Ingram Marshall DVD and Release Concert Announced by Starkland

Ingram Marshall's haunting, elegiac music and Jim Bengston’s stark, striking photographs, created for their joint multimedia work Alcatraz, are featured on a new Starkland DVD, set for release on Oct. 29. The work explores this forbidden island and its famous prison, which once held the most notorious criminals in the US.

The DVD also presents the premiere recording of the complete audiovisual presentation of Eberbach, their followup work, that focuses on an impressive, abandoned German monastery, Kloster Eberbach. Marshall’s seductive music reflects the spacious acoustics, and Bengston’s photos capture the striking architecture. In addition, the DVD adds immersive surround sound mixes for both works, newly created for this release by Marshall

Marshall and Bengston will introduce their 2 works at a surround-sound release concert at New York’s Spectrum (121 Ludlow), set for 12 pm noon on Sunday, Oct. 27.

John Adams has commented:

“Alcatraz, a multimedia installation done with the photographer Jim Bengston, uses a famous San Francisco site with a long complex history to evoke that special sense of dream and melancholy that is so characteristic of his [Marshall’s] work.”

And Bill Morrison writes:

“Ingram Marshall and Jim Bengston, in their remarkable pair of collaborations, Alcatraz and Eberbach, create movement with music out of still images that elegantly redefine the film-music relationship.”

In the early 1980s, Marshall and Bengston jointly created Alcatraz, in an unusual arrangement where both the music and visuals were equally important from the start. Equipped with tape recorders and cameras, they explored this austere island in the San Francisco Bay. After exchanging slides and cassettes between San Francisco and Norway for several months, the final interwoven work emerged as a series of evocative still photographs with live, electronically processed music.

Ingram Marshall (L) and Jim Bengston (R) returning from Alcatraz in 1983

Bengston and Marshall performed Alcatraz and Eberbach at various venues, including the Henie Onstad Art Center (Oslo), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent), the new music festival at Bourges, The American Center (Paris), The Art Institute of Chicago School, and Carnegie Recital Hall (New York). In 2009, Bengston and Marshall had a residency at The Montalvo Art Center (Saratoga, CA), where they performed and held talks about both pieces. Concurrently, Alcatraz was shown on monitors in the public spaces of Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

© Jim Bengston

about Ingram Marshall

Marshall studied at Columbia University and California Institute of the Arts, and lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1973 to 1985. During that time, Marshall developed a series of “live electronic” pieces such as Fragility Cycles, Gradual Requiem, and Alcatraz in which he blended tape collages, extended vocal techniques, Indonesian flutes, and keyboards. In recent years, Marshall has concentrated on music combining tape and electronic processing with ensembles and soloists. His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras such as the Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. Marshall has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent, larger works include Dark Florescence (a concerto for two guitars and orchestra premiered by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2005), Orphic Memories (premiered by the chamber orchestra Orpheus in 2007 at Carnegie Hall), and Psalmbook (premiered by the vocal ensemble Lionheart and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble at Stanford University in 2012). His music can be heard on the Nonesuch, New Albion, New World, and Starkland labels. Since 2005, Marshall has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Yale School of Music.

about Jim Bengston

Jim Bengston attended Lake Forest College (where he met Ingram Marshall), entered graduate school at Princeton University, and shortly thereafter left to join the Army, where he developed an interest in photography. After serving as an Associated Press photo editor in New York, Bengston moved to Norway, and since 1975, he has been a freelance photographer in Oslo. Bengston’s work is represented in the collections of several museums, including MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, Walker Art Center, National Museum of Art, Architecture & Design (Oslo), The Museum of Photographic Art (Denmark), The Finnish Museum of Photography, and the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris). He has published three books: Afterwords (self-published, 1978), Slow Motion (European Photography, Germany, 1986), and Empty Landscape (Lillehammer Art Museum, 1996). Winner of first prize in the Nikon International Photo Contest in 1970, Bengston has had his work featured in shows at MoMA, 1978; International Center of Photography, New York, 1987; Berlinische Galerie, 1992; a one-person show at Lillehammer Art Museum, 1996; Drammens Museum, Norway, 2007; and Risør Foto Festival, Norway, 2009. Since 2010 he has been working on a new series of scenes and street pictures from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pre-Order this DVD at Amazon.

Read more about Starkland.

Colorado Music Festival Premieres Kristin Kuster's "Devil's Thumb"

The final concert of this year’s Colorado Music Festival was special for several reasons, not the least of which was that it was Michael Christie’s last concert as CMF’s full-time director.

Hired at the tender age of 26, Christie reinvigorated the festival with a series of successful innovations. In particular, his passion for today’s new music brought a sense of excitement that certainly was a factor in boosting attendance over the years.

One of Christie’s strokes of genius has been his unique CLICK! community commissioning program. Yes, unique: no other orchestra in the country offers this. Each year, beginning with 3-4 pre-selected composers, audience members (and anyone else) can vote for the composer they’d like to see receive a commission to write a 10 minute work that premieres the following season. A vote costs $10, meaning the voters collectively both select the composer and fund the commission.

This year’s winner was Kristin Kuster, an established, successful composer who grew up in Boulder, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains which begin just west of the city. She lived near a distinctive upthrusting rock known as Devil’s Thumb, which became the title of her piece that premiered on Aug. 8-9.

Devil’s Thumb opens with a dynamic, swirling section, which then grows more relaxed, leading to a bass clarinet solo. A pattern emerges of full orchestral sections, often presenting some effective writing for strings, that alternate with solos from the violin, cello, and oboe, interspersed with passages for winds, then percussion. Some melancholic strings return, and build to a concluding climax. The piece showcases individual players, orchestral sections, and invigorating tuttis, maintaining interest and not wearing out its welcome. I hope it receives more performances.

composer Kristin Kuster

Bang on a Can Marathon: Highlights

Bang on a Can is one of the most important, innovative new music organizations in the country, and, for some of us, a pilgrimage to their annual Marathon concert is essential.

Displaced from their usual venue in the spacious but noisy and overly reverberant World Financial Center’s Winter Garden due to construction there, the 2013 event was held at the Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University. There were pros and cons to this change. The Schimmel Center has better acoustics and more comfortable seating (not a small matter for these long undertakings), but also limited the audience and reduced the public nature of the event. A significant line developed by the opening hour:

About 2 dozen works were heard, featuring around 130 performers, during this 10-hour mini-marathon. (And, yes, "mini" applies when compared to a marathon a few years back that lasted 27 hours.) Some highlights, as they occurred, were:

> The "El Dude" movement from Derek Bermel's enjoyable Canzonas Americanas (this work's CD is highly recommended)

> Peter Evans' astonishing, continuously rapid-fire trumpet solo.

> Caleb Burhans' appealing oh ye of little faith, with a special shout-out to violinist Yuki Numata and guitarist Ryan Ferriera, who stepped in with little notice to replace an ailing Caleb, who suffered an accidental fall the previous evening. 

> Lukas Ligeti's quadra-rhythmic lakoni in kasonnde, featuring 2 deft drummers (David Cossin and Ben Reimer) each playing different rhythms with their left and right hands.

> Kendall Williams's exciting, convincingly assembled Conception, was written for the NYU Contemporary Music Ensemble along with 6 steel pan players. The young Williams stated a noteworthy goal of creating composed, contemporary music for steel pans, in contrast to typically improvised performances.

> John King's sonically rich Astral Epitaphs, originally composed for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's final concerts at the Park Avenue Armory, was performed by the TILT brass ensemble and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. It worked well here, and a performance in the cavernous Armory must have been spectacular.

 

> Julia Wolfe's Americana-ish With a blue dress on, with a virtuosic performance by Monica Germino, who fiddled, sang, and stomped with aplomb.

> Tamar Muskal's soulful Mar de Leche, zealously performed cellist Maya Beiser and her Provenance Project Band.

> Annea Lockwood's Vortex, performed by the BOAC All-Stars, was one of the few pieces heard over the day that conveyed a sense of mystery.

> Michael Gordon's Yo Shakespeare, energetic and packed with dance rhythms, was originally composed for Icebreaker within their rigid rules. Always a winner, it was performed by the BOAC All-Stars in a new arrangement.

> Finally, we heard the crowd-pleasing Asphalt Orchestra exuberantly perform works by Tom Zé and Tatsuya Yoshida. This unique ensemble remains an imaginative creation.

For more, visit Bang on a Can's website.

The International Contemporary Ensemble Enthralls Denver

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) recently presented a superbly performed concert of diverse, effective new music to an enthusiastic Denver audience. It was easily one of the finest new music concerts I've heard in the Denver-Boulder region over the last 40 years.

L to R: Claire Chase, Jacob Greenberg, Michael Nicolas

The concert opened with Toru Takemitsu's delicate, evocative, relaxing (one might say "mellow") Rain Spell, intended, the composer writes, "to realize the magical image and the gradation in coloration of the rain in a small-scale ensemble." This was followed by Halcyon for clarinet and string trio, a recent (2011) work from another Japanese composer, Dai Fujikura, who has been championed by ICE. Fujikura is clearly a distinctive voice, and the topnotch performance was highlighted by the refined, elegant playing of clarinetist Joshua Rubin.

Though Elliott Carter is not always my cup of tea, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy his short, attractive Bariolage (1992) for harp. Of course, having the idiomatically written work receive a virtuoso performance by Bridget Kibbey certainly helped.

Another virtuoso, the ICE captain and excellent flutist Claire Chase, was featured in Kaija Saariaho's Terrestre (2002), a resetting of the second movement of her Aile du songe flute concerto. It's an attractive piece, wherein the flutist adds various vocalizations to her instrumental sounds.

Magnus Lindberg's Steamboat Bill, Jr. was indeed inspired by the eponymous, wonderful Buster Keaton film. The piece has lots of activity and was beautifully played, but wasn't particularly compelling to me. I'm more a fan of his big orchestral works.

The prodigious chameleon John Zorn composed his string trio Walpurgisnacht initially based on Webern's string trio. Here, the edgy, experimental Zorn uses almost completely conventional, straightforward techniques, and the work could be viewed as a second cousin, twice removed, of Webern. I liked it.

The concert concluded with Crumb's classic Vox Balaenae. The mask-less, sensitive performance included playing inside-the-piano by Jacob Greenberg, who altered the string sounds by applying Mr. Crumb's very own shot-glass.

It's not every day one of the country's top new music ensembles, headed by a MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient, appears in this area, and the audience responded with a standing ovation. Such events in the Mile-High city are rare and most welcome. The concert, held in the 1,000-seat Newman Center, was sold out. Major kudos to the Friends of Chamber Music for programming ICE. One hopes for more.

WNYC's John Schaefer Features "Polka From The Fringe" on New Sounds

WNYC's John Schaefer recently featured Guy Klucevsek's "Polka From The Fringe" re-release from Starkland on his popular New Sounds show, revealing interesting background and insights from Guy about this unusual project and airing numerous pieces. John recalls "I loved these albums the first time around," noting that "Polka From The Fringe topped my Top Ten for the year." He adds, "It's great to have those albums, which have long been out of print, back as a single 2-CD set." John introduces this show:

"Accordionist and composer Guy Klucevsek stops by for a visit, on the occasion of the reissue of 'Polka From the Fringe,' 29 previously out-of-print tracks for accordion by Klucevsek and 27 other composers.  With titles like Lois V Vierk's 'Attack Cat Polka,' or Elliott Sharp's jolt of punk in 'Happy Chappie Polka,' there's a bit of playful wackiness to the collection, yet also some loveliness -  like William Duckworth's 'Polking Around' and Peter Garland's 'Club Nada Polka.'

"For this New Sounds, hear music for the project by Carl Finch (of Brave Combo - the 'nuclear polka band' out of Denton, TX), the hilarious contribution from Fred Frith - 'The Disinformation Polka,' as well as music by Klucevsek himself, 'The Grass, it is Blue.' "

Other composers heard include Guy de Bievre, Bobby Previte, Mary Jane Leach, Tom Cora, Robin Holcomb, and Bill Obrecht. Here's the full show:

John has hosted New Sounds ("The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village" - Billboard) since 1982, and WNYC has the largest public radio audience in the United States. His diverse guests have included David Byrne, Meredith Monk, and Ravi Shankar.

The shows echoes some other enthusiastic responses to the release. At Sequenza 21, Jay Batzner wrote:

"This double-disc set is a heck of a lot of fun... What I really love about the disc is, well, everything I suppose. You can tell that the composers had a good time writing these pieces... full of joy, pleasure, and talent."

Frank Oteri at New Music Box remarks:

"The music turns on a dime from track to track [from] sheer loveliness [to] relentless experimentalism [to] out and out zaniness... the next time someone comes up to you claiming to be able to define new music, tell him or her to listen to these recordings."

Two other Guy Klucevsek releases can be found in Starkland's catalog: "Transylvanian Softwear" (awarded a "Recording of Special Merit" at Stereo Review) and "Free Range Accordion" (with music from Burt Bacharach, Lars Hollmer, Aaron Jay Kernis, Jerome Kitzke, Klucevsek, Stephen Montague, Somei Satoh, and Lois V Vierk).

Guy Klucevsek “Polka From the Fringe” Release Announced by Starkland

A major project from leading new music accordionist Guy Klucevsek, out-of-print for nearly two decades, will be re-released on October 16, 2012 by Starkland, in its most comprehensive edition yet.

For his original “Polka From The Fringe” undertaking, Klucevsek commissioned over two-dozen two-steps, resulting in highly diverse music from a wide variety of composers.

[L to R] Bill Ruyle, John King, Guy Klucevsek,
David Garland, David Hofstra 

The new Starkland double-CD release offers 29 polka pieces, ranging from Elliot Sharp’s punk-infused Happy Chappie Polka, Fred Frith’s humorous The Disinformation Polka, and John King’s slyly political song about a one-legged polka, to Carl Finch’s (of Brave Combo) beautiful Prairie Dogs, William Obrecht’s witty Guy, Won’t You Play Your Accordion?, and Dick Connette’s poignant Wild Goose.

In addition to Klucevsek, other composers include: Mary Ellen Childs, Anthony Coleman, Tom Cora, Guy De Bievre, William Duckworth, Steve Elson, David Garland, Peter Garland, Daniel Goode, Rolf Groesbeck, Robin Holcomb, Phillip Johnston, Joseph Kasinskas, Aaron Jay Kernis, Mary Jane Leach, David Mahler, Bobby Previte, Bill Ruyle, Carl Stone, Lois V Vierk, and Peter Zummo.

Once chosen as the Best Recordings of the Year by WNYC's John Schaefer, the original two CDs disappeared not long after their release (the Japanese label went out of business), and the general public had little chance to discover this exceptional music.

Guy's debut of these widely diverse polkas won "a raucous standing ovation at a downtown Philadelphia night club" at New Music America, writes organizer Joe Franklin, adding that Guy's concert "was one of the true highlights” and “as memorable a New Music America event as any during the festival's 11-year history.”

Starkland’s 24-page booklet includes the complete lyrics, updated commentary from Klucevsek, and an Introduction freshly penned by New York Downtown veteran Elliott Sharp, who recalls that “ ‘Polka From The Fringe’ met with immediate popular response – an undercurrent of sly humor seemed to permeate the music, and audiences came away thrilled and excited both by Guy’s fantastic playing and the sheer audaciousness of this innovative undertaking.”

Klucevsek’s concerts featuring these works at the Brooklyn Academy of Music were enthusiastically praised by Kyle Gann in the Village Voice:

“BAM finally unearths a real gem: Guy Klucevsek, one of New York’s most imaginative, least pretentious composer/performers. Thanks to his expertise and activism, the accordion has become a staple of with-it avant-garde ensembles, and the collection of polkas he’s commissioned – and called ‘Polka From the Fringe’ – makes a fun and very revealing snapshot of new music in the ’80s.”

In Japan, the worthiness of Klucevsek’s ambitious project attracted the attention of noted composer Toru Takemitsu, who personally invited Klucevsek and his polka band to participate in Takemitsu’s Music Today festival.

Starkland’s previous two Klucevsek CDs received impressive kudos. "Transylvanian Softwear" was awarded a “Recording of Special Merit” from Stereo Review, and "Free Range Accordion" was deemed “a funny, rich, and meaningful expression of this great American squeezeboxer's brilliance” (Santa Barbara Independent).

About Guy Klucevsek

Guy Klucevsek is one of the world’s most versatile and highly-respected accordionists. He has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Anthony Braxton, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn. Klucevsek is the recipient of a 2010 United States Artists Collins Fellowship, an unrestricted $50,000 award given annually to “America's finest artists.”

About Starkland 

Starkland’s previous recordings have received over 200 favorable reviews, including those in The New York Times, Gramophone, Stereophile, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Billboard, Washington Post, Sound & Vision, New York Magazine, UK’s The Wire, Canada’s Musicworks, and France’s Revue & Corrigée. The label’s releases have been featured on such national radio programs as NPR’s All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. Other recordings present Charles Amirkhanian, Tod Dockstader, Paul Dresher, Ethel Quartet, Aaron Jay Kernis, Phil Kline, Guy Klucevsek, Kronos Quartet, Keeril Makan, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Todd Reynolds, Turtle Island String Quartet, John Zorn, more.

Under the direction of “one-man army” Thomas Steenland, Starkland has also commissioned over two hours of high-resolution surround-sound music from thirteen prominent new-music composers, a commitment likely unequaled by any other label.

Unique Commissioning Program Enters Third Season

Created by the adventurous conductor Michael Christie, the unique commissioning Click! program at the Colorado Music Festival has entered its third season. Anyone can vote, by donating $10, for any/all of three composers. The composer with the most votes is awarded the commission for an orchestral work, which will be premiered during CMF's 2013 concert season. Thus the process allows the audience to both fund the commission and select the composer. It's the only commissioning program I know of that functions this way.

The three eligible composers are Chiayu Hsu, Kristin Kuster, and Piotr Szewczyk.

 

Chiayu's music has been premiered by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Natalie Zhu, oboist Katherine Needleman, the ensemble eighth blackbird, and the Prism Quartet. Born in Banciao, Taiwan, Chiayu received her Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, Master's degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University, and Ph.D. from Duke University. She has studied at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Aspen Music Festival, Fontainebleau Schools, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Her teachers have included Jennifer Higdon, David Loeb, Roberto Sierra, Ezra Laderman, Martin Bresnick, Anthony Kelley, Scott Lindroth, and Stephen Jaffe. A fuller biography is here. Her music can be heard in these excerpts:

• Feng Nian Ji (Harvest Festival) Excerpt
• Shan Ko (Mountain Song) Excerpt
• Xuan Zang: Zen Journey Excerpt

 

A Boulder native, Kristin Peterson Kuster received her Master's Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where she now serves as Assistant Professor of Composition. Her music has received support from such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Sons of Norway, American Composers Orchestra, the League of American Orchestras, Meet The Composer, the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum, American Opera Projects, the National Flute Association, and the Argosy Foundation. A fuller biography is here. Her music can be heard in these excerpts:

• Myrrha (2006, for 3 sopranos, male chorus, & orchestra): opening excerpt
• Rain On It (2012, for orchestra): ending excerpt

Piotr Szewczyk, violinist and composer, is a violinist in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida since 2007, and is also the Winner of the 2008 Jacksonville Symphony Fresh Ink - Florida Composers' Competition. As a composer, he has received numerous awards including those from Rapido! Composition Contest, Third Millennium Ensemble, American Composers Forum, Society of Composers, Jacksonville Symphony, British Trombone Society, VoxNovus 60x60 Project, Fauxharmonic Adagio Contest, UPBEAT Hvar - Croatia and ACCENT Competition at Music X Festival. Szewczyk holds a double Masters degree in violin and composition from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin with Kurt Sassmanshaus, Piotr Milewski, and Dorothy Delay, and composition with Joel Hoffman, Michael Fiday, Henry Gwiazda, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Darrell Handel. A fuller biography is here. His music can be heard in these excerpts:

• First Coast Fanfare (excerpt 1)
• First Coast Fanfare (excerpt 2)
• First Coast Fanfare (excerpt 3)

I hope many will take advantage of this unusual opportunity to help both fund and select a commissioned composer.

For more information about the Colorado Music Festival and its Click! program, visit here.

Daniel Kellogg Work Premiered at Colorado Music Festival

Daniel Kellogg's "The Gates of Paradise" received its premiere performance Thursday night at the Colorado Music Festival.

Premiering a commissioned work has become one of the season highlights of CMF, and the Click! program used to commission the works is unique to the festival. Each year, 3-4 composers are pre-selected by Maestro Michael Christie, and then the audience and anyone else can vote for a composer to get the commission by donating $10. Thus the audience both funds and selects the winning composer.

Composer Daniel Kellogg (L) and Conductor Michael Christie at a pre-concert discussion.

Last fall's top vote winner was Boulder's Kellogg, who teaches at the College of Music of the University of Colorado, and the evening affirmed that he was indeed a felicitous choice. The piece began with shimmering, misty, sustained strings, out of which various gestures emerged in the lower strings, percussion, brass, etc. Eventually these craggy peaks asserted themselves throughout the orchestra, evoking both the Gates of Paradise (impressive huge doors of the Baptistery in Florence, Italy, later named by Michelangelo) and the striking mountains that define Boulder's western limit, where the nation's High Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. A building accumulation of these strong gestures reaches a climax to conclude the piece. It's a successful, attractive work which I hope finds performances elsewhere.

Another new piece followed, and the report is quite different. Imagine creating a catalog of all the familiar, surefire things that an orchestra can do effectively. Then you skillfully cut and paste these into an old-fashioned 4-movement symphony. You even toss in a fugal passage (the practice of which I thought had been rightfully banned). The result might be Jay Greenberg's Symphony No. 5. Now if you compose this when you are around 14 years old, you become a prodigy that gets fetêd on CBS's "60 Minutes" etc. But the fact remains that the piece is strangely out of touch with today's music and seems devoid of any individual expression.

As Alex Ross commented about Greenberg in his excellent blog, "For him, it is 1904 and anything is possible," adding that many young composers "act as though the 20th century had never happened." One hopes that Greenberg, with some years and compositional studies under his belt since being deemed a modern-day Mozart, is learning to use his considerable talents to reveal a composer who has something to say.

The concert concluded with a solid, appealing performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Three 21st Century Works Heard at the Colorado Music Festival

Featuring three 21st century works by Stephen Hartke, Christopher Theofanidis, and Aaron Jay Kernis at last night's concert, conductor Michael Christie continued his mission of having the Colorado Music Festival perform new music.

In the mid-2000s, New York's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra commissioned six composers to create pieces, each based on one of Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos and their instrumentation.

We first heard Hartke's "A Brandenburg Autumn," composed in Germany not far from where the Bach dedicatee once lived. The conservative work was well written for the ensemble (reduced from the original instrumentation of the first Brandenburg), offering some rhythmic interest through much of the piece.

Next was Theofanidis's "Muse," which drew on the instrumentation of the third Brandenberg (3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, backed by a bass and keyboard continuo), augmented by additional violins. The straightforward, vitality-infused piece was well played and clearly appealed to the audience.

The final work, Kernis's "Concerto With Echoes," was easily the most distinctive of the three new works. On the surface, there seemed to be no close connection to the 6th Brandenburg that served as the work's starting point (except for the related instrumentation sans violins), and this actually affirmed that we were hearing from a composer with something to say, a piece that works on its own. The father of twins, Kernis was inspired by the 6th Brandenburg's "opening passage with two spiraling solo violas, like identical twins following each other through a hall of mirrors." The work is suffused with echoes, mirrored melodies, and other imitative orderings. Kernis avoided the strong rhythmic pulse which might as first seem so natural in this context. He also had the confidence to end the work quietly, the only piece of the evening to do so.

The three new works were each preceded by their Brandenburg counterparts, a logical line-up apparently heard here for the first time.

The original Brandenburgs served to remind us that life on occasion offers moments of wonder and joy.

The concert was also a timely reminder that, later this week, CMF will premiere a work by Daniel Kellogg, commissioned by CMF's unique Click program.

Added note: the tendency towards more and more standing ovations in concerts continues to grow, making them less and less meaningful.

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.

Wired Profiles Tod Dockstader

Wired has begun a series of articles about electronic music legends with a profile of Tod Dockstader. Writer Geeta Dayal landed a rare interview with the elderly Dockstader, which includes some anecdotes new to me, such as how the master edited steel wire recordings.

The article mentions his "impressive" electronic music recordings include 2 Starkland CDs, Apocalypse and Quatermass. Dayal notes the "fascinatingly rich, complex" music "still sounds new and relevant today," and how "Dockstader's work over the past six decades continues to be met with new waves of interest. (A documentary about Dockstader's life, by filmmaker Justin H. Brierley, is currently in the works.)

The always on-top-of-it Steve Smith comments:

"Awesome: The amazing Geeta Dayal will be writing regularly about electronic-music legends for Wired, starting with a profile of Tod Dockstader - whose Quatermass, available on CD from Tom Steenland's vital Starkland label, was among the first pieces of serious electronic music I ever heard."

Hopefully the article will bring some new fans to Dockstader's powerful music.

"Target" Nominated for 2 Awards

Keeril Makan's "Target" CD on Starkland has been nominated for the 2012 Independent Music Awards both for Best Contemporary Classical Album and for Thomas Steenland for Best Album Art. Judges for the Final Winners will include Keith Richards, Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega, Joshua Redman, Tori Amos, and Ozzy Osbourne. Winners will be announced in April.

The rising-star Makan has been described as “an arrestingly gifted young American composer” by The New Yorker. The Pulitzer-winning composer David Lang has remarked that when he first heard Makan’s music he was “blown away” by works that were “so strong and so smart.”

The CD has received some impressive reviews:

"Approachable and mesmerizing... 

captivating and engrossing."

- Sequenza21

"A sound world in which music emerges unexpectedly 

out of violent textures, gestures and cries."

- Gramophone

"Delivers a whollop of powerful emotional content... 

the recording is of excellent quality."

- New Music Box

"A composer that is destined for greatness, 

and this recording is proof of that."

- Chamber Musician Today

The "one-man army" Tom Steenland serves as Executive Director of Starkland, has designed most of the label's booklets and packaging, and has mastered many of the releases as well.

Independent Music Award Nominees Thomas Steenland (L) and Keeril Makan

Starkland's full catalog can be found here.

Other Minds 2012

The Other Minds 2012 Festival continued its tradition of presenting diverse and unexpected new music. Some highlights for me included:

• Simon Steen-Andersen's Study for String Instrument #2 for cello and whammy pedal;
• Gloria Coates' distinctive, otherworldly String Quartet No. 5 in a steely, committed performance by the Del Sol String Quartet;
• Harold Budd's attractive It's Only a Daydream performed with the fine bassist Keith Lowe;
• The rich, sophisticated sounds emerging from Ikue Mori's laptop; one wished for more of her and much less of the long group improv that followed;
• John Kennedy's rhythmically engaging First Deconstruction (in Plastic) for various recycled objects, such as joint compound buckets, water bottles, yogurt containers, salad bar boxes, etc.;
• Tyshawn Sorey's varied drum set improv, followed by his shift across the stage to perform an accomplished, imaginative, atonal piano improv (not something you see everyday);
• Ken Ueno's Peradam with his effective string quartet music (performed by Del Sol) coupled with some sophisticated video created in real-time by video wizard Johnny Dekam.

L to R: Charles Amirkhanian, Harold Budd, Gloria Coates, Ikue Mori, Tyshawn Sorey

A special attraction of these concerts is that the audience, performers, and composers gather afterwards in the lobby to sip champagne, discuss the new music we've heard, etc. A great idea which I hope continues.

In the Fellowship Concert, which preceded the 3 main concerts and featured emerging composers, I especially liked: Peter Swendsen's Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is for bass drum and digital enhancements; and Jen Wang's Renderings of Things We Couldn't Take Home which uses the apparently uncommon technique of playing tam-tams etc. with tremolo bowing. A sprinkling of John Cage garnished this concert, all of which was expertly and sensitively performed by Rootstock Percussion.

Guy Klucevsek "Multiple Personality" CD

While a new release from Guy Klucevsek is always cause for celebration, there is something special about his latest CD, “The Multiple Personality Reunion Tour” (innova 819).

In 2010, Guy was awarded a prestigious USA Fellowship, and the hefty, unrestricted bounty allowed this fringe performer to produce a CD with diverse inspirations and influences, work with some distinguished musicians and some top sound engineers, and develop some idiosyncratic arrangements.

Performers include the Grammy-nominated accordionist Alex Meixner, trumpeter Dave Douglas, percussionist John Hollenbeck, vocalist Theo Bleckman, Carl Finch’s hip polka/rock band Brave Combo, and more.

The CD opens with the lively Breathless and Bewildered, dedicated the legendary Bulgarian accordionist Ivan Milev, arranged for an uncommon ensemble of accordion, trumpet, tuba, banjo, and percussion. Waltz for Sandy presents a slyly flowing melodic line that emerges from Guy’s fleet-fingered keyboard work. An odd piece, Gimme a Minute, Please (My Sequins Are Showing), is dedicated to the Swingle Singers. Some processed background vocals do indeed echo those ‘60s Swingles.

I first became aware of Lars Hollmer upon hearing his timeless Boeves Psalm performed by Guy on his “Free Range Accordion” CD. Guy and Lars were close friends for years, until Lars passed away on Christmas Day in 2008. For me, the CD’s highlight is Guy’s Larsong, dedicated to his dear friend. It’s a lovely, heartful, sweetly sad gem. Somewhere, Lars is listening, smiling.

The attractive Ratatatatouille is dedicated to Kepa Junkera, a Basque trikitixa (accordion) master. Some hazy processed vocals float in the background, disembodied from the acoustic performances.

Next are the pleasant Three Hymnopedies, dedicated to Erik Satie. The full arrangement heard in No. 1 might be dubbed a mini big band sound, with clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, and drums. No. 2 does recall the Gymnopedies. No. 3 offers a sultry, seductive tune, and, d'après Satie, Monsieur Klucevsek has inscribed various expressions upon his score, such as, “Pardon, M’lle, I did not realize that was your foot.” This track also includes the excellent Brave Combo. Guy always works with superb musicians, and, for this CD, he journeyed to Denton, Texas, to record several tracks with Brave Combo, also heard on Pink Elephant, which elicits a wailing solo from Guy.

O’O is dedicated to Martin Denny, aka the “father of exotica.” Guy’s arrangement suitably employs the sounds of flowing water, birds, a ukulele, ocarina, and so forth.

Lars Hollmer dedicated Laderleld (Leather Camp Fire) to “Guy Klucevsek, Accordion Rider” (which seems a prescient look-ahead to the cover image on Guy’s "Free Range Accordion" CD). Guy’s arrangement here begins with the classic poking-along cowboy motive, and draws on the talented Texan accordionist Ginny Mac.

Guy dedicates The C&M Waltz to cousins who have danced to Slovenian/American bands for over 50 years. He draws on his youthful memories of such music to produce a warmly appealing piece.

The concluding track features some tasty accordion work from Guy and Alex Meixner, an excellent accordionist who performs on most of the CD’s tracks. The title “Moja Baba Je Pijana” apparently translates as “My Old Lady is Drunk.”

This “Multiple Personality” CD does indeed reflect an exceptionally wide range of influences and inspirations, Guy’s ever-fertile imagination, his effective arrangements, impeccable musicianship, and genuine musical pleasures from start to finish.

"Target" CD: Daring, Hendrixian, Captivating, Powerful

I'm really pleased that favorable reviews continue to appear for Starkland's Keeril Makan "Target" CD.

In the new Fanfare, Robert Carl concludes that Makan's Resonance Alloy is "one of the best pure-sound pieces I've heard in some time." He finds the "near-psychotic" song cycle Target is a "terrifying" and "daring piece." And he notes the virtuosic solo-cello work Zones d'accord "creates near-overwhelming sounds" that move "from breathier harmonic sweeps to Hendrixian explosions."

Vital Weekly recently stated that the "Target" CD is "a great release" full of "captivating and engaging music." Critic Dolf Mulder especially savored the performances from Alex Waterman ("breathtaking"), Laurie Rubin ("beautiful"), and David Shively ("an amazing tour de force").

Lucid Culture praises the CD as "strange and powerful," "intriguing and diverse," and "minimalist yet often absolutely massive." Writer Alan Young was also stunned by the "viscerally mesmerizing" Resonance Alloy.

Even the venerable but staid Gramophone is attracted to the "extraordinary extremes" of the CD, writing:

"On a purely musical level, these first recordings of four works by Makan are about creating expectations out of chaos, tuning the listener’s ear and creating a sound world in which music emerges unexpectedly out of violent textures, gestures and cries."

Read more here.

CDs Will Top Digital Sales for the Foreseeable Future

 An interesting look at projections for physical vs. digital music sales emerges from recent data furnished by top sources. Combining sales data from PricewaterhouseCooper and Gartner, I created this graph:



"CDs still beat digital music, and will do so for the foreseeable future" is the conclusion reached by tech writer Dwight Silverman.

Physical sales (ie, CDs) income of about $15 billion in 2011 makes the latest urban myth that major labels will stop releasing CDs sometime in 2012 sound rather implausible.

I found my data here.

NPR Features Phillip Bimstein's "Bushy Wushy" Piece

The World Series has prompted NPR to rebroadcast a Hearing Voices show which features Phillip Bimstein's aural portrait of "Bushy Wushy," who sold beer in Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, for more than forty years. If you missed the broadcast, you can listen here. Other segments offer Barrett Golding spending a season with the Rookie League and singer/playwright Terry Allen defining the many meanings of Dug-Out.

There's also now a Bushy Wushy video at YouTube.



Bimstein began the piece by visiting Busch Stadium, recording the crack of the bat from behind home plate, the ball slamming into the catcher's mitt, and other baseball game sounds. He then combined these sampled sounds with stories told by the charming Bushy Wushy, all tied together with a score for wind quintet performed by the Equinox Chamber Players.

Other aural portraits on this Starkland CD feature the harmonica player and storyteller Larkin Gifford, and the Las Vegas dice-caller Tom Martinet, who offers insights into the superstitions and psychologies of gambling.

In the CD's Introduction, John Adams writes, "Like their composer, the pieces on this album communicate a generous and good-natured spirit that is tempered with wry wit and a special sense of the western landscape and culture that he so loves."

In The New York Times, Steve Smith commented that "The irresistible charm of Mr. Bimstein's music has less to do with technology than with his uncanny knack for finding the music of everday life." Read the full review.

And Stereophile called Bimstein "an American original" whose "stunning and heartwarming" CD offers "quirky, moving, and delightful musical journeys." Read the full review.

This "Larkin Gifford's Harmonica" CD is available at Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, etc.

Keeril Makan "Target" CD: 3 videos

Three videos with music from Starkland's new "Target" Keeril Makan CD are now available.

Zone's d'accord, performed by Alex Waterman at the CD release concert in September at New York's Issue Project Room, appears here:



The CD's actual studio recording of Resonance Alloy, performed by David Shively, was videotaped at Legacy Sound:



David Lang describes Target as "muscular and terrifying... a scary, aggressive juggernaut of invention." This video presents the second section "Leaflet I," performed by the California E.A.R. Unit and mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin:



Read more about this "approachable and mesmerizing" CD, which has been praised in Gramophone, Sequenza21, Chamber Musician Today, and New Music Box.

Starkland's new Keeril Makan "Target" CD Now Available at Amazon, iTunes, more

Starkland has released Keeril Makan’s “Target” CD, which is now available at: Amazon, CD Baby, and iTunes. (You can hear previews at both iTunes and CD Baby).



Makan has been described as “an arrestingly gifted young American composer” by The New Yorker, and has already received some impressive commissions, including the Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Bang on a Can All-Stars, American Composers Orchestra, and the Other Minds Festival. The CD has premiere recordings of four works: 2, Zones d’accord, Target, and Resonance Alloy.

At New Music Box, Alexandra Gardner comments that the music gives "the ears a workout with timbral complexity drawn from a remarkably spare amount of material that sneaks up and delivers a whollop of powerful emotional content," adding "the recording is of excellent quality."

At Sequenza21, Jay Batzner writes, “The quartet of pieces on Target serve as excellent examples of what makes Makan’s compositions approachable and mesmerizing... Makan makes what should be simple and mundane captivating and engrossing.”

At The Glass, Chris McGovern writes, “Keeril Makan is definitely a composer that is destined for greatness, and this recording is proof of that.”

David Lang, co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and a Pulitzer-winning composer, wrote the CD’s Introduction. He remarks that when he first heard Makan’s music he was “blown away [by works] so strong and so smart.”

The title piece emerged from Makan’s participation in the John Harbison/Dawn Upshaw Workshop for Composers and Singers. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Makan collaborated with poet Jena Osman to create Target for soprano and chamber ensemble. Regarding Target’s premiere at Carnegie Hall, The New York Times observed:

“‘Target,’ is a moody, ruminative and volatile setting of a text assembled from poems by Jena Osman and phrases taken from leaflets dropped over Afghanistan in the wake of Sept. 11, scored for mezzo-soprano and four instrumentalists, including a percussionist. It is meant as a stinging political commentary on American military intervention abroad. Mr. Makan responded to the earthy, rich and poignant qualities of Ms. Rubin's voice by writing music thick with sliding, moaning figurations for the voice and all the instruments… she gave a courageous performance of difficult music that clearly speaks to her.”

Lang attended the premiere of the “muscular and terrifying” Target, “a scary, aggressive juggernaut of invention.” He remarks that the disturbing text captures “a kind of violent, psychological damage that takes place deep beneath the surface layer of ordinary words.” The CD’s performance features Rubin and the California E.A.R.Unit.



The CD opens with 2, performed by the Either/Or duo of percussionist David Shively and Ethel violinist Jennifer Choi. 20th Century Music writes, “This was a masterful piece, one of the best heard this year. Far from music in the abstract, 2 is a work-it-out-in-the-raw-sounds kind of piece that revels in its sonic splendors.”

Zones d’accord is performed on the CD by Alex Waterman from Either/Or. Sequenza21 comments, “The virtuosity of Waterman’s right hand is truly stunning… [and he]draws out Makan’s ecstatic emotional arc throughout the performance.”

The CD ends with Resonance Alloy (commissioned by Other Minds), recorded by percussionist David Shively in an astonishing, single, unedited performance of the 29 minute work.

Lang concludes that “the emotionality of it all, the drama, the depth of feeling, percolating way down deep, never boiling over and yet never going away” is “strangely powerful, and all his own.”


Tom Steenland and Keeril Makan (and Louis Andriessen)

All the original recordings were made at high-resolution (24-bit,48k/88.2k sampling) audiophile standards. The three non-vocal works were recorded by the Grammy-winning Silas Brown.

Makan’s only other CD, "In Sound" (Tzadik), received impressive reviews: “Top 10 CDs for 2008” (New Music Box); “An amazing disc” (Sequenza21); “frontiers are crossed in this music” (American Record Guide).

Unique Commissioning Program: Season 2

The unique CLICK commissioning program, inaugurated last year by the Colorado Music Festival, has entered its second season.

Anyone can vote (by donating $10) for one of four composers. Thus all the voters both fund the commission and select the winning composer. In addition to joining a club to commission new music, voters will have their name inscribed on the score of the finished piece. The persons with the highest number of votes will have the piece dedicated to them.

Voting is now underway, the commission will be announced early this fall, and the new work will be premiered during CMF's 2012 season. The composers, with links to biographies and music excerpts, are:

Daniel Kellogg
Read Biography
Listen to Music

Mark Grey
Read Biography
Listen to Music

Kevin Puts
Read Biography
Listen to Music

Jay Greenberg
Read Biography
Listen to Music

Michael Christie, the Festival's adventurous Music Director, comments, “I'm thrilled that our audience was as intrigued by this commissioning project as I hoped. It's a unique program that micro-finances the creation of new works and gives the community a feeling of ownership. It's really a people's commission,” says Michael Christie.

Last year's winner, Patrick Zimmerli, had his commissioned piece premiered this season at CMF. You can listen to the full piece here, and read more here.


Patrick Zimmerli (L) and Michael Christie

Voting closes on August 31.