davies-lap harp, electronics


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UPC: 5902249003611

Label: Amgen Records
Catalog ID: CD003
Squidco Product Code: 30208

Format: CD
Condition: Sale (New)
Released: 2021
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels w/ booklet
Recorded at Blank Studios, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on January 31st, 2014, by Sam Grant.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The same lap harp is played on both Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance but this time the harp is tuned to a different set of fixed pitches. While Wound Response is heavily amplified and distorted, the harp played on An Air Swept Clean of All Distance is acoustic, and played with no amplification, preparations or distortion.

Released for the first time on CD, this re-issue contains accompanying sleeve notes by David Toop. An Air Swept Clean of All Distance was first released on LP with Alt Vinyl, av057 (2014). "Davies settles obsessively on tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms, turning them over and over, letting them develop only within strict limits, as though this fine, prolific adventurous musician is freshly discovering a harp that has been there all along"-Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine 2014

See also Rhodri Davies: Wound Response.

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England.

He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released four solo albums: Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance.

His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, Common Objects, HEN OGLEDD: Dawson - Davies, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, The Sealed Knot and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch.

In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on 'Self-cancellation', a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow.

New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award."

-Rhodri Davies Website (http://www.rhodridavies.com/words/)
11/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Soaked Ruins Of A Raft 2:40

2. In Distortion-Free Mirrors 3:00

3. The Rule Was Corroborated In Non-Ordinary Reality 3:02

4. Each Clear And Sudden Drop Is Itself 3:56

5. Recapitulation Of 1:12

6. Making Anything Perishable That Can Die 1:46

7. Continues, Placement 3:24

8. Fingers Pluck Played On By 1:51

9. A Cut Circle Orbit Becoming A Vrtual Universe 3:43

10. The End Of Now 2:17

11. Outward Radiating Against 2:14

12. Each Annulling The Next... 3:15

13. Wet Thru Mines Stones 2:32

14. On The Outer Reach Of The Unending 4:54

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Stringed Instruments
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Solo Artist Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Amgen Records.

Recommended & Related Releases:
Davies, Rhodri / Pierre Gerard
la montagne change le paysage
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A fascinating free improvising string duo of textures and sonic interaction from UK harpist Rhodri Davies and Belgian guitarist Pierre Gerard, Davies performing on pedal harp and Gerard on acoustic guitar, though the results feel downright electronic through masterful control of their instruments, eliciting sustain, pitch & amplitude changes as they weave unique and compelling tapestries.
Mayas', Magda Filamental (w / Davies / Caddy / Theriot / Davies / Parkins / Thieke / Abdelnour)
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Composed by pianist Magda Mayas for an octet of superb avant improvisers including Rhodri Davies, Zeena Parkins, Michael Thieke, Angharad Davies, &c. and performed live at the 2019 Music Unlimited 33, in Wels, Austria, this extended work uses a graphic score to interpret 12 photographs taken over an hour observing the merging waters of the Rhone and the Arve rivers.
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Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece.
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ist (The Improvising String Trio) of Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Wastell (violincello) performing at The Natural Music Club in London, 1997, using unorthodox techniques in indeterminate systems and free improvisation for fascinating results.
Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell)
Berlin
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Ist - Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (double bass) & Mark Wastell (violoncello) - recorded this fascinating, quietly active lower case work at Total Music Meeting in Berlin 2001.
SFE - Simon Fell Ensemble
Positions and Descriptions
(Clean Feed)
Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 with an ensemble including Tim Berne, Joe Morris, Rhodri Davies, Jim Denley, Alex Ward & Steve Beresford, this amazing work is organized in traditional movements using a very modern and free language.
Halliwell, Graham
Recorded Delivery
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Saxophonist Halliwell appears here in three duo performances with Rhodri Davies playing E-bowed harp; Steve Roden with extracts from his "resonantlighttones"; and Mark Wastell on tam-tam.
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and we disappear
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For a decade this trio has created some of the most interesting electroacoustic improvisation, captured in a 38 minute performance at the Ear We Are Festival in Biel, Switzerland, 2007.
Davies / Rives / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Santos
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A single 34 minute live recording at Musica Portuguesa Hoje Festival in Lisbon, 2008 from this excellent set of expressive and contemplative electroacoustic performers.
Eastley, Max / Rhodri Davies
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The duo of sound sculptor Max Eastley and electric harpist Rhodri Davies in an unedited recording performing live at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, UK.
Other Recommended Releases:
Davies, Rhodri
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(Amgen Records)
Collecting eight of avant improvising Irish harpist Rhodri Davie's albums on his Amgen label--Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response, An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance, Telyn Rawn, For Simon H. Fell, Dwa Dni Telyn Wrachïod--a diverse set of approaches and configurations showing both his interest in the history and in the creative use of his instruments.
Creiriau y Delyn Rawn (Rhodri Davies / Richard Dawson / Pat Thomas / Spencer Yeh / &c)
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(Amgen Records)
A companion piece to UK improvising harpist Rhodri Davie's solo album Telyn Rawn , asking some of his favorite musicians to respond to the 18 improvised pieces on that album, instructing them to imagine that the source material was an ancient musical form from the medieval period, and that their responses were to be modern interpretations of those "ancient" forms.
Davies, Rhodri
Telyn Wrachiod
(Amgen Records)
Continuing his investigations into ancient Welsh Harps, the Telyn Wrachïod (which translates to the Witches Harp) used pegs or brags emerging from the string-holes, in Welsh called gwrachïod, which could be adjusted to press on the strings to create a buzzing percussive sound used for dancing, here in improvisations by Rhodri Davies using a Urquhart bray harp.
Davies, Rhodri
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Reissuing his 2003 album on the Confront label, Rhodri Davies' first solo album is a captivating set of uniquely voiced free improvisation, using a pedal harp, radio and tape recorders and percussive devices, and recorded in the natural resonance of All Angels, St Michael and All Angels Church in London, creating narrative and drama through Davie's intuitive sense of timing.
Davies, Rhodri
Over Shadows
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