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1 | Over Shadows | 36:07 |
Rhodri Davies solo recording for harp and ebows. "Over shadows" - title courtesy Redell Olsen's "Secure portable space" book - is a single track, 36 minutes long, for harp and eBow. The chief reference name in this composition could be Alvin Lucier, as Davies' subtle juxtaposition of resonant overtones elicits the typical effects of beating between frequencies on the one hand, and saturation on the othe. Moments of stunning loss of balance await, and it's just wonderful.
"Instead of immersive slo-mo, Davies keeps the music mobile, drawing the listener through a succession of warm, often dissonant, acoustic states. The result is like a speeded-up Eliane Radigue, as full, harmonically rich tones ease gently into one another. The evolution of the improvisation is alert and unforced, and each new phase feels part of a developing argument. Davies's work is about sound and sonic relationships rather than technique or spontaneous self-expression. Here, poised somewhere between improvisation and composition, he transforms the harp into a vibrant and responsive tone generator." - The Wire
Rhodri Davies: Over Shadows
I / For ACS
Telyn lifer a bwâu electroneg / Lever harp and EBows
Recordiwyd Gorffennaf 26 2004 yn yr Hen Ysgol, Bracon Ash, Norfolk.
Source material recorded on 26th of July 2004 at the Old School, Bracon Ash, Norfolk.
Cyfansoddwyd Mawrth 2006 / Composed in March 2006.
Recordiwyd gan / Recorded by Graham Halliwell.
Golygwyd gan / Edited by Benedict Drew and John Wall.
Ail-feistrolwyd gan / Re-mastered by Sam Grant.
Dylunio gan / Design by Anna Peaker.
Darlun gan / Drawing by Jean-Luc Guionnet.
Rhodri Davies is immersed in the worlds of improvisation, musical experimentation, composition and contemporary classical performance. He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice, dry ice and fire harp installations and has released six solo albums. His regular groups include: HEN OGLEDD, Cranc, Common Objects and a duo with John Butcher. He has worked with the following artists: David Sylvian, Jenny Hval, Derek Bailey, Sofia Jernberg, Lina Lapelyte, Pat Thomas, Simon H Fell and Will Gaines.
For the last ten years Davies has been closely associated with the pioneering composer Eliane Radigue performing seventeen of her pieces. She composed OCCAM I for Davies in 2011, the first in an ongoing series of solo and ensemble pieces for individual instrumentalists in which a performer’s personal performance technique and particular relationship to their instrument function as the compositional material of the piece. New pieces for solo harp have also been composed for him by: Christian Wolff, Carole Finer, Philip Corner, Phill Niblock, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.
In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on ‘Self-cancellation’, a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award, he was a Chapter Associate Artist (2016-19) and in 2017 he received a Creative Wales Award. He is a co-organiser of the NAWR concert series in Swansea.
