With our recent North American Launch of Gabriel Prokofiev’s “Nonclassical” label we find ourselves fortunate enough to have two fantastic releases by the Elysian quartet. In sept we released Gabriel’s string quartet no. 1 and now on Oct. 27th we’ll release Gabriel’s 2nd string quartet also performed by the Elysians. I can’t rave enough about these recordings, it’s also given Elysha Miracle and I a chance to interview the quartet in anticipation of this second round of Nonclassical releases….
First off of course we’ve become familiar with the quartet through its work with Gabriel Prokofiev and Nonclassical, can you tell us how this relationship came about? Laura went to York University with Gabriel and they had a lot in common musically, both being interested in contemporary and electronic music. A few years later, when she had joined the quartet and we had started working with amplification and electronics, she rang him up and suggested a collaboration. He wrote his first ever string quartet for us, and it went so well that we commissioned him to write us another.
Of course on these Nonclassical releases of Gabriel’s string quartets your performances are also remixed, what’s the groups take on this part of the projects? We thought it was a great idea, especially as Gabriel’s music is so influenced by dance music in the first place, and when we heard the remixes we were all pleased with how they had turned out. They only use sounds from the original recordings, so the remix artists had to find ways of creating new music from original material without resorting to extra drums or beats.
Which remix is most fun to play? Which do you prefer listening-wise? The remixes are not written to be performed live – they were made by people using sounds from the recordings and have had many many effects and layers put on them. We have talked about trying to turn them back into live pieces, but the complications have so far put everybody off! Listening-wise it would be far too cheeky to single anyone out…
Can you give us a little history lesson on the quartet itself? Maybe tell us a bit about each member? The quartet got together at Trinity College of Music in 1999 and gradually morphed from a normal classical string quartet into what it is today, totally dedicated to contemporary, electronic and improvised music. A big turning point for us was playing George Crumb’s music, and then also meeting Gabriel. Each member of the group has a very diverse background in classical, jazz, pop, and improvised music and everyone plays regularly with other groups, and on other instruments. This seems to bring many styles of playing into the group and gives us a great advantage and certain lack of fear when we improvise. You have such a fun and energetic feel as a group. What makes you have such a unique approach to playing and ‘classical music’? Thanks! I think we might come across like this because we all consider ourselves ‘musicians’ rather than ‘classical musicians’ and we bring our different musical experiences to the group. For instance, two of us used to play in a samba band, and that not only teaches you a lot about rhythm and feel, but also a great deal about group vibes. Also each one of us knows what it’s like to play on stage in a pop/folk/rock context, which is usually so much more fun and relaxed than playing classical music. So I think subconsciously we probably bring a bit of that into our concerts.
Have you recorded projects for other labels? If so what were / are they? We recorded a great project with British composer Max de Wardener last year, with cover art by Stanley Donwood (Radiohead collaborator), for Stanley’s record label Six Inch Records. We have also contributed our improvising skills to some pop albums, and recorded our own EP of improvised music. We are also planning a few albums with other people next year – will let you know which label they come out on!
What music / art inspires the quartet as a group? Wow big question. I think our various inspirations would be so massive it would be crazy to list them all! But as far as music goes you could definitely throw in the Crumb, and Gabriel, then Dai Fujikura, Reich, Stravinsky, Hot Chip, Melanie Pappenheim, Can, Janacek, Keith Tippett, Adem, Simon Fisher Turner… Art is a bit less relevant to us as a group, but individually I think we are all pretty modern in tastes…
I see from your facebook updates that you guys play in Germany from time to time, where else do you perform regularly and what rep do you play generally? We have been to Belgium and France several times, and many other countries internationally, but mostly we perform in the UK. Our repertoire has become more and more fully improvised over the last two years, but we also play a lot of British and American contemporary music, most of which is either written for us or commissioned by us. Our concerts at the moment tend to be a mixture of very contemporary music and improvisation, sometimes both within the same piece.
Are the members involved in other music projects? What might those be? Emma and Vince together are remix artists Geese and are becoming quite successful with their string instrument based remixes. Jenny and Emma play in Mercury-nominated Basquiat Strings, which is a jazz based project, and Laura is successfully carving out her own solo career with her music for cello with voice. All four of us are involved with other performers too: James Yorkston, Nancy Wallace, Adrian Crowley, Gilad Atzmon to name a few.
Ok so WoW you’ve worked with Damo Suzuki! how did this come about? Your impressions of Damo? Was this material recorded? How is CAN important to the quartet? Damo is a pretty amazing guy, in that he makes his living going round the world improvising in a made up language every night. i’d like to make a living this way…seems like a nice life! He’s usually very friendly and interesting, occasionally grumpy when he hasn’t had enough sleep and has been flying around the world too much.. He is a total showman on stage with incredible charisma and a great voice. We’ve played with him twice now, and the first time was the best, at the Purcell Room on the South Bank, London. This was recorded, and Damo absolutely loved it, so it was then edited because it was VERY VERY long, and then…don’t think it got released or anything. Hopefully one day… As a group we obviously listened to a lot more CAN prior to and after working with Damo, and I think we all took a lot of inspiration from the spirit and energy in that band. Obviously when we improvised with Damo it was an entirely different thing. But CAN are great. You can always learn a lot from bands like that.I can’t quite remember how the collaboration came about.
Any future plans with Nonclassical? Plans on performing in the USA? Nonclassical’s pop imprint StopStart will hopefully be putting out Laura’s solo album next year, and we are also discussing our future projects with them, but nothing is concrete as yet. We would absolutely love to go back to the USA after our very successful first time out there this March for SXSW, perhaps with composer Graham Reynolds who we met in Austin, or with Meredith Monk who we are working with next year. If anyone wants to book us a tour we’ll be right there….
Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, was one of the more colorful characters among Italian Renaissance composers. He wrote unusual and highly emotional music, and he was a murderer. This podcast looks at both his personal life (sometimes gruesome) as well as his music. Music by Gesualdo’s fellow composers Pomponio Nenna and Luzzasco Luzzaschi is also included. The featured artists in this podcast, and on the CD are Concerto Italiano conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini.
Morten Lauridsen is America’s pre-eminent composer of choral music. His music, with long, arching, expressive lines is enjoyed by performers and audiences alike. In the CD featured in this podcast, the Elora Festival Singers under conductor Noel Edison present five of his pieces – O nata lux and O Magnum Mysterium, two of his most famous sacred works, plus collections of songs based on Italian Renaissance poetry, as well as poems by Robert Graves and Rainer Marie Rilke.
Although Quincy Porter is better known as a teacher, he was also a fine composer, violist and conductor. A rediscovery of his music is overdue, and what better place to start than with this CD of his complete viola music, with Eliesha Nelson, recording artist and member of the Cleveland Orchestra. This CD also features John McLaughlin Williams as conductor, pianist and violinist, harpist Douglas Rioth, and the Northwest Sinfonia.
Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dorian Sono Luminus DSL-90911
After hearing this monumental piece of organ music by Langgaard I simply had to find out more, what better place than to go directly to the artist who took the project on.
Flemming, Can you give us a little background on yourself and your playing? Coming from a home where there was an understanding and an interest in classical music, I showed an early interest in sound and timbre and in consequence was taught piano from the age of 5. This led later to studying at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music with a major in piano. Later I switched to a church music education with organ as my main instrument. This education was attractive in preparation for a continued, varied occupation in music, because of the many substitute job possibilities as an organist and the concert challenges provided by the church.
What music inspires you to do what you do? Already as a child when my preferred composer was J. S. Bach – for instance because of his music’s sustained motor dynamics – the ground was laid for what has become a lifestyle for me: playing organ.
Are there any composers that really blow your mind? If early on it was Bach who impressed me, then in my growing years the classical composers like Beethoven, Brahms and not least, Wagner were a considerable inspiration for my perception and way of approaching the matter of improvisation, which is an indispensable and rather essential discipline for professional church musicians.During a study period in Paris in the early 70s, I met the especially gifted improviser, Pierre Cochereau, at the Notre Dame cathedral, and that meeting became a turning point in my musical perception up to then, by leading to my listening to the cathedral organist’s exceptional, daring melodically, harmonically and rhythmically stimulating improvisations.
The fact that Messis is such an epic piece of music, can you describe for us the process behind learning and tackling Messis? In the sound Danish musical tradition of the 60s, there were only a few pioneers who had discovered Langgaard’s stylistically outdated and therefore rather unknown works, but finally there still remained the possibility of getting to know Langgaard, as through a radio-transmitted shorter version of Messis. This was my first encounter with Danish romantic music, that at the same time clearly deviated from the well known ”Golden Age” composers from the same period: the normally otherwise jovial, well balanced and clear forms of composition contrast here in Langgaard’s music with tension, unrest, unexpected lines of development to dramatic climaxes – to once again, in a symphonic tone picture, move towards new, fantastic states of being. A considerably richer emotional palette than among the other romantic composers for organ. Yes, Langgaard was a romantic deep down, but at the same time he was creative in forms of expression that had a clear modernistic and expressionistic appearance.
What does this piece mean to you? Messis is an expression of a continuous ”tale told in tones” and as such, makes no attempt to use artistic effects through prevalent classical idioms or traditional knowledge of technical disciplines.
What was your motivation for approaching it in the first place? For a youth with a tempestuous heart, this music is spontaneously attractive and I harmonized with it in those days, and since then have appropriated Langgaard’s universe as my own.
What is your understanding of Langgaard’s inspiration for the piece? Messis in its foundation is a search away from those chaotic times (there in the 30s) and towards an earlier epoch’s ideal of beauty, drawing a divine picture of reality.
What makes this composition important to Danish culture and to the history of Danish music in general? A characteristic throughout this composition is that ”defiance” with which the composer delivers his message. The basic romantic character is regularly marked by reactive, grotesque effects including use of modern and apparently absurd means such as unprepared dynamic jumps, illogical harmonic relations as well as changing measure. With Langgaard, that kind of musical ”collage” technique blends into a large formal whole and makes for a symphonic concept that no other Dane – not to say no other European composer – has strived for.
Many of us here in America are just now becoming familiar with Langgaard in a very substantial way; where do you see his works fitting in not only the history of Danish music but of classical music itself? The fact is Langgaard’s music is more actual than ever as a bitter commentary on what we contemporaries are witness to the world over; the global political discord, environmental accidents, natural catastrophes and more, but in spite of it all, also a resonance of beauty, understanding and the dream that sustains our present day. It’s true that Langgaard’s written reference is the Bible, but his whole outlook on life is more strongly influenced by the expression he encountered in his own times – and in my opinion, it would have most likely become strengthened if he had lived today.
What projects do you have planned for the future? Gazing into the future, I would like to promote large-format organ compositions like Langgaard’s Messis that, within the formal time-horizon parallel to masses and requiems, create possibilities of pushing emotionally deeper into the topic than is the case of shorter musical forms as, for example, the sonata form.
A similar, more recent example could be the French expressionistically inspired composer, Germain Desbonnet’s ” Symphony Christique” for organ with obligatto mixed final chorus. Poetry, drama and meditative music meet in one work that lifts the soul into a truly optimistic expression.
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With our recent North American Launch of Gabriel Prokofiev’s “Nonclassical” label we find ourselves fortunate enough to have two fantastic releases by the Elysian quartet. In sept we released Gabriel’s string quartet no. 1 and now on Oct. 27th we’ll release Gabriel’s 2nd string quartet also performed by the Elysians. I can’t rave enough about these recordings, it’s also given Elysha Miracle and I a chance to interview the quartet in anticipation of this second round of Nonclassical releases….
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