Kammer Klang begins its 4th series with a diverse programme of new and older music including a live performance by Dansette maestro Philip Jeck, the Beside Beside duo of Lucy Railton and Serge Vuille and Georges Aperghis' Récitations sung by EXAUDI's principle soprano Juliet Fraser.
PHILIP JECK
Philip Jeck studied visual arts at Dartington College of Arts in the 1970's and has been creating sound with record-players since the early 80's. He has worked with many dance and theatre companies and played with muscians such as Jah Wobble, Steve Lacy, Gavin Bryars(in a new version of The Sinking Of The Titanic), Jaki Liebezeit and Bernhard Lang. He has released 9 solo CDs, the last "An Ark For The Listener" on the Touch label, and "Suite" a vinyl only release, which won a Distinction at The Prix Ars Electronica, and a cassette only release on Tapeworm "Spool" playing only bass guitar. His CD "Sand" (2008) was 2nd in The Wire's top 50 of the year. His largest work made with Lol Sargent , "Vinyl Requiem" was for 180 record-players, 9 slide-projectors and 2 16mm movie-projectors. It received a Time Out Performance Award. Vinyl Coda I-III, a commission from Bavarian Radio in 1999 won the Karl Sczuka Foderpreis for Radio Art. He also still works as a visual artist, usually incorporating sound and has shown installations at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Hayward Gallery, London, The Hamburger Bahnhof Gallery, Berlin ,ZKM in Karlsruhe and The Shanghai and Liverpool Bienalles. In 2009 he received The Paul Hamlyn Composers award. He has recently been touring in an Opera North production playing live to the silent movie Pandora's Box.
Ghostly bricolage, looped drones, surface noise and gossamer rhythms of pulsating hiss: the Liverpool based turntablist crowned a career with is best album yet of haunted impressionism coaxed from from vinyl offcuts. We said "Philip Jeck has always been good, But "Stoke" makes him great". (The Wire)
www.philipjeck.com
ADF - Philip Jeck from Ignite Creative on Vimeo.
BESIDE BESIDE
Beside Beside is a performance duo formed by Lucy Railton and Serge Vuille. They are currently focused on presenting repertoire written for undefined instrumentation which often requires non conventional performance behaviours. As a cello and percussion duo have been playing together since 2009 in the UK and Switzerland and are currently working on a major project based on Tom Johnson's Galileo.
Matthew Shlomowitz -
Letter Piece
James Saunders -
With Paper
Simon Steen-Andersen -
Beside Besides
JULIET FRASER
Soprano Juliet Fraser has a repertoire dominated by the music from either end of the canon. She is principal soprano of EXAUDI which she founded in 2002 with James Weeks, and a regular member of Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Philippe Herreweghe, with whom she has recently recorded discs of Lassus, Vitoria and Josquin. She has performed contemporary repertoire as a guest soloist with the CBSO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Endymion, and Plus-Minus Ensemble, and has worked particularly closely with composers Matthew Shlomowitz, Larry Goves, James Weeks, Christopher Fox, Michael Finnissy and Stefano Gervasoni. Current projects include collaborations with theatre director William Oldroyd on Aperghis Récitations, with pianist Mark Knoop on a programme of experimental song, and with Swiss ensemble we:spoke. Sincere thanks go to the Hinrichsen Foundation and the PRS for Music Foundation for their generous support.
www.julietfraser.co.uk
Juliet will perform Georges Aperghis' Récitations (selection) for solo voice.
Georges Aperghis wrote Récitations in 1977-8 for Martine Viard who was first and foremost an actress, albeit one who could certainly sing. Her versatility undoubtedly informed the music (or is it simply an absurd sort of poetry?): the Récitations were a collaborative venture between Aperghis and Viard, and are infused with a sense of the theatrical - often of the tragi-comic. The Récitations could be divided into two types: those that deal explicitly with characterisation or expressive intent (e.g. nos. 2, 3 and 4 which are peppered with instructions such as 'hysterical', 'teasing' or 'very elegant') and those (e.g. the pyramid scores, nos. 8 – 12, which use repetition to achieve a sort of auditory ‘trompe l’oeil’) that provide no indication at all, but nonetheless seem bursting with ready caricatures. The text rarely carries clues. Aperghis puts his French through a Lettrist grinder, chopping and churning phrases and syllables until their meaning is altogether altered. Thus dissolved and rendered untrustworthy to the listener, we realise that the musical motifs carry all of the clues of characterisation. As a performer, I find these pieces to have a kaleidescopic quality, both in the way that each Récitation turns around a bundle of words or emotions, and also in the way that each time I return to this music it invites me to try a new interpretation. Whether performed by singer or actress, the Récitations are all about the diva.
