Distractfold; H&N, Sat 25/3/17; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One to get excited about - Distractfold is one of the most engaging and adventurous new ensembles around: I heard them at Huddersfield last November and they gave one of the most enjoyable and memorable concerts in a Festival full of memorable enjoyments. Equally at home with laptops and "conventional" instruments (and as often as not, playing both simultaneously) they really communicate a sense that they're thoroughly enjoying the work they do, and are keen to follow composers into realms of sound neglected by other repertoires - "Live" Music-making in every sense of the word "Live"!

Performing the first of two concerts recorded a fortnight ago at Hallé St Peter's as part of the 2017 Cut & Splice mini-fest, the ensemble chose a typically eclectic mix of works written over the past twenty years by Steven Kazuo Takasugi (b1960), Denis Smalley (b1946), Fabrice Fitch (b1967), Helena Gough, and Distractfold member Mauricio Pauly (b 1976).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k4k6r

[MrGongGong]

Some tremendous stuff there
Helena's music is really wonderful IMV

https://soundcloud.com/helena-gough

[Serial_Apologist]

Some tremendous stuff there
Helena's music is really wonderful IMV

https://soundcloud.com/helena-gough

Thanks MrGG - lots of fascinating stuff there! No relation to Orlando Gough, I take it?

Something by Denis Smalley on the wireless is something to savour these days!

[MrGongGong]

Thanks MrGG - lots of fascinating stuff there! No relation to Orlando Gough, I take it?

Something by Denis Smalley on the wireless is something to savour these days!

No relation to Orlando but a really interesting composer and performer IMV

It definitely is indeed

[Boilk]

It should be said that, contrary to the H&N commentary, not all of the sounds in Smalley's very fine Empty Vessels were sourced from microphones placed in the vessels in question. I heard short snippets lifted from at least one other Smalley piece, the brilliant Piano Nets.

[Serial_Apologist]

It should be said that, contrary to the H&N commentary, not all of the sounds in Smalley's very fine Empty Vessels were sourced from microphones placed in the vessels in question. I heard short snippets lifted from at least one other Smalley piece, the brilliant Piano Nets.

Well spotted, that man!

[MrGongGong]

It should be said that, contrary to the H&N commentary, not all of the sounds in Smalley's very fine Empty Vessels were sourced from microphones placed in the vessels in question. I heard short snippets lifted from at least one other Smalley piece, the brilliant Piano Nets.

That's interesting
could you say where ?

He says this of the piece

"The empty vessels of the title are some large garden pots from Crete and an olive jar from Turkey. Recordings of the air resonating in these vessels provided the starting-point for the piece. Since the recordings were done in my garden in north London, sounds from the environment (rain, birds, planes flying overhead) were also captured by the microphones inside the pots, and changes in the timbre of these sounds resulted from interaction with the filtering effect of the resonant vessels. These ‘natural’ transformations were extended through computer treatments of the sources, and they also suggested relations with very different types of resonant sounds. The garden palette was expanded with recordings made in the same environment without the benefit of the vessels’ transformations. The piece may be regarded as a journey passing through highly charged and more restful events, textures and spaces inspired by the empty vessels."


Given the treatments he uses there are likely to be considerable similarities particularly in some of the "bell" type spectral stretching he is an expert at.

[Boilk]

That's interesting
could you say where ?

Firstly, towards the very end here in Empty Vessels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUeF...utu.be&t=14m5s
and 3rd movt of Piano Nets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy5h...utu.be&t=2m19s just before the stormy climax.

Secondly, Empty Vessels' final chord here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUeF...utu.be&t=14m9s
is what (down about a semitone) begins Piano Nets : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWA...=youtu.be&t=1s

I think there may have been a bit or two from Valley Flow (or Clarinet Threads) too, not that I have an issue with any of this!!
Most obviously there is a fair bit of Tides to be heard in the much shorter follow-up piece Clarinet Threads, and it works very well.

[MrGongGong]

Firstly, towards the very end here in Empty Vessels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUeF...utu.be&t=14m5s
and 3rd movt of Piano Nets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy5h...utu.be&t=2m19s just before the stormy climax.

Secondly, Empty Vessels' final chord here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUeF...utu.be&t=14m9s
is what (down about a semitone) begins Piano Nets : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWA...=youtu.be&t=1s

I think there may have been a bit or two from Valley Flow (or Clarinet Threads) too, not that I have an issue with any of this!!
Most obviously there is a fair bit of Tides to be heard in the much shorter follow-up piece Clarinet Threads, and it works very well.

Interesting
I don't hear those as being the same material
but I do hear them as containing the same soundworlds (or probably Morphologies as Prof Smalley would say)

The vocoder type sound in the second example is has a very strong characteristic and sonic identity which connects to all sorts of other things that spring to mind.
It is interesting how the abstraction from "real world" sounds can play with associations in ways different to those in "note based" music.

I'm sure Simon Emmerson wrote something more eloquent about this than I could ever be?

Thanks for this, great music