1. North 15:16
2. East 14:54
3. South 15:10
4. West 15:02
Dave Ballou—Bb trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet and mutes
Each piece was performed in sequence with no overdubs or edits
Parameters: An hourglass with a 15 minute sand flow
Focal pitches: Bb, B, E, F (concert)
Recorded March 13, 2015 and mixed June 3, 2015
Ed Tetrault, engineer—Peabody Recording Studios
Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, MD
Mastering October 10, 2016 by Wayne Peet Newzone Studio, Los Angeles, CA
Thanks to Jeff Kaiser, Tony Malaby, Danny Gouker, Adam Hopkins, Mike Kuhl, Jeff Reed, Ralph Alessi, Ellery Eskelin, Jim McFalls, John Dierker, Michael Formanek, Kevin Whitehead, Jonathan Finlayson and Leise Ballou.
Graphic Design by Ted Killian
This recording is made possible with the support of a grant from the Towson University Faculty Research and Development Center.
[playlist ids="946"] Sonic Constructions – an improvisational electroacoustic performance project
Thomas Ciufo and Curtis Bahn with special guests Steve Gorn and Jane Rigler
1) Sonic Constructions 22:54
Curtis Bahn – Electric Sitar, Dilruba and Interactive Electronics
Thomas Ciufo – Extended Electric Guitar, Prepared Piano, Percussion and Interactive Electronics
2) Ujjayi 12:11
Steve Gorn – Bansuri Bamboo Flutes
Jane Rigler – C Flute, Bass Flute and Piccolo
Curtis Bahn / Thomas Ciufo – Live Processing
3) Lajawab 38:06
Steve Gorn – Bansuri Bamboo Flutes and Clarinet
Curtis Bahn – Electric Sitar and Interactive Electronics
Thomas Ciufo – Extended Electric Guitar, Flutes, Percussion and Interactive Electronics
Sonic Constructions – edited excerpts from a live performance
Ujjayi and Lajawab – unedited complete recordings from a live performance
Recorded and Produced by Thomas Ciufo
Graphic Design by Ted Killian
Photos by Thomas Ciufo
Sonic Constructions is an electroacoustic ensemble consisting of Thomas Ciufo on extended electric guitar, flutes, percussion, prepared piano and live electronics and Curtis Bahn on electric sitar, dilruba and interactive electronics. For this live performance CD project, the core duo was joined by Steve Gorn on bansuri bamboo flutes and Jane Rigler on C flute, bass flute and piccolo. With their music and sonic gestures, the musicians are able to transform the live sounds and field recordings into immersive sonic stories. This creates a constant, limitless reshaping of materials in a kind of “infinite play” of regenerative music that is at once transformative, delicate, intimate and innovative. This ensemble treats electronic music as chamber performance because there is a constant interactive musical connection between the performers, the space, the sounds, and the audience.
This improvisational soundscape combines live performance, raga, computer extended instruments/gestural controllers, live signal processing, and field recordings. Composer-improvisers Thomas Ciufo and Curtis Bahn design, build, and perform on computer extended instruments and simultaneously process the sounds of the other performers. This project has developed around a gestural and sonic language that explores the expressive capabilities of a range of custom build, hybrid acoustic / electronic instruments. Utilizing a variety of physical interfaces and signal processing techniques, these constructed / composed instruments extend acoustic sound sources and field recordings through real-time computer processing and sonic transformation. Custom instruments developed by Bahn and Ciufo include the eSitar, eDilruba, the eighth nerve hybrid electric guitar, as well as prepared piano and a collection of flutes and percussive objects. The duo uses their extensive sound transformation capabilities to process and extend the flute performance by collaborators Steve Gorn and Jane Rigler.
In April 2013, a quartet of renowned composer-improvisers—Mark Dresser, Nicole Mitchell, Myra Melford and Michael Dessen—performed an unprecedented “virtual tour” of new music conceived for world-class musicians performing together live in different geographic locations via Internet2. Building on years of prior telematic collaborations and using high-speed bandwidth available only at research and educational institutions, Virtual Tour linked performers and audiences across thousands of miles, using lifelike, uncompressed audio and high definition video to set a new standard for telematic music making. The core quartet, based in San Diego, California, collaborated with a different remote ensemble for each of the three concerts: Jason Robinson, Marty Ehrlich and Bob Weiner in Amherst, Massachusetts; Matthias Ziegler and Gerry Hemingway in Zurich, Switzerland; and Sarah Weaver, Ray Anderson, Jane Ira Bloom, Min Xiao-Fen, and Matt Wilson in Stony Brook, New York. With footage from all three concerts and featuring eleven world premieres designed specifically to explore the unique potentials of this medium, this DVD documents an important step forward in bringing world-class creative music to the telematic stage. Please visit http://virtualtour2013.com for more information on this project.
Total run time approximately 193 minutes
Virtual Tour:
Amherst Concert:
Mr. Not-So TC, composed by Mark Dresser (14:29) (Del Dresser Music/ASCAP)
For Instance, Today, composed by Michael Dessen (16:22) (Cronopio Music/ASCAP)
The Story of My Anxiety, composed by Marty Ehrlich (9:41) (Dark Sounds Music/BMI)
God’s Bits of Wood, composed by Nicole Mitchell (6:25) (Wheatgoddess Creations/ASCAP)
Noema, composed by Jason Robinson (11:59)(Circumvention Music/ASCAP)
Performers in Amherst, MA: Marty Ehrlich, alto saxophone and bass clarinet; Jason Robinson, tenor saxophone and alto flute; Bob Weiner, drums
Performers in San Diego, CA: Nicole Mitchell, flute; Michael Dessen, trombone; Myra Melford, piano; Mark Dresser, bass
Zurich Concert:
3 Stories, composed by Gerry Hemingway (19:22)(Nagual Music/GEMA/BMI)
Between Walls, composed by Nicole Mitchell (9:45) (Wheatgoddess Creations/ASCAP)
SubTeleToning, composed by Mark Dresser (21:14) (Del Dresser Music/ASCAP)
Buffered Fragments, composed by Matthias Ziegler (14:48) (Matthias Zieger/SUISA)
Performers in Zurich, Switzerland:
Matthias Ziegler, flute; Gerry Hemingway, drums
Performers in San Diego, CA: Nicole Mitchell, flute; Michael Dessen, trombone; Myra Melford, piano; Mark Dresser, bass
Stony Brook Concert:
Universal Synchrony Music: Volume 1, composed by Sarah Weaver (30:30) (Sarah Weaver Music Publishing, ASCAP)
SubTeleToning, composed by Mark Dresser (25:16) (Del Dresser Music/ASCAP)
Telepathology, composed by Nicole Mitchell (14:41) (Wheatgoddess Creations/ASCAP)
Performers in Stony Brook, NY:
Sarah Weaver, conductor; Jane Ira Bloom, soprano saxophone; Ray Anderson, trombone; Min Xiao Fen, pipa; Matt Wilson, drums; Doug Van Nort, laptop (on Universal Synchrony Music: Volume 1)
Performers in San Diego, CA: Nicole Mitchell, flute; Michael Dessen, trombone; Myra Melford, piano; Mark Dresser, bass
Additional content:
Program notes for all compositions
Interview with Virtual Tour co-directors Mark Dresser and Michael Dessen
Locations and dates/times:
San Diego location for all 3 performances:
Conrad Prebys Music Center Theatre, University of California, San Diego, CA
For Amherst Concert:
7pm PDT/10pm EDT, April 5, 2013
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
For Zurich Concert:
12pm PDT/9pm CET, April 6, 2013
Institute for Computer Music and Technology (ICST), Zurich, Switzerland
For Stony Brook Concert:
4pm PDT/7pm EDT, April 7, 2013
Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, with support from Consortium for Digital Arts, Culture and Technology (cDACT), Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
Production Credits:
Project Directors:
Co-directors of Virtual Tour: Mark Dresser and Michael Dessen
Amherst site director: Jason Robinson
Zurich site director: Matthias Ziegler
Stony Brook site director: Sarah Weaver
In San Diego, CA:
Trevor Henthorn, technology director
Josef Kucera, technology consultant
Antonio Estrada and Andrew Johnson, local audio
Isaac Garcia Muñoz, network audio
Michael Ricca, audio recording
Daniel Ross, recording assistant
Yeung-ping Chen, network video
Kyle Johnson and Ash Smith, documentation video
Jennifer Bewerse, promotion design
In Amherst, MA:
Edmund Keyes, production assistant
Mark Santolucito, production assistant, audio networking
Joshua Baum, production assistant, video networking
Dan Richardson, sound engineer
Rob Ansaldo, networking assistance
Sara Leonard, lighting
Ross Karre and company, video documentation
In Zurich, Switzerland:
Johannes Schütt, network director
Joel de Giovanni and Benjamin Burger, video direction
Daniel Späti, stage director
Simon Könz, sound engineer
In Stony Brook, NY:
Kevin Schinstock, live audio, audio recording
Derek Kwan, network audio
Timothy Vallier, network video
Ross Karre and company, live video, video documentation
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, lighting
Post-production:
Audio mixing/mastering: Michael Dessen, Jason Robinson, Stephanie Robinson, Kevin Schinstock, Sarah Weaver, Gerry Hemingway, and Joe Branciforte
Video editing: Ross Karre
DVD production: Trevor Henthorn
Graphic design: Ted Killian
1. I’ll Fly Away (Version One) (Albert E. Brumley) 4:34
2. Lord, I Want to be a Christian (African American Spiritual) 5:19
3. Down at the Cross (Elisha A. Hoffman/John H. Stockton) 5:22
4. Amazing Grace (Anonymous) 5:47
5. I’ll Fly Away (Version Two) (Albert E. Brumley) 3:53
6. What a Friend We Have in Jesus (Charles Crozat Converse) 6:11
7. When the Saints Go Marching In (Anonymous) 4:12
8. Just As I Am (Charlotte Elliot/William B. Bradbury) 3:57
9. Crying in the Chapel (Artie Glenn) 3:10
10. In the Garden (C. Austin Miles) 5:04
11. I’ll Fly Away (Version Three) (Albert E. Brumley) 2:41
Recorded and Mixed by Adam Munoz at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA March 4-5, 2013
Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Studios in Oakland, CA on December 28, 2013
Art and Layout by Ted Killian
“I’ll Fly Away” Copyright 1960 by Albert E. Brumley & Sons. Used by permission.
“Crying in the Chapel” Copyright 1953 by Unichappell Music Inc. Used by permission.
This recording is dedicated to my grandmother, Bonnie Denson whose unwavering faith and joyous spirit have been an inspiration to all whom have had the pleasure to know her and my to mother, Gwen Denson for her love, support and friendship. Without family we are lost.
Jeff Denson: double bass and voice
Claudio Puntin: clarinet, bass clarinet, analog preparations, tarcas
01 Harbor of Fog 6:32
02 Plan B 4:04
03 Black Lilies 6:45
04 Variation on a Point Of View 6:49
05 Nobody Bothers Me Either 4:49
06 A Sunday Afternoon and Still Surprising 3:19
07 Frozen Oscillations 5:17
08 Un Sueño Distante 3:00
09 First Take—Scanning Souls 3:24
10 You Don’t Say 5:08
11 Ghosts in the Walls 2:57
12 Desperate 4:54
***************
It began on a sunny day in Cologne, Germany in 2008,
and ended two years later on a rainy day in Berlin:
Two musicians
from two continents,
two years apart,
on two different days,
in two different cities
met and recorded this music without discussion or plan…
Recorded and mixed by Claudio Puntin at Cl-Audio Studio Köln on 19 October 2008
and Cl-Audio Studio Berlin on 21 March 2010
Mastered by Andreas Kolinski, January 2012, www.akmusique.de
Cover Art by Claudio Puntin
Layout by Ted Killian
Bonnie Barnett is an improviser of unusual clarity. A cornerstone of the Los Angeles New Music scene, and the composer of the TUNNEL HUMs, Barnett has mightily contributed to the worlds of contemporary classical music and improvisation and is one of Los Angeles’ hidden treasures. Barnett’s impressive array of vocal extensions creates a personal world of sonic texture that is unrivaled. Barnett’s new CD finds her using texts, tone, and timbre in a stunning display of virtuosity that sends the listener towards worlds of subterranean as well as ethereal delights.
BONNIE BARNETT, vocalist, composer and improviser, resides in Los Angeles. She appears on two DICE compilations and has three releases on Nine Winds, including the 2006 “Trio For Two”, a duo with bassist Ken Filiano. She has been exploring the texts of Gertrude Stein, Jean-Paul Sartre and others, and also delights in improvising faux text.
RICHARD WOOD, alto sax, flute and bass clarinet, resides in Los Angeles. Founding member of The And Now Ensemble, he continues to amaze southern California audiences with his intense, yet zany, performances. He has a new CD, “Not Far From Here”, for quintet and septet, which will be released this year on pfMentum.
HAL ONSERUD, bass, currently resides in Santa Barbara. A long-time player on the New York scene, his improvising collaborators include Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Vinny Golia, Jackson Krall and many others.
GARTH POWELL, percussionist extraordinaire, resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has releases out on Rastascan, Roadcone, Nine Winds, Evander, Beak Doctor and Leo, and has recorded with, among others, Jaap Blonk, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Peter Kowald, Bert Turetsky, Saadet Turkos and the London Improvisors Orchestra.
I was quite surprised when Phil Skaller approached me about recording a whole CD of my compositions in duo with Danny Holt. Though I had composed this music between 1994 and 2008 for my own groups, and arranged it for various formations, I had never imagined it for two pianos.
I’ve known Phil since 2002 when he was my teaching assistant at Hampshire College in an improvisation class. I introduced some of my tunes to the students and Phil, especially, devoured the music and its improvisational concepts. I had been hearing the praises of Danny Holt for years from Phil, but it was not until 2008 that I first heard this duo perform a suite of my compositions at UC San Diego. I was quite impressed and flattered by the wit, musical virtuosity, and pure improvisational fantasy that these two gifted young musicians brought to my music.
The compositions represented on this CD were conceived as abstractions and deconstructions of known jazz forms and related idiomatic music. What Phil Skaller and Danny Holt have done is to deconstruct my deconstructions. They have taken my music in directions that I doubt that I would have ever conceived and in some ways, made the music more flexible and malleable.
The first track, Flac, recorded on “Aquifer” (Cryptogramophone), was originally designed as a rhythmically gear-shifting Klezmer-like tune that improvisationally develops from the material itself and returns to the theme. Phil and Danny’s version has a rhythmic and sound character reminiscent of both Conlon Nancarrow’s studies for player piano and John Cage’s works for prepared piano. The alternation of fragments of the tune and its improvisational implications comes in waves, yet a thread of the thematic materials is always present.
Flocus was composed for trumpet, voice, bass, piano and drums and recorded on “Force Green” (Soul Note). It was conceived as four independent lines, each in a different meter, which are layered one upon another and developed in collective improvisation. Phil and Danny’s version takes a different direction, introducing a more classical theme and variation approach, while each of the lines independently develops outside of the tempo grid. This interpretation, though referring to themes, transcends the materials and becomes a springboard for episodes of virtuoso invention and dramatic return.
Para Waltz was composed as a vehicle to melodically and harmonically improvise on a metric modulating jazz waltz. Danny and Phil’s interpretation takes a very different direction, initially eschewing the tempo aspect and focusing on a more spacious approach, layering the timbres of glockenspiel, piano, and piano harmonics. The temporal aspect isn’t highlighted until midway, with the introduction of cymbals demarcating the time. The thematic material is finally introduced whole and floats on out.
Similarly Digestivo, recorded on “Aquifer” and “The Marks Brothers” (W.E.R.F), was conceived to create a metric modulating twelve-bar blues in B-flat. My idea was to abstract the idea of ‘substitute changes’ traditionally applied to jazz harmony and apply it to the domain of tempo. Unlike the original, which has a single underlying tempo throughout, Danny and Phil’s version is freer, starting out of time. They eventually introduce the tune and the different tempos, but in the end, leave the form completely, in an expansive and satisfying way.
Aperitivo, composed for piano, bass, and voice, is an even more abstract version of the blues than Digestivo. Recorded on “Time Changes” (Cryptogramophone), this slower metric modulating twenty-four bar form in C minor doesn’t even articulate the ground pulse, creating a feel that is inherently looser and less polyrhythmic than Digestivo. Phil Skaller and Danny Holt’s version is an extremely inventive and expansive finale to the CD, utilizing pianos, toy piano, melodica, and percussion. Improvisationally, they’ve chosen an even more abstract approach, which alternates the gestalt of tempo changes of the head and a freer approach that abstracts motifs, melody, and an almost fugue-like beginning. At about minute nine the tune grinds into a vamp, modulates faster, and phases, juxtaposing shreds of the melody back into the vamp, and returning to the twenty-four bar head.
Hearing Phil Skaller and Danny Holt’s interpretations of my music is both affirming and inspiring. I am impressed with the combination of their virtuoso playing, interpretative skills, and pure musical imagination. I look forward to hearing what they do next.
