Accolades for David Brynjar Franzson & Yarn/Wire

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 5, 2015, 3:49 p.m.

Happy new year from the PSNY blog! 2015 is a promising year for new music, just as 2014 was; though so much has happened in the previous season that we haven't been able to tell you about it!

So, briefly, we'd like to call your attention to David Brynjar Franzson. Ever since we started publishing his works back in 2013, David has proven to be a singular, strong voice in contemporary music. Last year, his ambitious recording project with Yarn/Wire resulted in a CD on the Wergo record label, which has won numerous accolades and ecstatic reviews— in Gramophone, Tempo, 5against4, and The Wire, which called it "a visceral recording that makes sounds inside and outside the pianos vividly present...a pungent performance, full of drama and unrest."

The success of this CD has been noted not only in America, but also internationally; it also was nominated for a 2014 Icelandic Music Award. 

Check out an excerpt from the CD here. Also, check out an interview with Yarn/Wire's Ian Antonio and Russell Greenberg discussing the recording process at EMPAC:

Yarn/Wire Records David Franzson for WERGO

by Ted Gordon on May 16, 2014, 4 p.m.

WERGO Records, one of the foremost international record labels for new music, has just released a new album of works by PSNY composer David Brynjar Franzson, performed by the New York-based ensemble Yarn/Wire. Recorded at the state-of-the-art Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at the Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, this album features three related compositions by Franzson under the title The Negotiation of Context. All three of the works of this series - parts A, B and C - are available through PSNY. These three independent works examine the topographies of musical contexts: the histories of instruments, the social dynamic between performers, and the negotiation of contextual meaning between performers and their audience. 

The CD also includes a performance video of Yarn/Wire in the process of recording—a document that adds to the contextual fabric of Franzson's meta-exploration.  

Check out an excerpt from The Negotiation of Context (A) here:

Mivos Quartet Performs Mincek and Franzson

by Ted Gordon on Nov. 25, 2013, 11:47 a.m.

November has been a great month for new CD releases-- just in time for holiday gifts. (Who wouldn't want a new CD of new music?) In addition to the debut album by The Living Earth Show, which we previously wrote about, Carrier Records has released "Reappearances" by the Mivos Quartet performing works by Alex Mincek, Davið Brynjar Franzson, Wolfgang Rihm and Felipe Lara. 

On this new album, Mivos, whose consistently masterful performance of contemporary repertoire has brought them to the forefront of the new music scene, perform Mincek's String Quartet No. 3 ("lift - tilt - filter - split"), as well as Franzson's On Repetition and Reappearances, both available from PSNY. Mincek's quartet can also be heard performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble from a 2011 album, also on Carrier. Check out a video of Mivos performing Franzson's work in October 2013:

Mivos may be one of the busier string quartets in New York right now, having also recently released a full-length album of works by Patrick Higgins, but they still find time to perform live; they will play an album release concert on December 19th at the DiMenna Center in New York, also featuring a new work by Scott Wollschleger.