It’s November, which of course means that the annual pilgrimage to the UK’s new music mecca is only a few weeks’ away. The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival has this year opted for a demonstrably reflective tone, building on the remarkable performances of music by, in particular, Jakob Ullmann and Antoine Beuger a couple of years ago, which to my mind at least constituted an interesting departure from HCMF’s more conventional fare. Jakob Ullmann is this year represented by a pair of substantial new works—a half-hour solo double bass piece premièred by Dominic Lash and the 90-minute la segunda canción del ángel desaparecido—and while Beuger is absent, the festival’s composer-in-residence is Jürg Frey, who has long been associated with Beuger’s Wandelweiser Group. Five concerts provide an extensive opportunity to become immersed in Frey’s music, with major explorations being presented by Quatuor Bozzini, Ensemble Grizzana and Philip Thomas. Read more
HCMF 2015: looking forward
Imperfect Forms: The Music of Kenneth Kirschner
On various occasions in the past, i’ve written about the music of American experimental composer Kenneth Kirschner. His work, all electronic and available free via his website, is endlessly fascinating, exploring a wide and unexpected variety of sonic shapes and timbres within formal contexts that take a radical approach (informed in part by the music of Feldman) to notions of narrative and development, with a tendency toward indeterminate—or at least, perceptually indeterminate—structures. Kirschner’s considerable output deserves much greater exposure and engagement than it has hitherto received, which makes yesterday’s release of Imperfect Forms: The Music of Kenneth Kirschner, a multimedia project celebrating and exploring his music, extremely welcome.
There is a 188-page ebook comprising a selection of essays, articles and interviews (two contributed by me), with an accompanying 4½-hour digital album containing responses to and remixes of Kirschner’s music by an eclectic cluster of composers—Tom Hodge, Ambrose Field, Maps and Diagrams, Christoph Berg, Marco Oppedisano, Adam Barringer, Orphax, Yukitomo Hamasaki, Monty Adkins, Erdem Helvacioglu, Billy Gomberg, Tomas Phillips, Shinkei, Stefan Goldmann, Anne Guthrie, Dirk Serries, L’Eix, Stephen Vitiello, Tobias Reber, Steinbrüchel—plus an additional software-based indeterminate composition created by myself. Further to this are a small number of videos by Sawako, Monty Adkins & Julio D’Escrivan, Josh Ott, Andy Graydon and Molly Sheridan.
The project is published by Tokafi, and in keeping with Kirschner’s own approach to releasing his work, the entire kit and kaboodle are available free of charge via the Tokafi bandcamp page (of course, feel free to pay something if you can).
Tags: Kenneth Kirschner
New digital release: Could you not watch one hour with me?
Available today for free download is Could you not watch one hour with me?, a conceptual work i created a couple of years ago. Inspired by an act of worship that takes place today, Maundy Thursday, the material heard in the work comprises a one-hour recording made during The Watch, a night vigil that has no formal liturgy or structure, consisting solely of the silent thought, meditation, worship and prayer of the faithful. Presented in this context, my intention is to confront the connotations of that question, exploring notions of substance and absence, silence and sound, focus and lassitude, emptiness and the sacred. The work revisits from a fresh perspective the well-established idea that there is no such thing as silence. It also throws down a challenge in its title, asking, even daring the listener to sacrifice an hour to an end that may appear futile or meaningless. It is my sincerest hope that, in rising to that challenge, one might discover a depth and richness that transcends the silence, and perhaps even a glimpse of the holy.
The work is dedicated to the memory of Rudolf Otto.
For more information and to download, click here.
New CD coming soon: Dither • Pother • Roil
In a week’s time, a new CD of my electronic music will be released, titled Dither • Pother • Roil. It contains three distinct but related pieces, which began life in a series of improvisations made in early 2008. Somewhat inexplicably, i promptly lost the recordings and forgot all about them until the start of this year; between February and October i then extensively reworked and developed them into their final, very elaborate forms, which together last around 49 minutes. Here’s a smidgeon from the blurb-spiel:
There are ways in which this trio of works relates to and draws upon both the techniques and sentiments of my earlier electronic music. There are echoes of the shifting abstractions of the Simulated Music cycle, as well as the large-scale sculptural elementalism heard in the Ceiling stared at me but i beheld only the Stars and ‘Icon’, the central panel in Triptych, May/July 2009. But above all, Dither, Pother and Roil explore (for me) new methods and an expanded mode of expression.
Dither was finished first, and is concerned primarily with material that writhes and roars at its own prevarication. Here’s part II:
Pother continues the thread established in Dither, becoming increasingly fraught and portentous. This is part I:
Roil was the last to be completed, and is the longest and most complex of the three. A multi-layered noisescape, Roil is by far the most unrestrained piece i have ever composed, whipping up elements of Dither and Pother into a clamorous torrent of frenzied outrage. Here’s part IV:
The accompanying artwork explores details from a recent painting by the young American artist Claire Uhle. Titled ‘Well, everything’s moving so slow in this life time.’, the painting goes a long way to capturing everything that Dither, Pother and Roil are seeking to convey (click for high-res).
The CD comes out on 20 November in a numbered limited edition of 50 copies. For more information and to order a copy, click here. A digital download version will also be available.
In other news, my previous CD Night Liminal is now available as a digital download as well. There are also a few CDs left; details about both can be found here and here.
Tags: electronic, Simon Cummings
Coming soon: Scott Walker’s Bish Bosch
In one of the most exciting teasers i’ve seen in a long while, Scott Walker has released a video of snippets from his forthcoming album, Bish Bosch. It includes clips from a number of tracks, bearing such tantalising titles as ‘See You Don’t Bump His Head’, ‘Tar’, ‘Dimple’, ‘Corps de Blah’, ‘Phrasing’ and ‘Epizootics!’ (the complete tracklist is here). The 4-minute video brings to mind scenes from the film 30 Century Man, showing something of the bewildering array of instruments and techniques integral to Walker’s painstaking compositional process. There aren’t many musicians who can bring together such extremes of acoustic and electronic phenomena and make them seem not just suited to each other but downright necessary, but on the strength of this all-too-brief trailer, Bish Bosch is going to do just that. The question one couldn’t help thinking in the devastating wake of 2006’s The Drift was “What on earth will Scott Walker be able to come up with to follow this?”. On 3 December, we’ll all get to find out.
In the meantime, there’s a Bish Bosch mini-site to keep an eye on, and some additional info on the 4AD website.
Tags: Scott Walker
New CD out today – Night Liminal
i’m delighted to announce that today sees the release of my latest CD, Night Liminal. Here’s a bit of blurb from the spiel:
For the last four years, my electronic music has been to a large extent founded upon noise. Whether sculpting large, primordial shapes from it (Triptych, May/July 2009), pitting it against pitched material (the Ceiling stared at me but i beheld only the Stars) or allowing it to do its own thing (Simulated Music), noise has been the principal vehicle for my electronic music. Even in my most gentle work (The Stuff of Memories), noise has been present, colouring and caking the music in sonic detritus.
Night Liminal is different. Lasting a little under forty minutes, the work is a stark contrast to these intense noisescapes, signalling both a return to and a reclamation of my æsthetic roots, embracing the quietude of ambient music. For the first time, the material is gentle, soft-edged and peaceful—even relaxing. That, at least, is its first impression; but the work’s inspiration is more subtle and ambivalent than that. Night Liminal is partly inspired by the ancient monastic service of Compline, which takes place as day is ending. Both the service and its setting confront head-on the perils heralded by twilight.
Being in a sacred space at dusk is a profound and paradoxical experience, comforting yet unsettling. One is caught between light and darkness, between the vast expanse of tradition and the contemporary mystery of the moment. The night can be a dangerous and uncharted place; my hope is that this music can become an integral part of the gloaming, teasing out and resonating with both its delights and its uncertainties in a gentle act of provocation and peace.
Provocation may seem incongruous in the context of ambient music, but Night Liminal’s soft, slow-moving textures echo this; warm and melodic, sometimes dark and disquieting, they afford the listener a dual experience of rest and reflection.
Night Liminal is dedicated to the memory of Jehan Alain.
As usual, the CD is a limited edition of 50 numbered copies; to order a copy, go here.
Interrobang – works by Elliott Carter, Paul Dolden, Javier Álvarez & more
Anyone in the Birmingham area tomorrow night (Monday 13th) might be interested in the next concert my ensemble, Interrobang, is giving. The concert will feature a number of works by established composers, intermingled with four pieces by students and graduates of the Birmingham Conservatoire (where Interrobang is based). It includes a new work of my own, composed for BCMG at the end of the last year and explored in a workshop with them in the spring, but not yet performed in public. Here’s the programme:
• Etelka Nyilasi – Visions in the Northern Sky for 6 players
• Simon Cummings – Intense quick dream of sentimental groups with people of all possible characters amidst all possible appearances for string sextet (World Première)
• Ryan Latimer – The Canon of Medicine for piano trio (World Première)
• Elliott Carter – Scrivo in Vento for solo flute
• Paul Dolden – In a Bed Where the Moon was Sweating. Resonance #1 for clarinet & tape (UK Première)
• Veleka Algar – From Silence for string sextet (World Première)
• Javier Álvarez – Temazcal for maracas & tape
The concert starts at 7.30pm and once again takes place in the Conservatoire’s Recital Hall. A map is below; those with GPS should punch in the postcode B3 3HG. If any 5:4 readers are present, do make yourselves known to me during the interval or afterward—would be great to see you!
