Distractfold; H&N, Sat 23/3/19; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This cheered me up on a fairly miserable day - Distractfold is one of my favourite New Music ensembles (they always communicate that they love the Music they're performing, and those performances are always tremendous; full of energy and enthusiasm). Tonight's programme is a repeat of the broadcast of performances they gave two years ago at the 2017 Cut & Splice Festival, which the ensemble curated.

Steven Kazuo Takasugi(b1960): The Man Who Couldn't Stop Laughing - music theatre for amplified quartet and playback (2012-14, UK Premiere)
Denis Smalley(b1946): Empty Vessels - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (1997)
Fabrice Fitch(b1967): Agricola IXe - for bass clarinet and string trio (2016)
Helena Gough(b1980): Silt - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (2007)
Mauricio Pauly(b1976): Charred Edifice Shining - for amplified string trio with performative electronics (2017)
Elsa Justel(b1944): Gwerz - 8-channel electroacoustic work (2002)

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

[Serial_Apologist]

This cheered me up on a fairly miserable day - Distractfold is one of my favourite New Music ensembles (they always communicate that they love the Music they're performing, and those performances are always tremendous; full of energy and enthusiasm). Tonight's programme is a repeat of the broadcast of performances they gave two years ago at the 2017 Cut & Splice Festival, which the ensemble curated.

Steven Kazuo Takasugi(b1960): The Man Who Couldn't Stop Laughing - music theatre for amplified quartet and playback (2012-14, UK Premiere)
Denis Smalley(b1946): Empty Vessels - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (1997)
Fabrice Fitch(b1967): Agricola IXe - for bass clarinet and string trio (2016)
Helena Gough(b1980): Silt - spatially diffused electroacoustic work (2007)
Mauricio Pauly(b1976): Charred Edifice Shining - for amplified string trio with performative electronics (2017)
Elsa Justel(b1944): Gwerz - 8-channel electroacoustic work (2002)

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

I must have missed this first time around. Anything with Denis Smalley included on the menu has got to be worth a listen, and I intend to find out about the others on the list.

[MrGongGong]

Great to hear Helena Gough's work on R3
she makes some wonderful things

(Empty Vessels is always worth a listen IMV)

[Bryn]

It was indeed a fine programme but why, oh why are they repeating it. It's not as if there is no new music to be found to make a programme out of.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It was indeed a fine programme but why, oh why are they repeating it. It's not as if there is no new music to be found to make a programme out of.

This occurred to me, too - though quickly by-passed in my delight at distractfold. There is need of a "Hear & Now We Go Again"-type of programme re-broadcasting past programmes lost from the i-Player; but in addition to, not instead of the regular (and soon to be defunct) programme. Hell - it's not as if the airwaves are overrun with this sort of repertoire.

[Serial_Apologist]

This occurred to me, too - though quickly by-passed in my delight at distractfold. There is need of a "Hear & Now We Go Again"-type of programme re-broadcasting past programmes lost from the i-Player; but in addition to, not instead of the regular (and soon to be defunct) programme. Hell - it's not as if the airwaves are overrun with this sort of repertoire.

One of this weekend's jazz programmes is also a repeat. It's coming up to the end of the tax year, and I almost get the impression that the BBC has overspent it's annual budget and is trying to recoup its costs. We've got kind of used to repeat jazz programmes for many years now, but it would be a terrible shame if the same process was applied to "new music".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One of this weekend's jazz programmes is also a repeat. It's coming up to the end of the tax year, and I almost get the impression that the BBC has overspent it's annual budget and is trying to recoup its costs. We've got kind of used to repeat jazz programmes for many years now, but it would be a terrible shame if the same process was applied to "new music".

I'm still appalled to have discovered that longer Jazz works are subject to being cut off/faded out before their end on R3 Jazz programmes.

[Bryn]

I'm still appalled to have discovered that longer Jazz works are subject to being cut off/faded out before their end on R3 Jazz programmes.

I missed this issue. Can you link to programme(s) affected, please?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I missed this issue. Can you link to programme(s) affected, please?

I noticed it on the Miles Davis edition of Geoffrey Smith's Jazz a couple of weeks ago, Bryn - when I mentioned it elsethread, one of the Jazz regulars replied that this wasn't unusual.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm still appalled to have discovered that longer Jazz works are subject to being cut off/faded out before their end on R3 Jazz programmes.

It seems to have been gradually re-introduced - and we're not here talking of track end fade-outs on the originals. Actually, if you could go back to the 1960s, when I first tuned into radio jazz, the playing of just part of a track was a regular occurrence. I have old reel-to-reels that prove it.

[Bryn]

I noticed it on the Miles Davies edition of Geoffrey Smith's Jazz a couple of weeks ago, Bryn - when I mentioned it elsethread, one of the Jazz regulars replied that this wasn't unusual.

Well out of order, that.

[Richard Barrett]

Miles Davies

or Davies the Trumpet as we used to call him back in the valleys.

I must listen to this programme though, if I have a chance before it disappears. Apart from anything else I'm always interested in what Takasugi comes up with.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

or Davies the Trumpet as we used to call him back in the valleys.

So Watt.

... ad inf

[Serial_Apologist]

So Watt.

... ad inf

Shhhhh! - In a Silent Way!

[Boilk]

I must have missed this first time around. Anything with Denis Smalley included on the menu has got to be worth a listen, and I intend to find out about the others on the list.

I too must have missed this first time around, and seconded re Smalley, from whom only one substantial work has come in the last decade. Fortunately I recently discovered the similarly sculptored glacial soundscapes of Mathew Adkins. In fact, my innocent ear might have me believing I was listening to Smalley with regard to some of Adkins' music.