Showing posts with label Ethel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethel. Show all posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

New York's Spectrum Presents Surround Sound from Starkland

New York's new Spectrum venue, a technology-intensive site for innovative music and multimedia, has invited me to present a Starkland evening there on Monday June 18. Naturally my first thought was: Surround Sound. Fortunately I knew that Spectrum's overlord, the energetic Glenn Cornett, was a surround sound enthusiast.

The concert will focus on electroacoustic surround sound music I commissioned for two DVDs. (Starkland has likely commissioned more surround sound music for DVD than any other label in the world.)

The audience will hear a tidal wave of hyperdense bells, a trumpet reverberating for 7 seconds in a huge underground water tank, a spaced-out Ethel Quartet, West African balafons, a 14-foot long Quadrachord, a ghostly wailing wall, a weird madrigal, and 15,000 African parrots.

Commissioned composers include: Paul Dolden, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Phil Kline, Lukas Ligeti, Ingram Marshall, Merzbow, Meredith Monk, Bruce Odland, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Carl Stone, and Pamela Z.

The concert will open with selections from Starkland's Immersion DVD-Audio, recognized by sources such as Pro Sound News and Billboard as the first such recording in history. Sound & Vision wrote:

"Not only a fascinating array of musical innovation but a persuasive exploration of the possibilities of surround sound... The care that went into this disc is carried through to the stylish onscreen graphics [and] the excellent printed program notes."

The second half of the concert will play most/all of Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze DVD, a major 65-minute work commissioned by Tom as a followup to Immersion. (Another first-of-its-kind recording.) Phil's imaginative, rich use of surround sound space has dazzled many:

The New Yorker: "A special-project disk in which Kline created, out of extravagant electronic means... an audio-visual feast that balances hipster zen with the seriousness of Bach and Wagner."

Stereophile: "This adventurous music... ranges widely from ambient recordings that are surprisingly musical, to complex constructions that emerge as lyrical."

New York Magazine: "A set of sensational etudes."

Sequenza21: "Imaginary vistas that envelope, even overwhelm... Our always adventuresome friends at Starkland have outdone themselves this time."

An Extras DVD in the Daze release features a lengthy interview with Phil by John Schaefer. Time permitting, some of these sections may be shown.

The concert will feature a high quality surround playback system, installed by techmaster Lawrence de Martin.

Read more here.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Phil Kline's Svarga Yatra: Video

This video contains excerpts from Phil Kline's "Svarga Yatra," performed by Ethel, along with comments from Phil about composing the piece (from a John Schaefer interview).



The music is part of Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze DVD, commissioned by Starkland.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Phil Kline at Brooklyn Academy of Music caps active 2009

Composer Phil Kline is having a big year. His music will soon be heard at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave series, as part of Really Real from choreographer Wally Cardona. Phil’s music will be performed live by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Really Real will be presented Nov. 17, 19, 20, and 21 at BAM.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show discussed Phil's Rumsfeld Songs on 9/11/09.

Earlier this year, Starkland released Phil’s longest work to date, Around the World in a Daze, commissioned by Starkland to premiere on this surround sound DVD. Daze has been widely praised in such publications as The New York Times, Stereophile, New York Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Daze peaked as the #1 Bestseller on Amazon's Indie Classical Charts and was selected as a “Pick of the Week” at the largest public radio station in the country (WNYC).

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On the same day as the release of the Daze DVD from Starkland, Phil’s John the Revelator CD was released by Cantaloupe as part of a joint promotional effort by the two new music labels. The Cantaloupe CD has also picked up an impressive set of reviews and the disc charted on Billboard's classical crossover list.

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In March, the world premiere of Phil’s SPACE was performed by the Ethel Quartet at Alice Tully Hall’s newly unveiled lobby, in a dramatically spatial presentation called "hypnotically attractive" by the New York Times.

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In May, Ethel performed SPACE at the Kennedy Center in another unconventionally spatial rendition.

Kudos to Phil for his fine ’09.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Kline’s Daze DVD “A Treat” at New Music Box

The excellent New Music Box website writes enthusiastically about our Phil Kline Around the World in a Daze recording. The energetic Molly Sheridan states:
“The Starkland label has a treat for you—particularly those with surround sound playback equipment. Kline's Around the World in a Daze, a 10-movement work of manipulated audio samples and acoustic performance (Ethel, vocalist Kamala Sankaram, violinist Todd Reynolds, and much from the composer himself) was commissioned and designed specially for this hi-res DVD package. There's plenty to enjoy in this piece for your standard audio consumer, but for the audiophiles in the crowd, the real fun is in sitting immersed in this mash up of street noise, music clips, music boxes, bug zappers, and many other bits of sonic detritus caught up by the composer's ear and microphone.”
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Read more about this Phil Kline DVD.
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Phil Kline's Daze DVD from Starkland "Fascinates"

Our Phil Kline Around the World in a Daze DVD recently received a fine review at Sequenza21. Christian Carey writes that Daze "fascinates, engages, and, often, moves." He adds, "Kline's pieces transport the hearer from their listening space to imaginary vistas that envelope, even overwhelm."

Read the full review at Sequenza21.

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Read more about this Daze DVD.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

New York Times Reviews Starkland's Phil Kline "Daze" DVD

The New York Times has reviewed Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze DVD from Starkland. Writing in the Sunday July 26 issue, Allan Kozinn notes that "the electronic experimenter" Phil Kline "is hard at work." The review is not online, but you can read it here:

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Visit Starkland.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Phil Kline's "Daze" DVD Reviewed at Lucid Culture

Another fine review for Phil Kline's Around the World in a Daze DVD appears today courtesy of Lucid Culture.

It begins by describing Kline as "One of this era’s most fearlessly relevant composers."

They note the DVD offers "a mix of compositions which run the gamut from challenging to confrontational to playfully fun." And they conclude: "New music fans will salivate over this."

Read the full review.

Visit Starkland.