Reviews that mention Rhodri Davies
September 22, 2021
A More Attractive Way
Confront Core Series/Core 21
Wadada Leo Smith
Sacred Ceremonies
TUM Records Box 03
Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp
Embrace of the Souls: Special Edition Box
SMP 2020
Something in the Air: Box Sets mark musical Milestones
By Ken Waxman
Like other out-of-the-ordinary keepsakes, boxed sets of recorded music are issued to celebrate a special occasion, to honor an unrepeatable situation or to assemble all parts of a unique situation. Each of these sets fit one of these criteria. MORE
August 13, 2021
Wound Response
Amgen CD 002
Rhodri Davies
An Air swept Clean of all Distance
Amgen CD 003
Equivalent to matching discs by a guitarist skilled on both electrified and unamplified instruments are these solo lap harp CDs. Yet Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies projects such peerless individuality on the highly amplified Wound Response and acoustic An Air swept Clean of all Distance that he not only banishes the vision of harps billowing romantic chamber music, but also creates timbres that could come from a Metal string abuser or a Folk-Blues picker. MORE
August 13, 2021
An Air swept Clean of all Distance
Amgen CD 003
Rhodri Davies
Wound Response
Amgen CD 002
Equivalent to matching discs by a guitarist skilled on both electrified and unamplified instruments are these solo lap harp CDs. Yet Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies projects such peerless individuality on the highly amplified Wound Response and acoustic An Air swept Clean of all Distance that he not only banishes the vision of harps billowing romantic chamber music, but also creates timbres that could come from a Metal string abuser or a Folk-Blues picker. MORE
May 3, 2021
Twenty
Confront Core Series core 17
Marking an extended musical alliance a with cusp-of-Covid-lockdown concert, the Sealed Knot trio convened for a nearly hour-long concert which indicated how its blend of noisy and muted tension-release has been refined over 20 years together. Ranging through build up, synthesis and dissolving timbres during a nearly hour-long set, Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies plus British multi-instrumentalist Mark Wastell and German percussionist Burkhard Beins used amplification, silences and integrated tones to their fullest and near-singular expression. Veterans of multiple associations that encompasses Wastell’s work with the likes of Simon H. Fell, Davies with John Butcher and Beins with Michael Vorfeld, the trio’s voice is non-doctrinaire, as reductionist and ambient echoes share space with outbursts that could migrate to Free Jazz or Metal sessions. MORE
March 3, 2021
Telyn Rawn
Amgen 101
Alex Wing
Solar Vortex
No Label No #
Two approaches to mostly solo string-driven improvisations are as different as Wales is to Chicago – and not just because Welsh Rhodri Davies is playing the harp and Windy City denizen Alex Wing spreads his singular applications among guitar, bass, oud, drums, hulusi, Moog, Rhodes, and alto clarinet. Definitely the musician who has created a place for one of the world’s oldest instruments in improvised music, Davies plays electric and acoustic instruments in collaboration with everyone from John Butcher to Simon H. Fell. Telyn Rawn‘s 18 (!) selections however are played on a specially designed and built replication of an antique Welsh harp, strung with wound and pleated horse-hair strings. A long-time member of art of Chicago’s experimental scene, Wing who plays with David Boykin and others, is part of a group which has run a south side free improv jam session for almost 20 years. MORE
January 11, 2021
El Intruso 13th Annual International Critics Poll 2020
Spanish Website
Ken Waxman’s ballot
Ken Waxman
(Periodista canadiense, editor de JazzWord. Durante muchos años ha escrito para los principales periódicos canadienses e internacionales y realiza comentarios sobre música en diferentes programas de radio) www.jazzword.com
Músico: “Covid 19”
Músico Revelación: “Covid 19”
Grupo: Leimgruber/Demierre/Phillips
Grupo Revelación: Tonus
Álbum: Various Artists – New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires (ESP Disk)
MORE
August 2, 2020
Transversal Time
Confront core series/core 11
Carl Testa
Sway Prototypes - Volume 3
No Label No #
Musical programs intermingling live electronic processing with real time acoustic playing make up the cores of these decisive sessions. With the correct symmetry intact, length and approach turn out to be secondary to the intensity and clarity of mixing processed and human tones. A commissioned work, the 38-minute Transversal Time was created by Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies as part of his intermittent investigation of electro-acoustic sounds and is played by a selected nonet, including the composer. Also featuring composer Carl Testa on double bass and electronics, the other CD is the newest iteration in a decade-and-a-half application of the Sway live electronic processing system. Each of the two tracks are longer than Davies’ composition, with one performed by a quintet and the other a sextet with vocalist Anne Rhodes and Testa the only overlapping elements. MORE
February 8, 2020
12th Annual International Critics Poll
Ken Waxman’s 2019 ballot
Musician of the year: Joe McPhee
Newcomer Musician: Timothée Quost, Gaspard Beck
Group of the year: Roots Magic, Tonus, Joe McPhee Trio
Newcomer group: MétamOrphée
Album of the year: Quatuor de Jazz Libre Du Québec, Musique Politique Anthologie 1971-1974 (Tour de Bras) Uri Caine, The Passion of Octavius Catto (816 Music)
Composer: Roscoe Mitchell, Uri Caine, Harris Eisenstad
Drums; Gerald Cleaver, Steve Noble, Tim Daisy
Acoustic Bass Joëlle Léandre, Barry Guy, Barre Phillips MORE
December 1, 2019
Wels, Austria
Nov. 8, 9, 10, 2019
By Ken Waxman
Performance photos by Susan O’Connor
Treading the fine line among genres– or perhaps jumping from one to another – the sounds presented at Music Unlimited (MU) 33 touched on pure improv, hard noise, semi-notated patterns plus electro-acoustic and near-Rock forays. Still, every performer’s musical emphasis was on originality and discovery. That’s why some sets initiated by MU’s three curators – German pianist Magda Mayas, American tenor saxophonist Joe McPhee and Japanese guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi – during this annual festival in this Austrian city of 60,000 near Linz, featured some already constituted bands. Others were the equivalent of musical blind dates, with unanticipated sonic interactions adding up to memorable discoveries. MORE
April 13, 2014
Live in Morden Tower
Mikroton CD 29
John Butcher/Leonel Kaplan/Christof Kurzmann
Shortening Distances
L’innomable 2013/No #
The Apophonics
On Air
Weight of Wax Wow 05
There’s a probing consistency in British saxophonist John Butcher’s music, with the following of unexpected paths one of its chief listening pleasures. Like many other peripatetic improvisers, the London-based soprano and tenor saxophonist is involved with many other musicians, yet as these sessions demonstrate, he maintains a consistency of approach. MORE
October 7, 2013
Just Not Cricket: Three Days of Improvised Music in Berlin
Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu nvnc lp001/004
Erik Carlsson & All Stars
Swedish azz Volume 1 & Volume 2
NotTwo MW 901-1A/ NotTwo MW 901-1B
Thomas Lehn, Michel F. Côté, Éric Normand
Invisible
Tour de Bras DL #1
Malcolm Goldstein/Thomas Lehn
Sources
Tour de Bras DL #2
Something In the Air: Good Music Comes In Many Forms and Formats
By Ken Waxman
Standardization is a thing of the past when it comes to recorded music and listeners who get too far ahead of or behind the curve are likely to miss interesting sounds. Just as the production of movies didn’t cease with the acceptance of television, so the manufacture of LPs continued even as the CD became the format of the moment. As artisans continue to craft fine furniture despite the availability of mass-produced items, so too LPs are being created in limited quantities. This situation appears tailor-made for experimental sounds. Similarly since advanced players are often as impecunious as they are inventive, the ubiquity of the Internet means that some music is only sold through the Web. The option of not having to create a physical product is a boon for non-mainstream performers. MORE
January 5, 2012
Positions and Descriptions
Clean Feed CF 230 CD
By Ken Waxman
For the past 20-odd years as “Butch” Morris has demonstrated conduction: structuring free improvisation using a specific series of hand gestures, many improvising ensembles have been created in his its wake. Whether groups use or not signals developed by Morris to rearrange and sculpt notated and non-notated music, conduction is part of their inventory. As these releases demonstrate however, it depends on individual musicians’ skills for a performance to be fully satisfying. MORE
November 25, 2011
Copper Fields
Organized Music from Thessaloniki #09/Absurd #82
Redefining and reconstructing the idea of how a string trio should sound, the members of Cranc have produced a single, nearly hour-long piece that may onomatopoeically reproduce the sound of the ensemble’s name, which is a homonym for the word defined as nonconformist.
Nonconformist the three who cranked out this superior example of non-idiomatic, electro-acoustic improvisation may be, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have appropriate musical credentials. Nikos Veliotis is an Athens-based cellist involved in audio and visual experiments, as well as playing with the likes of Norwegian bassist Michael Duch and British pianist John Tilbury. London-based Welsh violinist Angharad Davies is conversant with both notated and improvised experimental music and plays with such international sound explorers as saxophonist John Butcher from the United Kingdom and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Davies’ brother Rhodri Davies has over the past decade-and-a-half created a unique role for the venerable harp in improvised music, working with everyone from Butcher to German synthesizer player Thomas Lehn. MORE
October 10, 2011
Météo Music Festival August 23 to August 27 2011
By Ken Waxman
Météo means weather in French, and one notable aspect of this year’s Météo Music Festival which takes place in Mulhouse, France, was the weather. It’s a testament to the high quality of the creative music there that audiences throughout the five days were without exception quiet and attentive despite temperatures in non air-conditioned concert spaces that hovered around the high 90sF. More dramatically, one afternoon a sudden freak thunderstorm created an unexpected crescendo to a hushed, spatial performance, by the Greek-Welsh Cranc trio of cellist Nikos Veliotis, harpist Rhodri Davies and violinist Angharad Davies, when winds violently blew ajar the immense wooden front door of Friche DMC, a former thread factory, causing glass to shatter and fall nosily. MORE
September 20, 2011
Wunderkammern
Another Timbre at37
Abstract abrasions and intonations make up this cabinet of curiosities constructed by three sound explorers from the United Kingdom. While the interaction on each track varies, depending on the instruments used, the overall plan attempts to blend textures in such a way that depth, volume and speed alter and shift almost imperceptibly to produce near-three-dimensional aural effects,
Each player’s background and instrument choices help define this “wunderkammern”. Welsh-born harpist Rhodri Davies, for instance, who here also uses ebows, electronics and preparations, specializes in redefining his instrument’s properties, often in the company of other timbre experimenters such as saxophonist John Butcher. Most senior of the three, writer/musician David Toop, who plays laptop, steel guitar, flutes and percussive devices, has over the years worked with partners as different as sound poet Bob Cobbing, director/actor Steven Berkoff and saxophonist Evan Parker. Prestwich-based Lee Patterson uses field recordings to mate familiar sounds with instrumental surfaces mutated with amplified devices. He regularly works in another band with violinist Angharad Davies. MORE
April 28, 2011
Cornelius Cardew: Works 1960-70
+3db 012
Muta
Bricolage
Al Maslakh Recordings 12
Multi-tasking is an accepted fact of musical life for Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies. Playing one of the world’s oldest and most distinctive sounding instrument means that his regular work doesn’t involve gigging at the neighboring watering hole with the local Jazz trio or Rock combo. Plus, since the now-Newcastle upon Tyne-based multi-string specialist is most commonly involved in the intricacies of contemporary improvised and notated music, session work is mostly out too. Happily though, Davies’ virtuosity is such that he can make an essential contribution to just about any musical situation. MORE
April 28, 2011
Bricolage
Al Maslakh Recordings 12
Tilbury/Duch/Davies
Cornelius Cardew: Works 1960-70
+3db 012
Multi-tasking is an accepted fact of musical life for Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies. Playing one of the world’s oldest and most distinctive sounding instrument means that his regular work doesn’t involve gigging at the neighboring watering hole with the local Jazz trio or Rock combo. Plus, since the now-Newcastle upon Tyne-based multi-string specialist is most commonly involved in the intricacies of contemporary improvised and notated music, session work is mostly out too. Happily though, Davies’ virtuosity is such that he can make an essential contribution to just about any musical situation. MORE
December 29, 2010
Rhodri Davies/Michel Doneda/Louisa Martin/Phil Minton/Lee Patterson
Midhopestones
Another Timbre at19
John Butcher/Rhodri Davies
Carliol
Ftarri 220
Rhodri Davies/Stéphane Rives/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Carlos Santos
Twerf Neus Ciglau
Creative Sources CS 156 CD
When blazing new sonic trails it seems that Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies has a particular affinity for doing so alongside saxophonists, as these CDs recorded between 2007 and 2009 attest. Furthermore, listening to these sessions chronologically, it appears that Davies is becoming progressively more selfless with his timbral palate whether he’s joined by Japanese Onkyo practitioners or European formalists. Only on Twerf Neus Ciglau for instance, are the harp’s expected ringing tones heard. On the other CDs, unexpected textures produced by manual string preparations, electronics, an embedded speaker and other techniques associated with a pedal harp, a lever harp or an electric harp predominate. MORE
December 29, 2010
Carliol
Ftarri 220
Rhodri Davies/Michel Doneda/Louisa Martin/Phil Minton/Lee Patterson
Midhopestones
Another Timbre at19
Rhodri Davies/Stéphane Rives/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme
Rodrigues/Carlos Santos
Twerf Neus Ciglau
Creative Sources CS 156 CD
When blazing new sonic trails it seems that Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies has a particular affinity for doing so alongside saxophonists, as these CDs recorded between 2007 and 2009 attest. Furthermore, listening to these sessions chronologically, it appears that Davies is becoming progressively more selfless with his timbral palate whether he’s joined by Japanese Onkyo practitioners or European formalists. Only on Twerf Neus Ciglau for instance, are the harp’s expected ringing tones heard. On the other CDs, unexpected textures produced by manual string preparations, electronics, an embedded speaker and other techniques associated with a pedal harp, a lever harp or an electric harp predominate. MORE
December 29, 2010
Rhodri Davies/Stéphane Rives/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme Rodrigues/Carlos Santos
Twerf Neus Ciglau
Creative Sources CS 156 CD
Rhodri Davies/Michel Doneda/Louisa Martin/Phil Minton/Lee Patterson
Midhopestones
Another Timbre at19
John Butcher/Rhodri Davies
Carliol
Ftarri 220
When blazing new sonic trails it seems that Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies has a particular affinity for doing so alongside saxophonists, as these CDs recorded between 2007 and 2009 attest. Furthermore, listening to these sessions chronologically, it appears that Davies is becoming progressively more selfless with his timbral palate whether he’s joined by Japanese Onkyo practitioners or European formalists. Only on Twerf Neus Ciglau for instance, are the harp’s expected ringing tones heard. On the other CDs, unexpected textures produced by manual string preparations, electronics, an embedded speaker and other techniques associated with a pedal harp, a lever harp or an electric harp predominate. MORE
November 21, 2010
Another Timbre welcomes both established and younger improvisers
By Ken Waxman
Frustration, altruism and a sudden monetary windfall were the contributing factors that led Simon Reynell to found the Sheffield England-based Another Timbre record label (www.anothertimbre.com) in 2006. After more than two dozen releases – both on CD and CD-R – it’s now acknowledged as an artistic success.
A sound recordist for television and someone who has been “passionately into experimental music” for around 35 years, Reynell had become increasingly frustrated by what he calls the “dumbing down” of TV programming to reality and celebrity-oriented shows from the sort of proper documentaries on which he works. An unexpected inheritance gave him some capital and Another Timbre (AT) was born. Initially setting out to present the work of young improvisers involved in drummer Eddie Prévost’s 10-year-old weekly London workshop, the catalogue has expanded to include not only improvisers from outside the United Kingdom, but also established stylists such as pianist Chris Burn and sound-singer Phil Minton. MORE
May 27, 2010
Fifteen point nine grams
Organized Music from Thessaloniki 107
The Sealed Knot
And we disappear
Another Timbre at23
Activity Center
Lohn & Brot
Absinth Records 017
Negotiating the chasm among noise, improv and notated music is Berlin-based Burkhard Beins, who over the past decade or so has solidified his identity as a sound artist as well as a percussionist. While not for the aurally squeamish – or the traditional jazzer – there are numerous exhilarating instances of timbre blending and sound collaging among this trio of discs. MORE
May 27, 2010
And we disappear
Another Timbre at23
Activity Center
Lohn & Brot
Absinth Records 017
SLW
Fifteen point nine grams
Organized Music from Thessaloniki 107
Negotiating the chasm among noise, improv and notated music is Berlin-based Burkhard Beins, who over the past decade or so has solidified his identity as a sound artist as well as a percussionist. While not for the aurally squeamish – or the traditional jazzer – there are numerous exhilarating instances of timbre blending and sound collaging among this trio of discs. MORE
March 29, 2010
3 Harp Treatments
Anthropometrics Antro 03
Annette Krebs/Rhodri Davies
kravis rhonn project
Another Timbre at15
Quaint and endearingly fusty like a wind-up gramophone is how the sentiments expressed in the commercial of three decades ago, which asked listeners whether the performance they were hearing was live or on tape, now seem in the 21st Century. Today all sorts of electronic fill-ins and additions have been accepted as part of everyday musical life with many a pop diva lip-synching entire performances. MORE
March 29, 2010
kravis rhonn project
Another Timbre at15
Rhodri Davies/Gregory Büttner
3 Harp Treatments
Anthropometrics Antro 03
Quaint and endearingly fusty like a wind-up gramophone is how the sentiments expressed in the commercial of three decades ago, which asked listeners whether the performance they were hearing was live or on tape, now seem in the 21st Century. Today all sorts of electronic fill-ins and additions have been accepted as part of everyday musical life with many a pop diva lip-synching entire performances. MORE
January 29, 2010
Skullmarks
Meenna-980
Although the concept may appear clearer to the musicians involved than the outcome, the programs created by the Common Objects are supposed to reflect the relationship among the players, their instruments and selected objects about which they improvise. For this iteration of the group, British saxophonist John Butcher selected four objects from Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum for reflection hoping to evoke considerations of water, air, earth, spirit, ritual and utility. Definition of each entity is open to interpretation. But certainly characteristics of the first two and fourth seem discernable. Formed by electric harpist Rhodri Davies, the sextet is filled out by some of the UK’s most sophisticated sound explorers: violinists Angharad Davies and Lina Lapelyte, plus Pat Thomas and Lee Patterson, who deal with electronics and processing. MORE
December 2, 2009
Tom Chant/Angharad Davies/Benedict Drew/John Edwards
Decentred
Another Timbre at18
Working both sides of the fence between notated and improvised music is second nature to the four accomplished British musicians featured on this CD. The session’s powerful appeal lies in the sensitive maneuvering the quartet uses to personalize one long piece by John Cage (1912-1992) plus three short indeterminate scores by Michael Pisaro (b.1961). An added bonus is two mid-sized improvisations.
Buffalo, N.Y.-born guitarist Pisaro teaches composition at CalArts. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, his harmony series translates into sound that leaves most sonic decisions to the musicians. Similarly “Four 6”, the last of Cage’s number pieces, utilizes a computer program to distribute the 12 pre-determined sounds to four musicians playing any instrument. MORE
April 13, 2008
Yesterday Night You Were Sleeping at My Place
Sofa 522
Rhodri Davies
Over shadows
Confront 16
Rhodri Davies/Matt Davis/Samantha Rebello/Bechir Saade
Hum
Another Timbre at04
Chamber improv of a particular sort, each of these challenging discs highlights the playing of Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies: solo or as part of a trio or quartet. Although included among the instruments featured on the discs are flutes, a bass clarinet, a trumpet and percussion, a minimal number of expected timbres are heard. Full appreciation of the sessions demands a preference for dissonance as well as unconventionality. MORE
April 13, 2008
Rhodri Davies/Matt Davis/Samantha Rebello/Bechir Saade
Hum
Another Timbre at04
MUTA
Yesterday Night You Were Sleeping at My Place
Sofa 522
Rhodri Davies
Over shadows
Confront 16
Chamber improv of a particular sort, each of these challenging discs highlights the playing of Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies: solo or as part of a trio or quartet. Although included among the instruments featured on the discs are flutes, a bass clarinet, a trumpet and percussion, a minimal number of expected timbres are heard. Full appreciation of the sessions demands a preference for dissonance as well as unconventionality. MORE
April 13, 2008
Over shadows
Confront 16
Rhodri Davies/Matt Davis/Samantha Rebello/Bechir Saade
Hum
Another Timbre at04
MUTA
Yesterday Night You Were Sleeping at My Place
Sofa 522
Chamber improv of a particular sort, each of these challenging discs highlights the playing of Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies: solo or as part of a trio or quartet. Although included among the instruments featured on the discs are flutes, a bass clarinet, a trumpet and percussion, a minimal number of expected timbres are heard. Full appreciation of the sessions demands a preference for dissonance as well as unconventionality. MORE
August 4, 2006
Done
Quakebasket 24
With consort defined as an ensemble, the musicians here have chosen a particularly apt name for their band. While the two extended middle tracks features all three improvisers, track one breaks out harpist Rhodri Davies and the final track features only trumpeter Matt Davis and cellist Mark Wastell.
Considering that each player – all British – extends his instrument’s output with electronics, preparations and amplified textures that create additional pulsations and triggered sound loops, subtracting players from the trio doesn’t necessarily result in what could commonly be termed a duo or solo performance. When all three are present and accounted for, the converse is true. Vibrational and timbral pitches heard don’t necessarily give the listener any idea of the size of the group or which instruments are being played. MORE
October 10, 2005
Unwanted Object
Confront
Davies/Hayward/Ekhardt/Capece
Amber
Creative Sources
The Cortet
HHHH
Unsounds
By Ken Waxman
October 9, 2005
Visions of formally attired symphonic types producing shimmering glissandi, or alternately of Harpo Marx manhandling the luminescent strings, remain in most folks’ minds when they think of harpists. That may be why the 47-string symphony harps or smaller 34-string Celtic harps are usually musically underrepresented except for their coloration qualities. MORE
June 6, 2005
Never Give Up On The Margins Of Logic
Antioptic AN006/LS002
MAGARIDA GARCIA/MATTIN
For Permitted Consumption
L’innomable 04
More dispatches from the electro-acoustic edge of the improv equation, appreciation of these two short CDs depends on your acceptance of pure textural sound unprettified with melody, structure or harmony – sound linked to the mechanism only available in the late 20th and 21st centuries.
With hiss and static counting as much as elaborated tones, one of the most mystifying products of the creation is that the five musicians involved in Sakada produce no more extended nor resonant tones than the two players featured on FOR PERMITTED CONSUMPTION. MORE
February 16, 2004
Real time satellite data
SOFA 513
CHRIS BURN’S ENSEMBLE
Ensemble at Musica Genera 2002
Musica General MG 006
Overcoming the challenge of fomenting non-idiomatic improvisations in the gray area between composition and improvisation has been a preoccupation of inclusive European musicians for the past few decades. Making that concept work in the field between electronic and handmade sounds preoccupied them in the 1990s. In the 21st Century, as these two consummate CDs demonstrate, the most accomplished instrumentalists are able to wrap all these tendencies into a program that can be performed by larger bands -- six and eight musicians are featured in the sessions here. MORE
December 8, 2003
Surface/Plane
Meniscus MNSCS012
PETER KOWALD/MIYA MASAOKA/GINO ROBAIR
Illuminations (Several Views)
Rastascan BRD 049
One percussionist, one musician who plays a four-string instrument and another whose equipment is strung with many multiples of strings make up both trios featured on these improv sessions. Yet despite these points of congruence, they’re as different as hot dogs and fish-and-chips, as one featured two Americans, the others two Brits.
Actually it’s the third man -- coincidentally a German -- who probably best defines the differences. ILLUMINATIONS (SEVERAL VIEWS) features the late Peter Kowald combining his bass fiddle and basso voice with Miya Masaoka’s kotos and Gino Robair’s percussion on 16 furious, roaring take-no-prisoners sound pieces. MORE
April 21, 2003
Trem
Confront 11
Discussing how the freedom of electronics can be translated to acoustic instrumentals, AMM guitarist Keith Rowe once said he was waiting for musicians to make a breakthrough on certain instruments, citing British saxophonist John Butcher and German trumpeter Axel Dörner as having done so with theirs.
Longtime followers of experimental sounds may be able to add other names to his list, but on this exceptional solo CD it’s pretty obvious that Welsh musician Rhodri Davies has dragged the concert harp into the 21st century. Just as stylists like Dörner and Greg Kelly manipulate the trumpet to remove its most typical sounds, so Davies uses preparations, detuned, bowed and e-bowed strings to create a new approach to an instrument that goes back to antiquity. MORE
March 17, 2003
Still point
Rossbin RS 007
AKIYAMA/NAKAMURA/SUGIMOTO/WASTELL
Foldings
Confront 12
Silence and the overtones associated with near silence are the guiding factors of these CDs, which both include British cellist Mark Wastell. With textural space on show and protracted electro-acoustic wheezes characterizing many of the abstractions here, neither of the two chamber-style quartets could be confused with conventional jazz, rock or New music ensembles. Neither sounds like the other either. All of which proves that there are as many variations of near silence as there are types of noise. MORE
January 13, 2003
Composition No. 30.
Bruce’s Fingers BF 27
The compositions and performance of British bassist Simon H. Fell on this two-CD set may be the long-awaited physical flowering of Gunther Schuller’s and John Lewis’ ideas from the 1960s. Fell may also have taken those theories even further.
In the early 1960s, Schuller, a modern composer, French hornist and head of Boston’s New England Conservatory; and Lewis, pianist and music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet; conceived of Third Stream music that would combine elements of music’s first and second streams of classical music and jazz. They recorded a few albums and even put together a mixed jazz and classical ensemble called Orchestra USA. MORE
January 13, 2003
Ghost Notes
Bruce’s Fingers BF 28
A string trio with a difference, IST explores both notated and improvised music with a line up of cello, double bass and harp. But considering its members -- cellist Mark Wastell, harpist Rhodri Davies and bassist Simon H. Fell -- have wide experience on both sides of the divide created by music paper, there’s no disconnect when it comes to the performances or instrumentation.
It’s often said in reviews that one can’t tell where the written music ends and the improvisations begin, but that isn’t a problem with this disc. The compositions by Phil Durrant, Stace Constantinou, Gusto Pryderi Puw, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielson, Wastell and Fell are clearly labeled, as are the four improvisations. What is more noteworthy, though, is that by using extended techniques and preparations, IST pushes its acoustic string instruments to the limit to create this thought-provoking CD, its third. MORE
March 15, 2002
Cornelius Cardew: chamber music 1955-64
Matchless MRCD45-CD
Alongside his status as important modern British composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) was probably one of the few outrightly romantic figures in 20th century contemporary music. Darkly handsome in a Bohemian fashion, Cardew began his career with a Royal Academy of Music education than a period as assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen. Later more attuned to the ideas of John Cage, he was soon turning out graphical scores, and was for a period the chief link between the more radical European composers and musicians with their American counterparts. At the same time he was a founding, although short-lived, playing member of the seminal free improv group AMM. MORE
January 15, 2002
CHRIS BURN/JOHN BUTCHER/RHODRI DAVIES/JOHN EDWARDS
The First Two Gigs
EMANEM 4063
Good things often come in small packages.
A vest pocket version of the octet/nonet Ensemble, British pianist Chris Burn has been leading on-and-off since 1984, this quartet on its maiden voyages seems more focused than the larger group, perhaps because each of the musicians has to assert himself even more in a more compact situation.
Recorded in two different London clubs in sessions four months apart, to be honest, the performances here don’t sound at all like that of four musicians groping towards a common modus operandi. Perhaps it’s because each has some sort of playing experience with at least one of the others. MORE