Shimmering compositions for solo accordion by Hague-based American composer and instrumentalist Leo Svirsky. Playing somewhere between sound and sense, Svirsky dwells on tonal chromatic harmony but never seeks stability. Tones shift, diffuse, are eaten up by the crowds conversation. Having studied under Antoine Beuger (a principal mover in the Wandelweiser collective) Svirsky continues a departure from Cage or Feldman - embracing Romanticism and affect to make radical and destabalising psychoacoustic sound. Highly recommended.
"With works for piano, orchestra, and ensemble, Svirsky lights corners of hidden musical worlds with a palm sheltering the flame." —Britton Powell, BOMB Magazine (from the introduction from a wonderful conversation betwen Svirsky & Michael Pisaro)
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Leo Svirsky / accordian
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Tracklisting:
1. Heights in Depths Cafe OTO - 20:40
2. Depths in Heights Cafe OTO - 19:13
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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Saturday 25th February by James Dunn. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by Shaun Crook.
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Leo Svirsky (b. 1988, USA) is a composer, improviser, pianist and accordionist living in the Hague. His latest LP "Heights and Depths", for solo accordion of 185 basses, was released by the Brooklyn label catchwave ltd. in November 2016. This album, like all his work, explores how the instability of listening itself transforms the perception of musical semantics and affect. Disorientations of memory and spatial awareness are nevertheless bounded by a rootedness in song and story.
He has released works on Emanem (Different Tesselations with Veryan Weston), Slow Fidelity (duo with Katt Hernandez), and Ehse records (Songs in the Key of Survival). He holds a masters in Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague studying under Cornelis de Bondt and Martijn Padding, as well as private study with Antoine Beuger.
